Hi,
No need to ask, just copy the list into your post, pop yourself on the end and send your address by PM to the person before you. So the list as it now stands is:
Matthew
Tulsk
Jim
Gardenshed
Following on from the first report back on these, I think I may need to reiterate the point about not lapping the backs. I have been very careful to specify to AI that the backs should be hollow enough to facilitate easy and fast honing, but not hollow enough to adversely affect performance. I took my lead from David Charlesworth, to whom I believe we all owe a great debt of gratitude for his tireless work in promoting best practice.
In his blog, David refers to a Woodcock paring chisel that received some major attention, saying:
"The other crucial detail is that over its full length, the blade was clearly forged and ground with about 0.5mm of hollow in its length. A most desireable and essential feature, deliberately created to aid preparation, sharpening and correct support for the cutting edge.
So please remember to send those bellied new chisels straight back to the manufacturer if you are unlucky enough to come across them."
In my specification to AI for the backs of the Mk2's I took this even further and asked them to produce a chisel that would be capable of taking a paring cut over the full length of the blade without diving by more than 0.1mm (DC's standard working tolerance).
After literally months of effort the first prototypes came in and I was delighted when they kept a 0.15mm feeler gauge out. - meaning only a touch to be taken off the very tip on the first honing by the user to bring them out bang on target at 0.1mm hollow in the length. In terms of hand grinding by eye, this level of skill would even make the toolmakers of yesteryear blush.
As we approached the final delivery date, a problem was encountered with the 2" blades developing a quirk in the width at the very tip of the blade - this had not been a problem with the shorter chisels as they don't extend as far onto the surface against which they are ground.
Consequently the entire surface had to be adjusted (also done by hand by the Foreman Mick) you can only imagine how nervous this made me, a fortnight from when I'm supposed to be delivering them to customers! The next day, I received a phone call from Barry to say that they had successfully corrected the error and the blades were now coming out consistently at 15 thou hollow. After a quick calculation I said; "that's not good enough, they need to be half that!" I didn't quite catch Mick's reaction (I was on speakerphone at the time) but I think it was something to do with getting blood out of stones, or more likely, getting it out of me?
This however, was nothing compared to the revelation that came several days later, after Mick had fiddled, fettled and scraped his way down to under 7 thou, when Barry realised that he was using a set of metric feeler gauges instead of his usual imperial ones, so the first result was actually 0.15mm (which would have been fine) and Mick and Paul had now gone to all that trouble getting them down to 0.07mm!
The upshot of all this, is that it may be a few days before we can get the pre-ordered chisels out to customers - I am trying to email everyone individually too to let them know about the delay, I'm hoping we can get all of the pre-orders fulfilled this week. On the bright side though I can unequivocally say that there is absolutely no need to lap the backs.
