Ashley Iles Mk.2 Bevel Edged Chisel Passaround

[MIGNAL]

Bump.
The Chisels have now passed from Gardenshed to yours truely. I only need them for a couple of days to test them and form my impressions.

 

[Joel Moskowitz]

[...] the boxwood that is currently used for the handles isn't very good and Rosewood just doesn't work well for any chisel that is meant to be struck.

Joel,
Will you be able to get these with beech handles?
-Andy

Do you meant the Mk2's or the American Pattern?

of the former I think so. Of the latter my guess is not because the American pattern handle is a custom and you get just get a few sets in beech. Do you have a problem with the bubinga? Personally I like both but Bubinga sells a lot better but beech is a great handle wood for chisels.

For the record, we now have them in stock but we haven't gotten around to putting them on-line.
Same price as the old ones.

 

[promhandicam]

Matthew
Tulsk
Jim
Gardenshed
Mignal
Promhandicam

I'd like to add my name to the list - if I'm not too late - as I'd be interested to compare a MK II with my MK I. Thanks.

Steve

 

[matthewwh]

if I'm not too late

Not at all, just send Mignal a PM with your address.

We will be stocking the beech handles option in the near future as well.

 

[frugal]

Can I please be added to the end of the list:

Matthew
Tulsk
Jim
Gardenshed
Mignal
Promhandicam
Frugal

Promhandicam: Drop me a PM when you have finished testing them and I will PM you with my snail mail address.

 

[MIGNAL]

This very morning I finally had a chance to test the Iles MKII chisels, although I only used the 7/8 th's in paring fashion.
No doubt about it, these are precision made chisels. The Bubinga handles are very attractive and much more to the point, they are very comfortable and very well finished.
The bevels are superbly formed. The weight and balance of this particular chisel seemed 'perfect' - at least in my hands. There is a real sense of quality to the chisel.
The back (as expected) is slightly hollow along it's length. The Back (towards the tip) is not as polished as I would normally have my chisels. Of course it would probably have taken me a mere couple of minutes on a 8,000G waterstone to achieve the finely polished edge. Despite this, the chisel was popping hairs off the back of my hand with absolute no trouble. I get the impression that they are relatively easy to sharpen and the edge stood up to paring end grain Bubinga without a problem.

 

[promhandicam]

snip . . . I only used the 7/8 th's in paring fashion. . .

Ah, I get the idea - you keep one and pass the rest on as I got the 1 1/2", 1" and 1/8" in the post this morning :wink:

Here are the MKII 1 1/2", my MKI 3/4" and the MKII 1"

This gives a good idea about one of the changes that has taken place - the handle size. I think that it is now only the 3 largest chisels that have the large handle. I have to say, that I do prefer the small diameter handle - it fits much more comfortably in the hand especially when paring and makes the chisel more controllable.

When I compared the MKII's with some of my other chisels, I noticed that the 1" seemed to be narrow and found that it actually measures 23.9mm across which is quite a significant difference to the 25mm or 1" that is marked on the packaging. The 1 1/2" or 37mm is actually 38.0mm and the 1/8" or 3mm is 3.07mm at the tip tapering to 2.76mm near the handle. The two larger chisels are parallel along there length. If used as paring chisels the difference in the width probably won't be an issue, but these are sold to be used for both paring and chopping. Personally, I would expect that a 1" chisel would be more or less 25.4mm wide - 1.5mm out is quite a difference. That said, compared to my only MKI AI chisel, these are better in that at least the sides are parallel - my 3/4" is 19.0mm at the tip going up to 19.5mm at the handle end - no wonder it is difficult to get out of a mortice!

While on the subject of tolerances, the backs of the MKII's are a huge improvement over my MKI which is still not flat after much time spent trying. I haven't touched the back of the MKII, although apparently someone has, but it is clear that it is infinitely better than the MKI.

Aside from the handles, the chisels themselves are quite different in form from the MKI. The MKI is much more of a paring chisel having quite a thin cross section along the whole length of the blade. The MKII in contrast is much more of a traditional bevel edge chisel shape.

The big difference however is in the side bevels - the brochure states, "The side bevels are taken down to almost nothing . . ." and this is certainly true. This makes them quite usable as dovetail chisels - the 1/8" is almost identical in form to my 3mm Japanese dovetail chisel.

In conclusion, if I were in the market for some decent paring or dovetail chisels I would certainly consider these as they feel nice to hold and appear to be well made. As an all round chisel, if the width issue is resolved they would also be well worth considering.

I unfortunately don't have time to test them to see how the edge holds up in use but perhaps someone else will be able to comment on this.

Cheers,

Steve

 

[bugbear]

Nice report and photos, especially on the side bevels - thanks for that.

BugBear

 

[frugal]

Just to let you know that the chisels have been successfully passed from promhandicam to me. I am not going to get a chance to play with them tonight as SWMBO-in-law is staying for a couple of days,but I will try to get out to the workshop and experiment with them as soon as I can.

My first impressions are "ooh!, pretty!, shiny!" They certainly feel solid and controllable in the hand. They are a lot nicer to hold than the other chisels I have every used.

 

[Benchwayze]

with a lovely leather tool roll

Be careful - several people have had problems with tools rusting when kept in leather tool rolls :shock: :shock:

Cheers :wink:

Paul

PS This is what happened to Alf's http://cornishworkshop.blogspot.com/200 ... oxide.html

I have one leather chisel guard that came with my old 2" Marples. I heard about this 'leather problem', so I soaked the guard in melted dubbin. So far no rust or staining. Lovely old chisel... :wink:

 

[frugal]

These are really nice tools, they are significantly better quality than the other chisels I have. I am comparing them to a set of faithful chisels and a couple from Bristol Design.

They chisels fit nicely in the hand and are extremely comfortable to use. The backs were nice and flat, and they have a beautiful sharp edge.

I know that these chisels are not ideal for dovetails, but I wanted to try them out as my dovetails are normally hideous. These chisels were much better at pairing and the results were a lot better than I am used to. Either I have to spend a lot more time fettling the chisels I have, or convince SWMBO that I need some more chisels

My only negative comment was that with the round handles, there is a tendency for the 1/8" chisel to roll if you put it down anywhere other than some kind of rest. I know how clumsy I can be and it would only be a matter of time before it rolled off of the bench and onto the floor.

Is there anyone else who wants to be added to the list, or shall I send them back to Matthew?

 

[wizer]

Would it be sacrilege to sand a flat on the underside of the handle?

 

[frugal]

Would it be sacrilege to sand a flat on the underside of the handle?

I think Matthew might get a bit peeved if I send them back "modified"

If no one else adds their name to the list I will repackage them tonight and send them back tomorrow.

 

[frugal]

These have now been sent back to Matthew. I even included the random pieces of sand paper that have apparently been hitching a lift for the last few handovers (it seemed a shame to separate them at this point )

I would like to say a big thank you to Matthew for arranging this, and for Charley for supporting it. I would also like to say thank you to everyone who took such good care of the chisels before they got to me, it was really nice to see items that had passed through 6 sets of hands still in perfect condition.

Now I need to spend a few hours working on the chisels I currently have to see if I can bring them up to spec, or if I need to convince SWMBO that I really need these

PS. Are the dovetail chisels of the same high quality?

 

[Routermonster]

Frugal wrote:

PS. Are the dovetail chisels of the same high quality?

Yes - mine certainly are!

Les