Phil Pascoe
Established Member
Not yet. mine haven't sold in the "for sales" 
Chisel buying advice
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Ive come across a lot of the plastic handled ones in very lightly or unused condition, where as the (painted) wood handled ones look scruffy because of degraded finish, even if the blade is in good condition; it seems those plastic versions are going for silly money.
I’ve also seen Irwin-Marples sets listed for £250+
Not yet. mine haven't sold in the "for sales"
paint the handles red
MorrisWoodman12
Established Member
Those black handled polished chisels were a thing of beauty
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I bought a set of three black handled Stanley bevel edge chisels (1/4, 1/2 & 3/4") oh 50 years ago after I married and couldn't easily access Dads anymore. They are brilliant, take an edge fairly easily and keep it. They are my go-to chisels especially the 3/4. Never, well hardly ever, used a hammer on them so they are still as good as new.
Also picked up some wooden handled firmer chisels, though usually only use the 1" to complement the Stanleys and that as good and has taken a real beating chopping out a double bird's mouth on the crosstrees at Nutley Windmill.
ey_tony
Established Member
I'm a Marples fan.
I still have a full set of the original Marples yellow/red handled chisels which I bought in 1962/63 and which I keep over my bench to this day!
I also have a full set of green handled Marples still with tip protectors for general use which I call my day to day chisels and transport in a tool tray when working on projects at home and I've always been happy with Marple's chisels.
I actually used one of my red/yellow handled chisels for a tiny job yesterday. They do retain a sharp edge and they stand the test of time too so I'd always recommend Marples.
Whether today's Marples chisels are as good as they were when I bought mine remains to be seem but I'd take a guess that they are.
I still have a full set of the original Marples yellow/red handled chisels which I bought in 1962/63 and which I keep over my bench to this day!
I also have a full set of green handled Marples still with tip protectors for general use which I call my day to day chisels and transport in a tool tray when working on projects at home and I've always been happy with Marple's chisels.
I actually used one of my red/yellow handled chisels for a tiny job yesterday. They do retain a sharp edge and they stand the test of time too so I'd always recommend Marples.
Whether today's Marples chisels are as good as they were when I bought mine remains to be seem but I'd take a guess that they are.
Tony Zaffuto
Established Member
I’ve got many, many chisels, mostly great vintage and modern (AI, LN & similar). I’ve been putting an addition on our home and have many raceways to chisel out. I hardly wanted to bang on a vintage Witherby anymore than a modern LN.
At Home Depot, there are plastic handled Buck Bros., “made in USA” carpenter chisels. To look at them, they are almost identical to Stanley #60s. Steel was not soft (took a while to get an edge), and the edge lasted. 1/2” cost $9.50 and 2” cost $15.00.
I had a set of Aldi’, that I gave away, and these Buck chisels are much better! Bear in mind these are carpenter chisels, more like a firmer.
At Home Depot, there are plastic handled Buck Bros., “made in USA” carpenter chisels. To look at them, they are almost identical to Stanley #60s. Steel was not soft (took a while to get an edge), and the edge lasted. 1/2” cost $9.50 and 2” cost $15.00.
I had a set of Aldi’, that I gave away, and these Buck chisels are much better! Bear in mind these are carpenter chisels, more like a firmer.
Once upon a time, I guess when Aldi started selling chisels, they did indeed stock MHG chisels rebranded with 'WORKZONE' printed on the handles. I found a set in my dad's shed. They're pretty good, in my unskilled hands.
Current Aldi chisels are indeed Chinesium, and have been for a long time now.
Getting back to the topic in hand, I wouldn't be buying second-hand tools off Ebay or whatever as my first set. Sorry to rain on your parade. The risk of prior abuse having made the chisel unusable is just too much, and then you'd be frustrated trying to understand why they're not sharp, when in fact they simple not sharpenable for you just yet.
For example one thing I never thought of until I read it here was that short chisels have probably been sharpened past where the metal has been hardened, and thus won't retain an edge!
hope this helps.
That explains why there are more or less two different accounts of aldi chisels - most of the chinese chisels are 0.6% carbon steel. I saw one set advertised as being1% chrome vanadium drill rod based but they were overpriced.
MHG is illustrating what i mentioned above - those chisels are all drop forged and completely machine made other than a little bit of handling - there's no need for them to be expensive other than markup (but markup can be important if they don't get to a buyer without it!). It could also be that MHG had extra stock or is mostly assembling stuff from elsewhere.
There's a decent video of the buck brothers factory on youtube:
When I heat something, you can't see any temperature differential on the steel (the color and the time the chisel is at color is the same). There's no thermal cycling or full anneal with any of these chisels or anything of the sort - just one really high heat and then a quick induction quench and temper, but the market doesn't really warrant more care, i guess. I would be surprised if the heat treat is much different for most chisels though some may be hung on wire and heated in molten salt and quenched and then tempered in oil - that would be an improvement).
MHG is illustrating what i mentioned above - those chisels are all drop forged and completely machine made other than a little bit of handling - there's no need for them to be expensive other than markup (but markup can be important if they don't get to a buyer without it!). It could also be that MHG had extra stock or is mostly assembling stuff from elsewhere.
There's a decent video of the buck brothers factory on youtube:
When I heat something, you can't see any temperature differential on the steel (the color and the time the chisel is at color is the same). There's no thermal cycling or full anneal with any of these chisels or anything of the sort - just one really high heat and then a quick induction quench and temper, but the market doesn't really warrant more care, i guess. I would be surprised if the heat treat is much different for most chisels though some may be hung on wire and heated in molten salt and quenched and then tempered in oil - that would be an improvement).
It does indeed and will require sharpening more often. However, its a very quick trip to a high grit whetstone now and again to keep it smartBeing easier to sharpen surely means softer steel
There's a fairly good test for softness - this is my test at least (actually, I just check by feel, but I've had a lot of feels and have hardened a bunch of things on top of that). Put a microbevel of 34 degrees on a chisel and do some controlled (not overly harsh, not wild or inaccurate) malleting on a test board across the grain. If you find that the chisel is really hard sharpening and it fails, it's overhard. If you find the chisel easy sharpening but it won't hold up well (really take any appreciable damage at that steep of an angle), it's soft.
Robt sorby's new chisels are around 57/58 and they're a good lower limit of usability on hardwoods - they're barely usable, but they will sharpen quickly on anything. Ashley iles chisels are sort of a sweet spot in the middle - they're a little harder sharpening, but very crisp.
When you get much above them in hardness, for things to hold up, the alloy needs to change a little bit to something made to stand up well at higher hardness.
Iles quotes 61, and I believe they're in the 61/62 range. I have made plenty of O1 tools in that range - its' sort of the sweet spot. No clue what sorby chisels are made of, but I doubt it's 1% carbon steel. 1095 for me properly done ends up a little harder than O1, but I doubt anyone is using it. specialty steels like 26c3 can go higher and make a better chisel than anyhing offered commercially in the west, but I have my doubts that the average person wants to sharpen something that hits its sweet spot at 64, which is where my 26c3 chisels land with a mid temper.
I've bought a lot of old chisels. Hold out of for a much older matched set that isn't terribly short. I've gotten newer sets that are completely unhardened (I have a nice set of later marples chisels with box handles and no more than 3 of them appear to have been hardened much at all - i'm lazily working through rehardening just so that I can dump them).
There's nothing made now that I'd really choose over a good set of older english tang chisels, though -they're good enough to have encouraged me to start making chisels. foray into superior steels was only done because we can't get silver steel bars and rod over here reasonable, and O1 is good, but it's sort of common and I wanted something different -dreaming of BS1407 or another equivalent (and landing by luck on 26c3, which is about the same price as O1 here but makes a killer chisel - albeit one that's a little too hard to work agreeably with oilstones).
johnnyb
Established Member
this must be the best value new chisels
Stubai 9002793307787 Swedish Type 6-26mm Special Wood Chisel Set (6-Piece), Beige/Silver, Medium, Set of 6 Stubai 9002793307787 Swedish Type 6-26mm Special Wood Chisel Set (6-Piece), Beige/Silver, Medium, Set of 6 : Amazon.co.uk: DIY & Tools
Stubai 9002793307787 Swedish Type 6-26mm Special Wood Chisel Set (6-Piece), Beige/Silver, Medium, Set of 6 Stubai 9002793307787 Swedish Type 6-26mm Special Wood Chisel Set (6-Piece), Beige/Silver, Medium, Set of 6 : Amazon.co.uk: DIY & Tools
1275gt
Established Member
As johnnyb mentioned I have a set of the blue handle Marples, purchased for not much on eBay the 1" and 3/4 chisel edge roll when morticing in softwoods for a period. I purchased them as they were highly regarded by folk, my experience differs. This is the risk when buying vintage/ second-hand. Buying new you'll have some sort of protection against manufacturing defect.
I had a set of those a few years ago. They are light in the blades, long and with fairly thick handles. I think anyone getting them would want to make sure that they don't pinch the chisel near the bevel to hold it as that won't fly with those. I don't remember much about them other than that they're at least as good as two cherries (which seem softer than their spec claims and I really don't get the pricing of here in the US).
These are all drop forged type chisels without too much regard given to them - not a problem as long as they're priced like that.
Better than narex, I can say that (the austempering for narex leaves the chisels a little underhard - that being the process that narex uses which is to heat the chisels and then move them to a tempering temperature without ever letting them finish all the way to room temp or cooler after quench). It results in less warpage (which lowers costs) and high toughness, but toughness is something for knives and not so much for chisels (strength is more important).
At any rate, those appear out of stock by listing, but viewed from the american side of amazon, they're $100 with free shipping from the UK, or $170 from sellers in the US (ghee, tough decision there). There's nothing about them that speaks to $170, but they're a fair deal for $100 as long as you like gripping handles and chisels that are balanced toward the handle and not the blade.
I recall them being a bit fat sided, but anyone can grind the lands down without guilt - especially for $17 a chisel.
(they're longer than most older english cabinetmaking chisels I"ve gotten, too, and handles are fatter than almost anything I've seen on bench chisels)
Bod
Established Member
After reading this thread, I "watched" a set of 6 Footprint firmer chisels, well all I can say, my flabber has been well and truly gastered!
£91 with no picture of the backs, all looked as if a sharpening would been helpful.
Retirement might be possible....I have too many chisels....with red handles...
Bod
£91 with no picture of the backs, all looked as if a sharpening would been helpful.
Retirement might be possible....I have too many chisels....with red handles...
Bod
Probably the cost of one blue spruce chisel, and more real chisel than those (my apologies less to woodpeckers and more to anyone who has the blue spruce chisels and likes them if you really do, then you like what you like. They strike me as laser cut or milled flat stock stuck in a handle, which is the kind if thing you could just do in your own shop).
the edge holding of a decent sheffield footprint chisel is as good as anything made out of A2 and they'll take less effort to sharpen as they don't have pointless alloying in them that's a benefit to the maker more than it is to the user.
the edge holding of a decent sheffield footprint chisel is as good as anything made out of A2 and they'll take less effort to sharpen as they don't have pointless alloying in them that's a benefit to the maker more than it is to the user.
JimB
Established Member
Back in the day, 'good to the last inch' was the motto and I've seen nothing to disprove it.
ey_tony
Established Member
There are comparable brands to Marples I have no doubt but if I had to replace my chisels right now, based on past experience I would take a lot of convincing to go with other brands instead of Marples. I got my first set when I started my apprenticeship at 15 years of age as a church organ builder and they were the recommended chisels at the time. If those tradesmen recommended them then that was good enough.
I have both the red/yellow handled variety and I have the greed handled variety. The green handled chisels come pretty close to keeping their edge but not quite that of the red/yellow ones in my opinion, but certainly good for day to day jobs.
It may just be subjective on my part of course but properly sharpened, the red/yellow chisels do a fine job and are just that bit more superior.
I'm not sure when your apprenticeship was, but you would likely want to find the same chisels you have rather than buying anything new if you were sticking with marples.
I had two newer sets of "blue chips" sheffield made here and one of the chisels in each was mostly unhardened. I didn't have both sets at the same time, so I couldn't tell you if it was the same chisel in each set. One of the far east versions of "blue chip" chisels was tested by someone on the australian forum, and surprisingly, it was about 60 hardness (which is probably a favorable number for an all purpose chisel - the sheffield chisels that I had were softer than that).
At any rate, once the new blue chip types (chinese made) hit hardwoods, they failed, suggesting that they are just undertempered to reach a hardness target and not actually higher carbon drill rod that would hold up fine at that (the lowest cost simple carbon steel drill rod with just a few additives would make a great chisel as long as it's not at the very low end of "high carbon steels", but the very low end in 0.5-0.6% carbon is far more common than 1% carbon).
The master in this video (George Wilson) made everything in his career with a set of 1960 marples bench chisels. I asked him if they were soft, and he said if anything, they were overhard (one broke and he had to replace it, but it's possible that it was cracked in forging or hardening - maybe probable if it broke). I've got nicer marples sets well after 1960 (box handles, etc), and they aren't remotely close to the same quality as what George describes. I've had to reharden most of them as someone failed to check any and perhaps 2 of the 10 are fully hardened. By that, I don't mean that 2 are probably 60 hardness and the other 58. I mean that they are not hardened at all or near it and can't pare pine at any bevel angle - paring anything at all forms a fast burr from the edge rolling. Once they're rehardened, they're fine.
There are enough older chisels out there that there's no real reason to dabble in new chisels, though. At least until the old ones become absurdly expensive. What I've seen lately here is that the later chisels new in pack sell for more than better earlier chisels.
ey_tony
Established Member
I started my apprenticeship in 1961. Back then it was Marples all the way.
I was never into all this hardness thing. Quite frankly it doesn't interest me. The chisel either kept its edge when using it or it was sharpened again to finish the job. We needed absolute precision so our plane blades for instance were sharpened and set after every few shavings on occasions which at times were silk thin. That was just how it was.
It's the same as when I recently bought a decent set of kitchen knives. The set I bought were Victorinox ( of Swiss Army Knife fame). Not terribly expensive but they sharpen like razors if sharpened correctly though some people whose feedback I read before buying them complained about them not holding their edge for longer than a month!? Others complained that they needed sharpening straight out of the packaging. Wow who would have guessed that!
When I use a knife for food prep I sharpen the knife with an iron every time without fail even if it is straight out of the packaging. In my experience no tool stays sharp indefinitely. If I pick up one of my chisels it's either sharp enough to do the job or it's sharpened until it is.
