woodbloke
Established Member
I did a review of chisels a few weeks ago and afterwards got nattering to Matthew at WH who's just sent me a couple of these new chisels to have a look at:
These are CI Fall chisels made in Sweden, with the 14mm bevel edged priced at £11.20 and £18.40 for the mortice chisel. The grinding angles on the bevel edge are a bit steep but the blade supplied was concave in it's length and flat. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it only took about 4 mins on the coarse DMT to flatten the back, something that took a lot longer on some of the other chisels on test a while back. The handle on each is a bit crude being polished and stained beech with what resembles a ferule at the striking end. The handles are rectangular in section with all the corners nicely rounded off are are quite comfortable, but I'd rather not see anything with a ferule at the blunt end...the corner is also a bit sharp on the thumb when paring vevertically
The quality of the steel though is the main thing...and it's very good indeed. I honed the blade at 30deg and chopped a few times into something really nasty :evil: and there was hardly any dedegradationn the edge...the same test on oak with no visible effect whatsoever.
If you have access to a belt sander the bevels on the side could be reduced and additionally if you have a lathe then I'd make up some new handles as well.
I didn't test the mortice chisel but you can see from the pic that the grinding is pretty rough, handle is the same though.
I'll be taking them both to West Dean next Sat so anyone who's there can have a play around with them. These are very good chisels at this price so if you're considering a set, contact Matthew - Rob
These are CI Fall chisels made in Sweden, with the 14mm bevel edged priced at £11.20 and £18.40 for the mortice chisel. The grinding angles on the bevel edge are a bit steep but the blade supplied was concave in it's length and flat. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it only took about 4 mins on the coarse DMT to flatten the back, something that took a lot longer on some of the other chisels on test a while back. The handle on each is a bit crude being polished and stained beech with what resembles a ferule at the striking end. The handles are rectangular in section with all the corners nicely rounded off are are quite comfortable, but I'd rather not see anything with a ferule at the blunt end...the corner is also a bit sharp on the thumb when paring vevertically
The quality of the steel though is the main thing...and it's very good indeed. I honed the blade at 30deg and chopped a few times into something really nasty :evil: and there was hardly any dedegradationn the edge...the same test on oak with no visible effect whatsoever.
If you have access to a belt sander the bevels on the side could be reduced and additionally if you have a lathe then I'd make up some new handles as well.
I didn't test the mortice chisel but you can see from the pic that the grinding is pretty rough, handle is the same though.
I'll be taking them both to West Dean next Sat so anyone who's there can have a play around with them. These are very good chisels at this price so if you're considering a set, contact Matthew - Rob
