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You can put 'just about anything' into a powder metal, but if it's the HIPped version (as opposed to cold pressed/sintered) which it will be for turning tools etc then most gas atomised steel powder-makers wouldn't let lead near their plant for fear of ruining the next batches.

There is a market for atomised powder for solder etc that might well include lead, but I think it's quite separate.

Maybe the finishes are made in mixers which might have mixed an historic lead paint (still allowed for a few renovations on ancient buildings). Then a bit like peanut allergy warnings - no peanuts as such, but may have been prep'd with same equipment.
 
I recently purchased an iGaging combination square and on the end of the very nice storage box was a sticker: WARNING Cancer and Reproductive Harm. Is it the box or the square that I should worry about - or neither as I am over 80! I believe iGaging is California based.
 
By the way, re: the comment above about sheffield tool price - the few places still making tools in sheffield do a superb job for the price. Prissy customers have passed them by, so if you get a rosewood gauge that is a bit sticky in use, instead of lightly adjusting the wood in the tight spot, the prissy customers (and sorry, we are at the head of the class of this in the US) will return the entire tool and badmouth the maker. For someone like me (who is choosing between buying and making the entire tool), when a maker like sheffield makes the entire tool for cost of materials for the average person, I'll gladly make a small adjustment. It's the $200 versions of a $40 tool where all of the difference is in faffing and surface finish that I just don't have much for.

I spend a fair amount of time on the american forums arguing on behalf of the iles chisels, which get the same criticism I've seen on here ("the bevels look a little bit uneven, like someone did them by hand in a hurry". ....

.....yes, they probably did them by hand!!! try to duplicate it for $30 retail!)

I've just bought two Isles gouges and yes maybe the bevel might be very slightly uneven but they work superbly, which is surely all that should count.
 
I've just bought two Isles gouges and yes maybe the bevel might be very slightly uneven but they work superbly, which is surely all that should count.

It certainly counts for me. Aesthetic perfection is at the bottom of the list after the sharpening/work cycle economy, desirability in use and proportion. Iles beat most chisels except maybe for some vintage in all of those. I like to make things by hand. I think the hand finish is *better* than perfect aesthetics, but the woodworking market is uneducated now.

Most of the CNC made chisels now look sterile, not just due to the identical look, but also due to how they have to be accommodated (many are just flat stock with no bolster, which I can't ever get on with - I'd rather have a drop forged chisel that still has a round bolster). Just my opinion, though.
 
[QUOTE Then a bit like peanut allergy warnings - no peanuts as such, but may have been prep'd with same equipment. [/QUOTE]
I remember a bloke with a self-diagnosed peanut allergy (He was an idiot by the way) I saw him eating an ice-cream with peanuts on top. When I pointed this out he claimed he was only allergic to 'traces of peanuts'!
 
Not sure if it's different overseas, but we have kids who blow up like balloons over here if they eat peanuts or peanut butter.

No clue why, as I don't remember many of them when I was a kid - actually, only one who got contact with some peanut butter over lunch on a basketball and ended up getting a shot to stop his reaction. But that's the single only one I can remember.

Coworker of mine fed one of his young kids a bagel with peanut butter on it when he was about 18 months old. I don't know what the supposed "OK" age is to introduce kids to PB now, but his kid blew up like a puffer fish and had to go to the ER. I thought he was kidding or exaggerating when he told me, so I labeled him "BD" (bad dad), which left him sore for a while. His kid was fine by the time he relayed it, but he felt guilty for "not following the rules". The only reasonable follow up to this is to repeatedly call him "BD" after that, though.

If there really are that many more cases of PB allergy here, I still think most of the warnings have to do with data mining lawsuits (exclude california - a grandmother can buy a 3120 husqvarna there and cut off branches over her head with no real warnings, but keep her away from lead lest it stunt her childhood development).
 
I wouldn't allergies on anyone. I had a bee sting that nearly killed me, I ended up in the doctor's (nine miles closer than the hospital) on intravenous steroids, piriton and epinephrine (adrenaline). To make matters worse it was one of my own bees.
 
I recently purchased an iGaging combination square and on the end of the very nice storage box was a sticker: WARNING Cancer and Reproductive Harm. Is it the box or the square that I should worry about - or neither as I am over 80! I believe iGaging is California based.

I think it's the ink on the sticker :unsure: we get it on so many products from the US.
 
I think it's the ink on the sticker :unsure: we get it on so many products from the US.
it is a good example of where excess warnings defeat their purpose. On anything that I see with a "California residents" warning, I dont bother reading it. This covers pretty much anything with a connection to the USA. If they only warned us about things that mattered, less warnings but they would be read!
 

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