Tasky":1wzk3yl5 said:
They have some one-hand clamps too.
Probably not amazing, but good and cheap for beginners perhaps?
Ah nice, thought I, then I realised that they're not really one handed. Compare them with the ones from Rutlands or Axminster (difference between the two is only colour) - those are genuinely one handed in that you can clamp OR RELEASE with one hand - critical if you want the shaft to slide under gravity so you can set the clamp before applying it.
I think you'd struggle with the Lidl ones, but I shall nip into our local Lidl and try them out, all the same...
... on the diamond files, the trick is not to throw them away ever. They're cheap because the diamond chips aren't well graded (that's expensive), but if you bed them in doing coarse stuff, the bigger bits eventually get pulled off the surface, and what's left is a lot smoother. I have a couple of sets of those multi-coloured cheap plates for things like garden tools, and I keep one fine plate from one set in the kitchen - the backing detached ages ago. When used wet, it gets a very useful edge on knives pretty quickly.
I wouldn't use them on my favourite chisels, but they are really handy. Last week-end I was "linishing" the edge of a piece of glass with one. I used the coarsest one I could find. I also have some needle files, and there's one gentle curve that gets used for making wine glasses usable if they have (really small) chips in the rim. I don't know why but our set of general purpose wine glasses seem to get dings quite easily but not actually shatter. It's a waste to chuck them just for appearance sake - rounding over a tiny ding doesn't change the taste...
E.
PS: per ED65's comment above, the Axy/Rutlands ones are really strong and do exert enough grip for joint closing (in my limited experience). The Lidl ones look weaker.
