Narex Chisels - lots of photos

[Jacob]

I have the narex chisel set. Bought it a while ago. Haven't
used them yet, but yesterday I flattened the backs of these chisels....
Ali

Why?

 

[GazPal]

Gary's notion that the authors slavishly copy each other is not borne out - each and every one of them seems to make up whatever seems convenient! I have seen "back", "face", and "back face" all used for the flat side of the blade.

BugBear

:roll: I prefer woodworking and tend not to obsess over such matters. :lol:

 

[ali27]

I have the narex chisel set. Bought it a while ago. Haven't
used them yet, but yesterday I flattened the backs of these chisels....
Ali

Why?

The back of chisels should be flat. Seems to be common knowledge.

So my question to you is ''why not''? Are you doing the jacob air trick
to get a tiny backbevel on chisels?

 

[Jacob]

I have the narex chisel set. Bought it a while ago. Haven't
used them yet, but yesterday I flattened the backs of these chisels....
Ali

Why?

The back of chisels should be flat. Seems to be common knowledge.

Common delusion more like.
If they are new and really need flattening you should send them back . Or bin them if old. Personally I've never flattened one in my life.
If you aren't happy with inaccuracies involving single thousands of an inch I suggest you throw away you feeler gauges! They aren't doing you any good. :lol:
How's the woodwork coming along?

PS surely these Narex's are perfect (within reason)? I'm really surprised that another new set requires remedial work before they've even been used.

 

[James C]

Jacob it's not about flattening the back but polishing it IMO. When I recieved my Narex chisels this is one of the first things I did before honing a microbevel.

Do you ever sharpen both sides of a carving knife? Isn't it the same, or am I mistaken?

 

[Jacob]

Jacob it's not about flattening the back but polishing it IMO. When I recieved my Narex chisels this is one of the first things I did before honing a microbevel.

Do you ever sharpen both sides of a carving knife? Isn't it the same, or am I mistaken?

Most knives are sharpened equally both sides. They are symmetrical in section, perp to the edge.
Planes and chisels are not. They are sharpened on the bevel almost entirely, until the edge is back into the unworn portion of the face/flat side. The face is only briefly honed, dead flat on the stone , to remove the wire edge. It's not a face flattening exercise, it's a wire edge removal job, though the face is flattened a touch in the process, for the last inch or so.
I thought everybody knew this?

PS if you are polishing the face are you also polishing the bevel? If not why not? I know carvers polish both sides, but only near the edge. They need very sharp clean cuts (when they come to finishing at any rate) as the chisel/gouge cut surface may be visible. Rarely the case in joinery and cabinet making.

 

[James C]

I wasn't talking about flattening Jacob in fact I stipulated that in my post. I've only flattened when I have been bringing some of my grandfathers bevel edged chisels back to life from some pitting.

I do polish both the bevel and the face, I find it slightly improves chisel performance.

I do admit thought that I probably only polish the face every 4th or 5th time I reattend to the microbevel.

 

[Benchwayze]

In my experience it's only on this forum that people call the face the back. Mind you I've had a quiet life.
I didn't realise it was an americanisation. Or should it be "realize it was an americanization" ?

As long as you don't say 'incentivise' when you mean encourage! Heard that word quite a lot recently, via the BBC, but even my 'murrican spell check doesn't recognise it either with a z or an s. 8)

Anyway. the Narex bevel edged chisels I bought are okay. The striking surface on the handles could be better, but as I don't clout the life out of a bevel edged chisel, no problem. They aren't the world's best, but for the money, they are good to go.

As for polishing the flat side, why bother if there's only a slight difference in performance? Sounds like a lot of time expended for little purpose. I make sure it's flat, and that there is enough reflection to use for estimating angles, such as when chopping inlay. (For which a chisel needs to be 'sharp' of course!)

 

[Noel]

In my experience it's only on this forum that people call the face the back. Mind you I've had a quiet life.
I didn't realise it was an americanisation. Or should it be "realize it was an americanization" ?

As for polishing the flat side, why bother if there's only a slight difference in performance? Sounds like a lot of time expended for little purpose. I make sure it's flat, and that there is enough reflection to use for estimating angles, such as when chopping inlay. (For which a chisel needs to be 'sharp' of course!)

Such heresy, you'll get burned at the stake

Flat-ish and sharp, end of story.

 

[James C]

As long as you don't say 'incentivise' when you mean encourage! Heard that word quite a lot recently, via the BBC, but even my 'murrican spell check doesn't recognise it either with a z or an s. 8)

Anyway. the Narex bevel edged chisels I bought are okay. The striking surface on the handles could be better, but as I don't clout the life out of a bevel edged chisel, no problem. They aren't the world's best, but for the money, they are good to go.

As for polishing the flat side, why bother if there's only a slight difference in performance? Sounds like a lot of time expended for little purpose. I make sure it's flat, and that there is enough reflection to use for estimating angles, such as when chopping inlay. (For which a chisel needs to be 'sharp' of course!)

Expended time ends up being a couple of passes so not much time at all.

 

[Benchwayze]

In my experience it's only on this forum that people call the face the back. Mind you I've had a quiet life.
I didn't realise it was an americanisation. Or should it be "realize it was an americanization" ?

As for polishing the flat side, why bother if there's only a slight difference in performance? Sounds like a lot of time expended for little purpose. I make sure it's flat, and that there is enough reflection to use for estimating angles, such as when chopping inlay. (For which a chisel needs to be 'sharp' of course!)

Such heresy, you'll get burned at the stake

Flat-ish and sharp, end of story.

I am fireproof Noel. 'cos there ain't no laws being broken in my shop! Just my way of doing things. (I think I am becoming hide-bound! :mrgreen: ) :lol:

 

[Jacob]

....

Expended time ends up being a couple of passes so not much time at all.

It's getting less and less! You don't work through 25 grades of grit finishing off with jewellers rouge and a dash of lipstick? Rules are rules you know.

 

[Benchwayze]

25 grades of grit, emery flour followed by jewellers' rouge on pitch, (minus the lipstick) is for making Telescope mirrors, not sharpening tools.
Oh Darn it. I mentioned emery flour. Someone is bound to want to try it!

James,

I think you will expend a lot of time (Time you could spend cutting wood), to get to the point, where you don't expend much time.

I may disagree with what you say but I will defend... and all that. Going to have to beg to differ on this one old chap.

 

[James C]

That's fine everyone is entitled the their own opinion.

I made a lot of my decisions about the way I sharpened originally based on what other people had said was "the correct way" and I didn't get on with it and it ended up costing me money in unused equipment and jigs etc.

I'm just happy I found a way that works for me so I can move on to actually making something.

 

[pswallace]

I got myself A set of Narex bench chisels about A year ago and after A bit of sharpening and honing they were great,although the mill marks weren't anywhere as near as pronounced as those in your pictures....but I can't fault their performance which is what counts at the end of the day...might be a consistency problem.The cabinet-maker style ones weren't available when I bought mine.....maybe the first ones that came over where better finished???

 

[Gerard Scanlan]

I received half a dozen chisels from Workshop Heaven today. 4 more Ashley Ilses dovetail chisels and 2 Narex bevel edge. I really like the dovetail chisels which is why I added to the couple I already had, but I wanted some bevel edge chisels that I could really hit with a hammer when chopping out mortices. Shouldn't I be using a mortice chisel #-o , well that's another story that Paul Sellers explains better than I can. Anyway I was astonished by the quality of the Narex chisels. I polished up the backs in 2 minutes! They were completely flat. Are they as nice as the Ashley Ilses? No they are not, but they are less than half the price and cut perfectly, hold their edge. They are better value for money than I had expected, so much so that I ordered 3 more (in different sizes).
I think I have developed a bit of a chisel thing (hammer)

 

[matthewwh]

We've had quite a few requests for natural handles on the 8116 range, what do you think?

 

[Harbo]

From the photo, they look a lot nicer to me.

Rod

 

[shim20]

they look better natural i think, they should do this on the mortise chisels to maybe?

 

[jimi43]

Hi Matthew

I think that they are a vast improvement on the former...which was below par ( :roll: ) by anyone's standard.

The steel is wonderful and now that they have hornbeam handles and brass ferrules the whole thing comes together.

Not one of my most favourite of shapes I have to say but that is a taste thing.

Nice to see them lightly waxed though instead of poly-yucky-stick-ethane finish!

One thing that just entered my head was perhaps producing a small run of just steel sans handles. Some of us enjoy making our own ya know!

(this is a pie-in-the-sky idea...ignore me....I doubt it it would catch on!) :mrgreen:

Jim