Not all old tools are good tools

[Jacob]

When a honing guide sells for about £10, and oil stone for another £10, I thought a full chisel set with 6x chisels, a honing guide and an oil stone in hard case including next day delivery was a good deal. But how good the chisels could be a bit of gamble I suppose. I placed order for one. Will update how good they are.

I had a set of 6 Axi "bevel edge" chisels dirt cheap. They were OK, sharpened well, flat face, perfectly usable but ugly two tone plastic and the bevels were really crude - more like a firmer with the corners taken off. So no good as bevel edge but perfectly OK for general hacking about.

 

[graduate_owner]

DIY Toolbox has made an interesting comment. The honing guide and stone alone cost as much as the complete set. This does not sound sensible at first sight. However if you compare with buying a cordless drill kit with buying a bare cordless drill and then the batteries and charger separately, the same sort of logic seems to apply. You pay way more for the separates, and if you buy the kit then the drill almost comes free. This applies to well known, trusted brands so this doesn't necessarily mean the chisels which come practically free are rubbish. However the logic does not always apply. For example I bought a bench pillar drill for about £60, thinking - well you can't buy the motor, chuck, switch etc for that so the whole drill, wow what a bargain. Big mistake. I was so glad to get rid of it and buy a decent drill. So to sum up, I think it is a case of taking a gamble, and indeed you might be lucky, but if you want to get chisels or whatever that you know are going to perform well and last a decent length of time then it's back to trusted brands I suppose. Finally I will say that I don't buy cheap tools any more, having learnt my lesson too many times. I have a box in the corner of my shed to remind me. The box contains tools from Power Devil, NuTool and a few other brands - router, cordless drills, angle grinders, SDS drill, plus some hand tools - all cheap and all bu@@ered after not much use.

K

 

[D_W]

I think what the strange combo prices tell us is that the cost of the actual goods is near nothing. Does anyone believe trend pays more than about $6each for the diamond hones they sell for a dollar or more than about $10 a gallon to make honing fluid out of mineral spirits and naphtha?

I went to Alibaba this morning. Bar and rod stock of 1095 is $600 per ton (!) Which means crv drill rod might be 50% more, or about a dollar a kilo. Or it might cost the same. Each element in a set of chisel, stone a guide is probably a dollar at finished cost.

You and I can buy the two sides diamond hones like trends for $6 each in quantity (so they end up being distributed here for about $20 with shipping). Sometimes the rubber base is added for another $5 at retail and another seller tries to sell the base only for the same or more than the set.

 

[TheTiddles]

Does this mean that the new chisels currently on the market are better quality, therefore safer buy? I have been looking at new chisel set selling on Amazon. Some comes with oil stone and honing guide and 6x chisels in hard case set for about £25 including delivery. The steel of the new chisel set seem mostly made of CR-V alloy steel.

Old tools aren’t necessarily good, new ones aren’t necessarily bad. There are literally thousands of types of steel and if you heat them differently they all start changing further still. Most specifications given are borderline meaningless after word “steel”.

If you’re wanting to make a safe buy, some half-decent chisels are a sensible investment and should last a lifetime, Narex are popular, Pfeil too. Many cheaper and more expensive options are available, the person holding it is normally the most limiting factor.

 

[diytoolbox]

Often when seeing Youtubers wood working, it has been always far more impressive and interesting seeing the workers achieving good results with very cheap or DIY tools, rather than famous makes / brands, high grade, professional level and expensive tools. I don't believe you get what you pay for. I believe in the spirit, if it is not good enough, try making it good and better in any possible way.

 

[diytoolbox]

The Chisel set ordered from Amazon arrived. I have tried the chisels cutting and shaving some hard wood for about half an hour , and then sliced paper. The edge is still sharp slicing the paper clean. I was impressed. The chisels are solid and feels well balanced in hands, well made. OK they have rubber handles, but feels comfy.

The oil stone was good. Sharpened my vintage rusty No4 plane blade on it, and wow, it got scary sharp. The No4 plane is working fine. The included honing guide is also good quality. Far better than the one I had for 10 years in my old Draper chisel set, now rusty and getting worn out.

The only negative point was the plastic hard case. It looks OK cosmetically, but when opened up, it doesn't hold the chisels well, especially the smaller ones. It is difficult to put them back once taken out. The small chisels keep popping out from the holding groves even pressed hard into the groves to keep them in.

But for £25, arrived via tracked delivery, I was really happy with the 6x Chisel set including oil stone and honing guide. Good value for money. The chisels were scary sharp and holds the edge well, which was the critical point.

 

[paulrbarnard]

The Chisel set ordered from Amazon arrived. I have tried the chisels cutting and shaving some hard wood for about half an hour , and then sliced paper. The edge is still sharp slicing the paper clean. I was impressed. The chisels are solid and feels well balanced in hands, well made. OK they have rubber handles, but feels comfy.

The oil stone was good. Sharpened my vintage rusty No4 plane blade on it, and wow, it got scary sharp. The No4 plane is working fine. The included honing guide is also good quality. Far better than the one I had for 10 years in my old Draper chisel set, now rusty and getting worn out.

The only negative point was the plastic hard case. It looks OK cosmetically, but when opened up, it doesn't hold the chisels well, especially the smaller ones. It is difficult to put them back once taken out. The small chisels keep popping out from the holding groves even pressed hard into the groves to keep them in.

But for £25, arrived via tracked delivery, I was really happy with the 6x Chisel set including oil stone and honing guide. Good value for money. The chisels were scary sharp and holds the edge well, which was the critical point.

Perhaps use the chisels to make a nice wooden chisel box

 

[D_W]

man could learn to sew for 25 pounds of good tools and make a roll out of an old pair of pants!

As far as stones go, there's a dollar store in the retail corridor outside of my development. They have a 2 sided aluminum oxide 2x6 sharpening stone for $1. It sheds particles a little (which is annoying, because they're coarse particles - like getting sand on your hand), but as a matter of sharpening, it has no problem at all (it's about 300 grit, so no fine edges, but I've seen less effective stones that cost a lot more).