Prepping a set of Ashley Isles Chisels

[graween]

Hi,

Thanks Mathew for the intersting reply.

I still though think about 2 things that come to my mind. That I'm sure you could help me with or correct if I'm wrong.

1-To keep the advantage for the very slight hollow grind, one must lay the full blade length on the abrasive when removing the burr. That means long abraise stones.

2-Does this means that when you do precise work on short length, you might have to lift a little the handle (because the hollow laying flat on the work, means that the shiny very narrow lower cutting part is at an angle, and the edge kind of lift up, classic problem of paring with convex chisels) ? Or does a 4 thou hollow make this fact neglectable ?

Thank.

PS : I hope I'm clear, cause English is not my mother language

 

[woodbloke]

Hi,

Thanks Mathew for the intersting reply.

I still though think about 2 things that come to my mind. That I'm sure you could help me with or correct if I'm wrong.

1-To keep the advantage for the very slight hollow grind, one must lay the full blade length on the abrasive when removing the burr. That means long abraise stones.

2-Does this means that when you do precise work on short length, you might have to lift a little the handle (because the hollow laying flat on the work, means that the shiny very narrow lower cutting part is at an angle, and the edge kind of lift up, classic problem of paring with convex chisels) ? Or does a 4 thou hollow make this fact neglectable ?

Thank.

PS : I hope I'm clear, cause English is not my mother language

The way I polish the backs is to have the chisel blade at 90deg to the long axis of the stone and the blade is then moved up and down the length. Do not on any account, ever be tempted to lift the handle when this is done, in fact don't even touch it...the chisel should be held by the blade only and all the pressure applied directly over the part in contact with the stone - Rob

 

[matthewwh]

Hi Graween,

You don't need extra long stones, even if you lay the blade over the stone at right angles and pull the cutting edge back onto it, then the blade will be contacting the stone at two points. The other point of contact will act as a jig to ensure that the cutting edge is polished at the correct angle i.e. somewhere between perfectly flat and the curvature. The further apart the two points are the better, but the critical thing is to always have two points of contact rather than just one. This way your blade will always be gradually approaching flat but never quite getting there.

In theory the hollow back will cause the chisel to try and dive into the work. In practice this is also true but the important thing is by how much. If in the extreme case of taking a full length paring cut with the entire length of the chisel it has dived by less than 0.1 of a mm it is still within the finest cabinetmaking tolerances of flat and can therefore be treated as such.

In other words when you are cutting with it and dealing with tenths of a mm, it behaves like a perfectly flat chisel, it is only when you come to hone it and are dealing with microns, that it behaves like its hollow.

 

[graween]

Thanks guys for the info.

That makes it more clear to me.

I actually own a set of Ulmia chisels. There ok. But really far from flat, especially the hollow is quite important along the length (in th range of 0.3 to 0.5 mm) This is quite too much. I've tried in the past to get them more flat, but it's really hard..... Not to say almost impossible.

I now understand that maybe I should have tried to make the first inch flat and fine an keep the hollow as is. And the 3 of them that I've made (mostly) flat, maybe I've done wrong, because this might lead to some convexity in the time.

I'll try to see if I can afford them during fall, hoping the price will not rise up by then ...

Thanks.

 

[Mattty]

....and available immediately from a stockist if you don't fancy the wait!

Ahem...!

Cheers,

Matthew

I've just ordered a set Matthew. I would have liked the roll also but your site said out of stock. Please could you let me know when they are back in.
Thanks.

 

[big soft moose]

call me mr picky but why aren't these sharp and ready to use out of the box ?

If i paid that sort of price for a set of tools i'd expect them to be useable straight away as i'd rather be working wood rather than fettling tools

 

[Karl]

BSM - all tools require some fettling prior to use. You could spend £400 on a LN plane and the blade would still need a little work.

You could use the AI chisels as they come (I did). But to get the best performance you should invest a little time.

Cheers

Karl

 

[matthewwh]

Thanks for your order Mattty, I'll make sure that they are dispatched on Monday.

We have had a problem with tool rolls recently as the company that organised their manufacture went into administration. One of the directors has started up again on his own and we expect to have stock again towards the end of August - I'll put you on the list and pop you an email when they arrive.

It's an unusual setup, the central organisation buys the leather and has it tanned, then distributes it to a bunch of self employed people working their own hours from home. They finish them by an agreed date and the products all get collected up and shipped out to the customer. A very happy arrangement, and quite similar to the old little mesters system that operated (and still does to a limited extent) in Sheffield.

 

[Mattty]

Thanks for your order Mattty, I'll make sure that they are dispatched on Monday.

We have had a problem with tool rolls recently as the company that organised their manufacture went into administration. One of the directors has started up again on his own and we expect to have stock again towards the end of August - I'll put you on the list and pop you an email when they arrive.

It's an unusual setup, the central organisation buys the leather and has it tanned, then distributes it to a bunch of self employed people working their own hours from home. They finish them by an agreed date and the products all get collected up and shipped out to the customer. A very happy arrangement, and quite similar to the old little mesters system that operated (and still does to a limited extent) in Sheffield.

Hi Matthew,

Just a quick note to say thanks. The chisels arrived today, very well packaged and look fab. I haven't had them out yet but i'll be using them later this week. Great service.

Thanks,
Matt

 

[Modernist]

Thanks for your order Mattty, I'll make sure that they are dispatched on Monday.

We have had a problem with tool rolls recently as the company that organised their manufacture went into administration. One of the directors has started up again on his own and we expect to have stock again towards the end of August - I'll put you on the list and pop you an email when they arrive.

It's an unusual setup, the central organisation buys the leather and has it tanned, then distributes it to a bunch of self employed people working their own hours from home. They finish them by an agreed date and the products all get collected up and shipped out to the customer. A very happy arrangement, and quite similar to the old little mesters system that operated (and still does to a limited extent) in Sheffield.

"Very happy arrangement" what set of rose tinted glasses are you looking through? This is a long established system of low pay and exploitation commonly known as outworking. In any case the tanned leather is likely to corrode the steel and so should be avoided.

 

[matthewwh]

It may well have been like that in the past, but here we are in the 'naughties' with ooodles of legislation to protect workers rights. The French are probably the foremost nation among this revolution and have a welfare system that quite rightly makes it impossible for employers to get anything done without offering satisfactory compensation.

As for the tanning problem we had lab tests done last year after Alf had a problem with some dovetail chisels and they have since revised their processes. It turned out that the tanning wasn't the problem but they used an acidic solution to set the dye in the leather. Replace dye, end of problem, although I still don't recommend storing chisels in a leather, or any other kind of roll. Rolls are intended for transporting tools from place to place, the best way to store them is in a rack or on a magnetic toolbar.