Reply To: Any experience with Narex chisels?
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Hello,
I’ve got a set of standard chisels from the Narex Wood Line Profi and a set of butt chisels from the Narex Wood Line Plus.
The Wood Line Profi are the replacement for the cheap Aldi-like chisels I tried before. They come with a nicely shaped handle, the varnishing is well made. One chisel got a very slight belly on the back side of the iron, the other ones are flat or very, very slightly hollow – nothing to complain about, imho. The steel shows much better edge retention than the cheap chisels I used before. Overall: very good performance for the money.
The Wood Line Plus chisels come with a flat back on the handle to prevent rolling around. Nice idea, but may feel a bit uncomfortable in the palm of the hand when working bevel down. The standard size Wood Line Plus chisels apparently come with round handles. All irons are flat (enough) on the back side. Until now I didn’t use the butt chisels for mortising, so I can’t say more than “the edge retention isn’t bad”.
Las year I visited the “Fine Tools” shop in Berlin and they sold me a dropped down 20mm wide chisel from the MHG Premium line for a reduced price. In comparision with the Narex chisels, the MHG is definitely a step up in material, workmanship and edge retention – at a higher price.
MHG also offers a “standard line” with a price tag slightly above the Narex Wood Line Profi chisels, but I’ve got no experiences yet.
On tight budget the Narex Wood Line Profi chisels are a good choice, imho.
For the future I’ll go for the MHG premium chisels: reasonable price, very good quality and made in Europe (Thuringia/Germany, to be exact 😉 ).
Ymmv,
E.