My Narex chisels have brittle edge
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Tagged: Narex chisels
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I just purchased a set of Narex chisels. After carefully sharpening them, I got a great edge on them ( easily shaved the hair off my arm). But after about 15 minutes of cutting practice dovetails in some soft pine the edges broke off. I’ve been sharpening an old set of James Swan chisels using Paul’s method for about a year now and I’ve had no problem with them. Has anyone else had this problem with Narex chisels? I flattened the backs with a diamond stone and then used three grades of diamond stones to put the edge on them, followed by polishing on a leather with buffing compound. I used a sharpening jig to make sure I had a 30° bevel. And as I said after a few minutes in the soft pine the edge didn’t just get dull. You could see it was crinkly and broken. I would say it was poor steel, but everything I’ve read about Narex chisels has been glowing. Could I have done something wrong?
13 May 2017 at 12:07 am #311951It has to do with the cryogenic process used to harden the steel, it will take a couple sharpening’s before they stop doing that, then they stay sharp for a real long time. Lie Nielsens expensive chisel set does the same thing for the same reason, but usually after the 2nd or 3rd sharpening they stay nice and sharp
I have a set of Narex chisels from Lee Valley. They work well for the most part and I’ve sharpened them quite a bit, but they still seem soft to me. I was working with white oak and chopping the sides of a dado absolutely destroyed the edges. I was resharpening A LOT because they were nicked and deformed. I’ve never used “nicer” chisels so I don’t have anything to compare it to, but it didn’t seem normal. I was sharpening at 30 degrees and didn’t want to go higher because of some other projects I have coming up in softer wood.
16 May 2017 at 8:36 pm #312012Steve you may have a dud. Contact Lee Valley, they are usually really good about exchanges/refunds. i have had the lee valley Narex chisels for about a year now, and after sharpening 3 or 4 times real well i haven’t had a soft edge since.
[quote quote=312012]Steve you may have a dud. Contact Lee Valley, they are usually really good about exchanges/refunds. i have had the lee valley Narex chisels for about a year now, and after sharpening 3 or 4 times real well i haven’t had a soft edge since.
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I’ve had them for a while and since they aren’t one of their products I’ll just hang on to them. Maybe I’ll try taking some more steel off.
This has been my experience too, with my set of LV Narex chisels. I’ve owned them for several years, and have worn them well past the edge. I’ve kind of gotten used to it, but when chopping mortises, they just don’t hold up. This was especially clear when chopping north american white oak and also claro walnut, both pretty hard. At 30 degrees the edge rolls over and chips after say 3 to 5 blows, sometimes even just one! 35+ degrees helps but not very convincingly. Still happens, just not to the same extent of edge damage. I’m convinced Narex are on the soft side, maybe even too soft. If I had the scratch I’d probably try German chisels (Kirsch, 2cherries, etc.) or Ashley Iles. I suspect the German chisels are good hard steel, but a fully polished bench chisel can have a rounded over back thanks to the polishing process.
18 July 2017 at 12:56 pm #313816I feeel better after reading all these comments – I too recently purhased some Narex chisels and found the same issue. Good to know after some more sharpening they should be good.
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