Surprisingly decent cheap chisels
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- This topic has 7 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 11 months ago by STEVE MASSIE.
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So I stumbled over this cheap Chisel Set on ebay look for some planes. Figure at 16.50 the worst I get is some practice sharping chisels and a loaner set. Well, just got the in today, and the first surprise was a good 25 degree bevel on every one, the second surprise is everyone of them is near dead flat on the back.
The first bad point I see on them is the finish really coarse which means there is fine/xtra fine polishing that needs to be done over the entire chisel. More to come as test them out on my bench.
Not rust, just never had the coarse grind polished off, and the protective coat is sticky so attracts everything. Real job has delayed getting them properly edged and tested. but that is a concern. If they are to soft, I will hand them over to buddy, the blacksmith, and see if he can temper them for me.
Try the old reliable hardness test of running a fine file across one of the bevels. If it doesn’t cut the metal (skates off), you haven’t got anything to worry about. If it does cut into the chisel then its too soft anyway and you will have to harden the chisels first (if they will harden at all), before you get to temper them! You would assume that the manufacturer has already tried to harden them, so if you are forced to reharden them you might start to wonder if the steel was hardenable in the first place – if not you have got yourself a set of sharp screwdrivers!!
Cheers
Mark21 April 2016 at 10:09 pm #136578Well, that’s unfortunate. But I guess it’s sort of predictable. If they used good steel and processed them as they should to get proper hardness, they probably couldn’t sell them for cheap.
27 April 2016 at 9:18 pm #136760Surprisingly the Aldi Chisels are very good, I was able to buy a set after Paul commented on them. If I recall they were like 7 or $8 for aset of 4. The handles need a litle work kinda of uncomfortable for me but for the money you can’t go wrong. I have many old chisels like Marples, Swan, Weatherby etc. which are really nice, hard to beat the old steel.
Steve
- This reply was modified 7 years, 11 months ago by STEVE MASSIE.
- This reply was modified 7 years, 11 months ago by STEVE MASSIE.
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