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Posted 20 hours ago

Narex Richter Bevel Edge Chisel Set of 5

£9.9£99Clearance
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About this deal

You can read my comparison of Narex and Stanley Sweetheart chisels for better understanding as well! Personally I find FWW still the benchmark for detailed, meaningful and usually well-supported WW information. It does have a touch of the PR-advert blurbs here and there but generally this can be easily spotted and winnowed from the extensive good crop of high quality guidance and advice.

Ash hardwood handles have solid stainless steel ferrules and leather washers. Individual chisels are supplied with plastic edge protectors. Sadly, after a few months of usage, they’d start to blur and eventually succumb to rust. Then, you’ll have to go chisel hunting again- that’s exhausting! Generally, the fit and finish of the Narex Richter chisel are good. However, when we compared it with some other blades in its class, we noticed that the finishing needed more work. The Chrome Manganese steel isn’t the only remarkable feature of this chisel. After the manufacturers created the blade, they also cryogenically treated it to increase its wear and tear resistance.

Handles

Combining premium materials with skilled workmanship, these are well-made chisels. The blades are made of chrome-vanadium steel, hardened to Rc61-63 and cryogenically treated to toughen the steel without making it brittle. They will take and hold a fine edge. But all my Narex chisels are of the standard steel, main-range kind, not the Richters. I did look at Richters but came to the conclusion that, although they do have a better overall finish (polished handles, mainly) and a slightly different steel, they don't offer any meaningful advantage over Narex standard fare - which is already extremely good, especially for so little money.

The handle is made of European ash, an excellent choice for this purpose because of its hardness, toughness and beautiful grain. The handle has an ergonomic shape and is ground to a fine finish. A stainless steel ferrule prevents the handle from splitting and there is a leather disk to dampen hammer blows. The largest diameter of the handle for all chisel sizes is 31 to 32 mm. BladewidthI think the fact that you use your chisels every day is a large factor in keeping them rust free, specifically the oils from your skin. But, respectfully, for those of us who don’t use our tools every day 🙂 using them once then putting them away for a week or 2 pretty much guarantees rust. I’ve found wiping them after use doesn’t always help and is sometimes impractical. The metal polish is the only way I’ve found to prevent this. Simply my 2 cents. These features aren’t that big of a deal. In fact, we only noticed them when we tried to compare them with other chisels in its class. The supplied edge guard should always be used when chisels are not in use to prevent dam- age to the sharp cutting edge and for user protection. Our RICHTER chisel box is perfect for safe storage; however, tool rolls are also available. As with any kind of tool steel, the blades can rust when unprotected. Always protect the blades from rust with oil, wax or other corrosion inhibitors. Lifetime guarantee Another point of view is that as woodworkers we hope that people appreciate out hand-made creations and the effort that has gone into the work. In some cases machine made dovetails in items from the Far East will be more precise than mine, but mine are hand cut and that counts for something – I hope. In the same respect, I like to buy hand-made tools. i can aford them in small number and I love to use them because I know a guy from, for example, Ashley Iles (who have been mentioned here) ground them by hand. If we only promote cheap mass-produced items then why do we bother doing woodwork at all when it can be churned out by machines – is there any value in hand-made? I find it quite depressing when I shop for tools in large stores to find that its nearly all cheap and mass produced, and i’d argue a lot is rubbish and won’t last a lifetime at all (so I don’t buy it). In addition to all this, buying the likes of Ashley Iles and Clifton planes supports local craftsmen, when the craft has largely died out. If we as craftsmen don’t see the value in the crafft of toolmaking, why should we expect others to value our craft of woodwork? I can only say this much as a maker of tools (not for sale, an amateur maker) - you can fairly easily make tools and see all of these differences in play as a spec. 62/63 hardness is barely sharpenable on oilstones, but still sharpenable, and on plainer steel, the wire edge falls off more easily. 59 hardness in the more mediocre line will lead to a more persistent wire edge.

These honing guides may be worth considering, especially if you use sandpaper on glass or diamond plates A key feature to these chisels is their side bevels, which taper to a very fine edge, making them ideal for reaching into confined spaces and angled corners, like those common in dovetailing. But the edges aren’t so sharp they slice you; rather, they’re polished and softened. That leather ring on the Richters (and on no other Narex chisel) seems to be part of the pretty-look marketing. However, there is blurb that claims the steel is significantly better as well; and is comparable to Veritas PM-V11 for both resilience and ease of sharpening.

Of course, the Narex Ritcher chisel feels like a perfect chisel. While it mostly is, we noticed some features that surely could use improvement. Pretty much anything on 60-63 hardness would cause indifference from most experienced woodworkers who use a lot of hand tools, and the feel of the chisel and other aspects would be more important than anything else. If you work with a set of chisels long enough, you should be able to learn to accommodate them so that they don't take damage while you're working. The issue with mediocre chisels is that sometimes the accommodation makes a chisel undesirable to use. To mark the hundredth anniversary of Narex, the company launched a new chisel series named after the company’s founder, Vaclav Richter. These chisels are a real credit to this anniversary. When shopping for the right chisel for your woodworking applications, you could easily invest in the wrong chisel set. The process used to make the original narex chisels is different from typical, and they have a hardness ceiling and are usable chisels but are mediocre.

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