Opinions on the NEW Stanley 750 chisels

[Daniel Rode]

I have a credit that I can use with Amazon and I've been considering spending it on a set of the new Stanley "sweetheart" 750 socket chisels. I realize that these are not the same quality as LN. I've been happily using Maprles blue chips for some time. If money were no object, I'd buy the LN. As a hobby woodworker, I doubt I will see any practical difference. But in this case, I'd be buying a set just because I'd enjoy the look and feel.

The credit is specific to Amazon and so I'm limited to their offerings, so AI chisels or 1/2 set of LN is not an option. It's probably the 750s or nothing.

I like the handle shape. Without actually using one I think the shape of the handles would fit my hand well. Being slightly more bulbous than the LN, I think they may be a better fit. I can't really gauge the weight an balance. They are lighter and slight thinner that the LN but I'm not sure how that compares to chisels I've actually used.

From what I could dig up, the common report is that they come reasonably flat often with a slight concave face. So setup will be more than LN but probably far less than I'm accustomed to.

I'll be using them as standard bench chisels to chop dovetails, pare shoulders and even chop mortises, etc; a general purpose workhorse set.

I'd be really interested to hear from anyone who's used these.

[ken hatch]

Dan,

I have the new 750's and use them often. There are many different makes of chisels, mostly O-1 or Japanese, in my racks. When I need to do a rough job like chopping waste they are my go to chisel. If I'm showing someone how to use a chisel same story. The 750s have a good feel and are near indestructible. Not often I can say this about new Stanley tools but the chisels are a good value.

ken

[John Sanford]

I have a credit that I can use with Amazon and I've been considering spending it on a set of the new Stanley "sweetheart" 750 socket chisels. I realize that these are not the same quality as LN. I've been happily using Maprles blue chips for some time. If money were no object, I'd buy the LN. As a hobby woodworker, I doubt I will see any practical difference. But in this case, I'd be buying a set just because I'd enjoy the look and feel.

The credit is specific to Amazon and so I'm limited to their offerings, so AI chisels or 1/2 set of LN is not an option. It's probably the 750s or nothing.

I like the handle shape. Without actually using one I think the shape of the handles would fit my hand well. Being slightly more bulbous than the LN, I think they may be a better fit. I can't really gauge the weight an balance. They are lighter and slight thinner that the LN but I'm not sure how that compares to chisels I've actually used.

From what I could dig up, the common report is that they come reasonably flat often with a slight concave face. So setup will be more than LN but probably far less than I'm accustomed to.

I'll be using them as standard bench chisels to chop dovetails, pare shoulders and even chop mortises, etc; a general purpose workhorse set.

I'd be really interested to hear from anyone who's used these.

My primary chisels for the longest time was a set of Footprints that, aside from having red handles, look nearly identical to the blue Marples. I picked up a 1/2" new 750 to compare, and I do like the 750. It is a fair bit lighter and daintier in hand than the Footprint.

[Tony Zaffuto]

I have a few of the new Stanley chisels and I like them. I am able to put a nice edge on them and the edges seem to last as long as the LN A2 chisels I also have (not sure what the steel is in the Stanley). IMO, for the wood I work (cherry, walnut, poplar, white oak) the chisels do fine. If you're putzing around with something exotic or harder, then you may want to try another make.

I have to add that I have a very large number of chisels-antique, vintage and modern. For a modern chisel, at the price of the Stanley, I feel they're well worth the price.

[Kelly Cleveland]

I have been satisfied with mine, but they required a lot of work to get the backs flat. Two out of the five chisels I purchased had convex backs, overall the entire set took about six hours to get into shape. If you value your time the Lie Nielsen is worth the extra cost. That said, they feel good in the hand, keep a good edge and have held up very well to hard mallet blows.

[Daniel Rode]

It's good to hear from people that I know actually use their chisels :) The experiences so far mirror what I've read elsewhere. Solid worker chisels but not the same OOB quality level as LN. LN sets the bar high but the cost of the Stanleys make them attractive.

The convex faces are bad. They are much more difficult to flatten and take much longer. I've done more than my share. That said, @ $20/chisel, I can afford to get the coarse stone I've had on my list for a while and still be less than half the cost of LN.

[Daniel Rode]

My primary chisels for the longest time was a set of Footprints that, aside from having red handles, look nearly identical to the blue Marples. I picked up a 1/2" new 750 to compare, and I do like the 750. It is a fair bit lighter and daintier in hand than the Footprint.

I am surprised to hear that they feel "light and dainty" compared to the footprints/bluechips. This is what I hoped but it's hard to tell from pictures.

[Jim Koepke]

It's good to hear from people that I know actually use their chisels :) The experiences so far mirror what I've read elsewhere. Solid worker chisels but not the same OOB quality level as LN. LN sets the bar high but the cost of the Stanleys make them attractive.

The convex faces are bad. They are much more difficult to flatten and take much longer. I've done more than my share. That said, @ $20/chisel, I can afford to get the coarse stone I've had on my list for a while and still be less than half the cost of LN.

Daniel,

My experience with removing a convex face is abrasive paper works better than a coarse stone. With the paper it is possible to cut a narrow strip to work just the high area. With a stone, there is a tendency for the blade to not always be perfectly flat. This can remove material from unwanted areas.

Constant checking is important. A few strokes on the abrasive then measure until you get a feel for how much material is being removed.

jtk

[Tony Zaffuto]

Backs of mine were not bad at all-worse part was the original pretty coarse grind on one of them. But as Jim said, sandpaper, not stones, does a good job with them.

[Daniel Rode]

Thanks Jim. I've used abrasive paper on glass to flatten chisel faces and have not liked the results. Perhaps it's something with my technique but I end up creating a convex bevel and a small low spot at the edge. I remove it using my diamond stones but it makes more work. For whatever reason, I can keep everything nice and flat on the diamond stones but not the sandpaper on glass.

[Mike Brady]

The new Stanleys are a rather light-weight tool. The two that I have are average in edge retention. To me they represent the bottom of the acceptable range in chisels that can be purchased today. I would put them there along with Narex and the chisels from the Aldi grocery chain which were available for a short time recently in the States. Vintage chisels would be next higher on that scale. Vintage is a great way to go if you have access to them and some skills to reburbish steel and turn handles. At the top of the ladder are the LN's, Blue Spruce, and the PMV-11 chisels from Lee Valley. To me, the Stanley 750's are a bit pricey for the quality they represent. All just my opinion, of course.

[Dave Anderson NH]

Dan, I've no comment on the Stanley chisels since I've never used themhj. For flattening and to help give you a reference of how you're doing darken the back of the chisel with either Dykem (machinist's ink) or a magic marker. It will graphically tell you exactly where you are removing steel. Reapply as necessary.

[Daniel Rode]

Thanks for a great tip, Dave. Someone gave me the same advice a few years ago and it's a big help. I prefer blue or red Sharpie, but I imagine any magic marker will do the trick.

I bought the 8 piece Stanley 750 set yesterday, so I'll need it :)

[Daniel Rode]

Mike,

I understand what you're saying, but I'm not sure I agree. I paid $164 for the set of 8. That's about $20.50 per chisel. It's more than a Narex set, but not by much and 1/3 the cost of LN. The light-weight aspect is, for me, a positive. As for edge retention, I've heard reports from average to very good. I can live with that. I re-hone often anyway.

[Brian Holcombe]

I get dubbing at the edges with sandpaper/granite. It's fine, but that means the initial leap to a stone is going to a good deal of work, but still less work than doing all of it on the stone.

My progression now is 150 and 220 on granite, then 400 on diamonds, then move to whetstones.

Before proceeding with rough grit, sometimes it's wise polish it slightly on a finer grit (1000) just to see where the blade is out. If something will cleanup on a 1000 grit stone with ease, I dont start at 150.

[Daniel Rode]

I get dubbing at the edges with sandpaper/granite. It's fine, but that means the initial leap to a stone is going to a good deal of work, but still less work than doing all of it on the stone.

That's pretty much my experience with sandpaper. Removing the dubbing takes a lot of time and effort.

The x-coarse stone replaces the 220 sandpaper step for me. I have diamond stones up to 5k from there. If It's really bad, I can start with 120/150 grit paper but otherwise stick to stones.

[Brian Holcombe]

x-coarse diamonds, whats the make? I've been kicking around the idea of getting one by Eze-lap.

[Thomas Schneider]

I've had the eight piece set for about 6 months now and i'm mostly happy with them. The backs took some work to flatten but nothing too crazy. The heavy grind marks on the bevel and lacquer were both a pain in the arse to clean up! I don't know why but I had a really hard time cutting through the protective lacquer, even going so far as to soak some of the chisels in lacquer thinner over night! Once that was taken care of I sharpened them on my Tormek @ 30 deg (the angle they were ground to at the factory) and honed them on the leather power strop. They took a nice sharp edge without too much work, shaving pine end grain well. The set-up was not unlike the experience I had with my set of Ashley Iles chisels (minus the Lacquer issue). The problems I have is that I feel the edge folds too easily and two of the handles have developed very tight splits going down the length of the handle. One of the splits I can feel with my fingernail the other one I can see but I can't feel at all. Now let me say up front that I don't baby these Stanley chisels, I didn't buy them to be parring chisels (that's what the Ashley Iles are for) so they're no strangers to the mallet (albeit a wooden mallet). I'm not sure the splits are a result of being hit or not, maybe they would have split anyway, I don't know, but split they did. I have continued to use them for the uses I purchased them for such as chopping out dovetails and the occasional light mortice work and they have not gotten any worse. As far as the edge rolling over goes, I had the same problem with the A.I. chisels and someone in a forum said to wait a couple of sharpenings and then see if it continues, The reason being the steal would be better a fraction of and inch up on the blade. That didn't make a lot of sense to me then and to be honest I don't quite understand it still, but that's exactly what happened. So I will give the new Stanley 750's the same grace period and see what happens. Right now as they stand I would give them a 7 out of 10. I think they're a good value and feel the edge will get better but I'm worried about the handles. I know this it too late for the OP as he has already ordered a set. But maybe someone else is looking into these as well. Dan, I would love to hear your thoughts on them!

ps Does anyone know if Stanley sells replacement handles for these chisels?

Tom.

[Daniel Rode]

x-coarse diamonds, whats the make? I've been kicking around the idea of getting one by Eze-lap.
I bought a DMT Diamond plate. I've been using their other plates for a while with good success. The 8" DMT plate is under $50.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

As far as the edge rolling over goes, I had the same problem with the A.I. chisels and someone in a forum said to wait a couple of sharpenings and then see if it continues, The reason being the steal would be better a fraction of and inch up on the blade. That didn't make a lot of sense to me then and to be honest I don't quite understand it still, but that's exactly what happened.

I believe that the thought process is that there may have been an issue with the temper near the edge either because it is near the edge or because things were over-heated while grinding. You wear it in a wee bit and then you are into the middle portion that was more uniform.

As for the chisel handles, I have seen some posts here about people that make their own.

I have heard it said that the Lie Nielsen handle will fit these, and you can purchase these

https://www.lie-nielsen.com/nodes/4101/chisel-handles

This seller on ebay (the link is to the seller, not something that he sells) has replacement handles that are considered good

http://www.ebay.com/usr/alpetoyo33?rmvSB=true

When I last checked, he was selling a set with the following description: Socket Chisel Wood Handle Lot of 6 Red Oak 5 1/4"long

I noticed that these had leather on the top portion. Not sure if I would have chosen red oak, but the set he had looked nice.

[Tom Stenzel]

When I bought a new England made Stanley 78 plane a few years back, the lacquer on the iron came right off with isopropyl alcohol. Would it be likely the coating on the 750s could be that different?

-Tom

[Tony Zaffuto]

I, too, found the coating on the 750's I bought tough to remove: my trick was to "rough" it up a bit with sandpaper and then the lacquer thinner did a quicker job of removing it.

[ken hatch]

x-coarse diamonds, whats the make? I've been kicking around the idea of getting one by Eze-lap.

Brian,

Eze-lap makes a 250 grit stone, IIRC the DMT XX Course is about 120 grit. I have both, the Eze-lap gets used more than the DMT mostly because the DMT's deep scratches are hard to remove.

ken

[Brian Holcombe]

Thanks Ken!

[Robert Engel]

I bought one 1/2" 750 just to try it.
My impressions take it FWIW:

1. The back was not as flat as I expected. Took quite a bit of work to flatten it, even more than the Narex set.
2. The edge doesn't seem to hold as well as I expected.
3. The chisel is quite light in weight (something that maybe a factor to you).
4. If you have larger sized hands, the handle may be on the small side for you.
5. The side bevel height is higher even than the Narex. Very important if you're doing dove tails.

My suggestion is don't buy a set just buy a 3/8 or 1/2" chisel and try it out.
If you get the set, you can always grind them at 25 degrees for paring softwood.

[lowell holmes]

[QUOTE=Robert Engel;2451259]I bought one 1/2" 750 just to try it.
My impressions take it FWIW:

1. The back was not as flat as I expected. Took quite a bit of work to flatten it, even more than the Narex set.
2. The edge doesn't seem to hold as well as I expected.
3. The chisel is quite light in weight (something that maybe a factor to you).
4. If you have larger sized hands, the handle may be on the small side for you.

I have a collection of antique Stanley 720's and 750's. I find the four observations you made about the modern chisels to be the case with the antique chisels.
I still favor them unless I have one in my hand that the steel is not up to par.