Any hands on with Narex Richter chisels?

[justin sherriff]

Has any one here get there hands on the new Narex richter chisels with cryogenic treated Cr-V steel?
I like the look of them but wonder how they feel in hand.
https://www.narextools.cz/en/bevel-edge-chisel-richter-8150

[Eric Danstrom]

They look nice. They're on Amazon; $180 for a set of five or about half the price of Veritas/LN....

[justin sherriff]

I pulled the trigger and placed a order for the 1/8 chisel.

[Frederick Skelly]

I pulled the trigger and placed a order for the 1/8 chisel.

I have that 1/8" Richter. It's fine and does what I need it to do. Let us know what you think after you get yours!

[justin sherriff]

I have not got a chance to use the new 1/8 chisel much yet.
First impression are good. Took 4 to 5 minutes of work to flatten the back and put on a nice sharp edge.
I like the balance and how light the handle is. Will have to give it some time to see how the edge holds up.

[ken hatch]

Sounds like Narex has figured out selling the sizzle is easier than selling the steak. The chisels have a more comfortable looking handle than some of the Narex chisels but it is made of Ash. Ash is a good wood, in fact some of my beloved Marples chisels have ash handles but Ash has its limits. Narex makes a chisel with a nice Hornbeam handle and a set of 4 is ~$60USD. Hornbeam is one of the few handles you can use a metal hammer on with no problem, Ash not so much. BTW, if you removed the 1" chisel from the 5 piece set the price is still well over $100 USD. I have serious doubts there is any difference in the steel of the chisels.

I have a set of Narex firmer chisels with the clunky Hornbeam handles I use to chop mortises. They are as ugly as sin but work great with using a metal hammer which is less fatiguing than using a softer headed hammer.

ken

[Tony Zaffuto]

I bought a 3/8" Richter, from Highland Hardware, earlier this year. It is nicely finished, with the back nearly flat, taking five or ten minutes to finish. The bevel was polished to razor sharp, easily paring pine end grain. I had four drawers I dovetailed last week, with half-blind on the front and through on the back. Front wood was cherry, rest was pine. The chisels worked well in the cherry, with good edge retention. I only use a "Wood is Good" mallet, and the handles were no less for the wear.

The big question, would I buy again? Yes, but only maybe a 5/8" size! The chisels are as good, if not better, than others in the price range of $35 each. They are very handome chisels, also!

[Eric Danstrom]

Sounds like Narex has figured out selling the sizzle is easier than selling the steak...I have serious doubts there is any difference in the steel of the chisels.

ken

RICHTER



forged from high quality Cr-V steel

cryogenically treated and tempered to at least 62 HRc
fine ground and polished
ultra-thin sides for reaching into tight spaces
domestic ash hardwood
sanded and polished
solid stainless steel ferrule

leather washer


Bevel Edge Chisel PREMIUM



forged from highly alloyed Cr-Mn steel

heat treated up to 59 HRc
fully ground and sharpened
thin sides for sidewall clearance
ergonomic with round cross-section
stained hornbeam wood
brass ferrule

[Mike Tekin]

Has any one here get there hands on the new Narex richter chisels with cryogenic treated Cr-V steel?
I like the look of them but wonder how they feel in hand.
https://www.narextools.cz/en/bevel-edge-chisel-richter-8150


I have the 1/4, 1/2, and 3/4 sizes to compliment my other size Lie Nielsen and Veritas PM-V11 chisels. Do not pay attention to other posters who don't own these chisels/they don't know what they are talking about...the finish/quality control is on par with my Veritas and Lie Nielsen's. The other Narex chisels are not even close to the finish and quality/workmanship Narex put into these.

Edge retention/cosmetics/balance/feel, you name it is is definitely better than the clunky traditional Narex and even the one Ashley Isle I tried and sold.

In North American hard woods, I could have easily been as happy with them as with my Veritas and Lie Nielsen, but this is my subjective/non-scientific opinion. These are a steal @ 1/3 the price of the Veritas PM-V11. In the picture, below I have the 1/2" sizes in the Richter, Veritas, and Lie Nielsen. Also, note, regarding feel in the hand, I have big hands (wear XL gloves) and they feel great. Also, chisels are all about feel and they may not feel the same to another woodworker;).

Mathew @ Workshop Heaven, who has a heck of a lot more knowledge on tools than I do describes them the best:

"Named after the founder of Narex Bystrice, Vaclav Richter, and launched to celebrate the centenery of his company, these superb bevel edged chisels bring Narex's signature blend of high quality and low price through clever engineering to the super premium end of the chisel market.
Made from a new type of steel alloyed with chromium for hardenability and vanadium for grain reduction and enhanced toughness, the steel is heat treated using a cryogenic process to maximise the formation of the desirable martensite crystalline microstructure in the finished steel. In laymans terms, it's proven technology mastered to the extent that it can compete with the latest powder metallurgy steels for performance, but at a much keener price point.
In use, the new Narex steel has slightly less stone drag than Narex's familiar CrMn (which is one of the nicest of all steels to sharpen) so it's pretty close to O1 and PMV11 for ease of sharpening. Edge taking is up there with the very best of them - going through the extra grades really pays dividends. But the biggest change is absolutely astonishing edge retention, this stuff takes absolutely ages to show even the slightest hint of dulling and can be brought back to mouthwatering sharpness in moments.
The fine grinding is so good it's almost a polish - on all surfaces, but crucially it is still a ground surface so there is no undesirable rounding off of the underside of the edges, they are optically flat so I would recommend doing as little as possible to them in preparation and maintainance. The edges are as fine as hand ground chisels, barely there at all, making them suitable for the finest precision joinery.
The chisels are fitted with traditional pattern handles from Mr Richter's time, made from ash for lightness and strength, extremely smoothly finished and secured with a splitproof ground steel ferrule bearing the Richter logo and smartly trimmed with a thin leather bolster. The chisels are supplied coated with a light corrosion inhibiting oil with VCI protection for each individual chisel to ensure that they reach you in perfect condition."


429697

[Marvin McConoughey]

I have the 1/8" Narex Richter. It is a fine little chisel but does not (mine at least) have tapered sides. Narex Richter vendors should make that clear to shoppers because a key publicity point about the Richter Narex chisels is the excellent tapered sides that they are said to have.

[Michael J Evans]

I have the set of Richter's and they seem like a high quality chisel to me, but I have never had another high end chisel to compare to. I went from yard sale / antique chisels to these.

I haven't taken to time to flatten the backs on mine. A quick few swipes on my diamond stone revealed they are slightly hollow on the middle which is a good thing. It only took a minute to get the working edge flattened / polished. I love the handle shape and size.

I tried to use them right out of the box for chopping dovetails (3/8") size and found the factory 25 degree bevel chipped easily. I moved them up to a 30* and have had no issues since.

The sides (lands?) Seem very narrow to me, but once again my old chisels were vintage / antique chisels which were not a set. Basically just whatever I found.

I would of never dropped that kinda cash on chisels myself (because I'm a tinkerer at best) but the wife really wanted to get me something nice for father's day.

one other point that seems to be a big deal to a lot of people here. Is that they did not have any weird anti corrosive stuff on them (cosmoline), that I had to work to get off. I believe they have some kind of plating on them, but I'm not sure why you'd want to remove it.

overall I'm very happy with the set and likely will never get another set in my lifetime. They seem very well made the edge retention seems good enough to me and they are very well finished.

[Tim Best]

I ordered a 1/2" Narex Richter chisel out of curiosity, comparison purposes, and because I do not think I can have too many chisels. Overall, the chisel seems like a good one for the price ~$35. The back was close to flat out of the box, with a slight hollow in the middle. It took about 10-15 mins to flatten the back and hone the cutting edge. Once sharpened to the extent of my abilities, it pared SYP end grain with little force. In comparison to the Narex "premium" chisels of which I own a couple, the Richter chisel seemed to take an edge more quickly, but time difference seemed minimal. Time will tell if the edge holds up. Also, in comparison to the premium line, the lands on the Richter chisel are considerably more narrow/thin. I like the handle shape on both the Richter and premium chisels. I know it is subjective but it just fits my hand well. The ash handle on the Richter chisel is heavier than than the hornbeam used on the premium chisel, but still feels right (whatever that means) in my hand.

[Jon Barnett]

I just received a full set from Lee Valley (I have an OCD problem when it comes to sets of things.....). I haven't had a chance to use them on dovetails yet. I did some initial flattening of the backs on my Hard Arkansas stone. All of the chisels appear to have a hollow that starts about 1/4" +/- back from the edge. I didn't bother going further, as that 1/4" should last me many years of use.

However, IIRC, the 1 - 1/2" chisel did have a hollow in the centre of the blade right at the edge. I took most of it out, but didn't go crazy. I always lap the back of my chisels when sharpening anyway, so figure it will become flat in time.

The handles are very comfortable and nicely finished, although lathe sanding marks do show. The handles are all the same size. After reading a FWW article many years ago by Mario Rodriguez, I have re-handled many of my own tools. For chisels, I really like to graduate the handle sizes for the set. This seems intuitive to me, so the Richters are a little different from most of my other sets.

As noted the 1/8" chisel is not beveled, unlike my Sorby London pattern 1/8" bench chisel, which was a surprise. I also found the backside edges of the lands appear to be very slightly rounded or eased. I will have to see how this affects the ability to make a very clean cut at a 90 degree corner.

The set of 7 cost me approx 48% vs the PM-VII LV chisel set of seven (in Canadian funds).

The handles are ash, as are Sorby's Registered Chisel set, admittedly hooped on the Sorbys. I'll see how they work out for chopping dovetails with a wooden mallet.

I have too many chisel sets, mortise, Registered, bench, skew, etc. I just could not justify the PM-VIIs for the amount of use they would get, so I figured the Richters were a better value. Plus I really wanted a set with very thin lands for dovetail work.

[Alan Schwabacher]

Choices in chisels are idiosyncratic. But James Wright (Wood by Wright on youtube) did an extensive test of 18 different types of chisels, including the premium brands he could obtain. His conclusion was that the Narex Richter were top overall, but the other Narex were only mediocre. He put his data into a spreadsheet: you can vary the weights of different criteria so the ratings better match your preferences.

[Thomas Wilson]

Choices in chisels are idiosyncratic. But James Wright (Wood by Wright on youtube) did an extensive test of 18 different types of chisels, including the premium brands he could obtain. His conclusion was that the Narex Richter were top overall, but the other Narex were only mediocre. He put his data into a spreadsheet: you can vary the weights of different criteria so the ratings better match your preferences.

I bought a set of Narex Richter chisels based on James Wright’s work. I haven’t used them yet so I can’t offer a review. James Wright’s work evaluating them is excellent.

[Brian Biela]

I'm fairly new and building out my tools, I decided to try different makes to see what I preferred. I started with a Lie-Nelson, a Veritas and an original Narex. I hated that Narex. After watching the James Wright video I decided to try a Richter. I like it, its very similar to the Lie-Nelson. I did take longer to flatten the back, maybe 15 minutes or so. The Lie-Nelson is probably my favorite but IMHO its not 2x better. For whatever its worth, on my Christmas list are the remaining Richter chisels to round out my collection.

[Christopher Wellington]

I'm bumping this thread with a question about the back flatness on these Richters. I've read several comments across various sites that the backs are flat or nearly flat out of the box, and that they only took a few minutes to prepare.

I bought a 1/2" a couple of weeks ago and found that not to be the case at all. The back was smooth and shiny (apparently buffed at the factory), but not flat. It had a significant hollow that took several hours to remove. I have it flat and mirror polished now, and it's a very nice chisel, but for the amount of work I put in it probably would have made more sense to buy a Veritas or L-N.

So I'm wondering, when folks say that the back of a chisel is flat or nearly flat out of the box, are they normally referring to (most of) the entire back, or just the first inch or so behind the edge? This Richter did get flat for the first half inch within a few minutes (it was hollow, not bellied) and I guess I could have stopped there, but I like to have the whole back flat. Maybe I'm just a glutton for punishment.

[George Yetka]

I have the skew chisels. but haven't used them yet

[Brian Ward]

So I'm wondering, when folks say that the back of a chisel is flat or nearly flat out of the box, are they normally referring to (most of) the entire back, or just the first inch or so behind the edge? This Richter did get flat for the first half inch within a few minutes (it was hollow, not bellied) and I guess I could have stopped there, but I like to have the whole back flat. Maybe I'm just a glutton for punishment.

They mean only a little bit behind the edge. A hollow is considered a good feature. It saves you a ton of time in sharpening, both initially and incrementally. Only the area next to the cutting edge is important for work. The rest is metal that the user of the tool is free to ignore as long as it's not bellied or corroded.

[Christopher Wellington]

Okay, that makes sense.

And I think the 1/2" I got was a particularly bad one. An 1/8", 1/4", and 3/4" came in the mail today and they're all much more flat than the 1/2". I should be able to get the rest of them flattened all the way back (gratuitous, I know) in less total time than I spent on the first one.

[chris carter]

I have a 1/2" one. It has a slight hollow that I ignore. I only flatten the pointy end of the back. I always considered a slight hollow to be ideal. In theory, if the entire back of your chisel is flat, then when you sharpen and flip to the back side you would have to do the entire back. Otherwise, over time if you only do the first half inch or inch or so, then you will eventually create a belly which would be bad.

[Christopher Glanton]

It took me over 45 mins to flatten a 1/4" Narex using 300 grit 3M sandpaper on glass. I dread doing my 1' LOL

[Warren Mickley]

It took me over 45 mins to flatten a 1/4" Narex using 300 grit 3M sandpaper on glass. I dread doing my 1' LOL

I have used one 1/4 inch chisel for over fifty years. It is the only 1/4 inch chisel I have ever owned. It has been sharpened so many times that at one point I put on a longer handle to bring it back up to an optimum length. For a tool you are really going to use, an hour of preparation is peanuts.

There are guys who are on their seventh set of chisels in the last ten years or something. For them preparation time is much more important: they are on to the next chisel before the work on the back has become a distant memory.

[Bill Carey]

I have the Narex Premium bench set, the 1/4" skew chisel set, 2 dovetail chisels and the mortise set. Very happy with all of them. So much so that I sold the Ashley Isles dovetail chisels. A few of the backs were poor, most were nearly ok, and a couple needed nothing. I think they are well worth the money.

[John Keeton]

I would think the main purpose of flattening the back is to provide an opportunity to have a straight edge. Otherwise, one ends up with either a “bowed” edge side to side, or a cupped edge. Flattening more than necessary to accomplish that is unnecessary in my opinion. And, a half inch of “flat” would last most of us a long time.

I know the question is about the Richters, but I also have the premium Narex and they are excellent.

[Christopher Wellington]

The back of the chisel also serves as a referenced surface in use, but I'm skeptical whether a hollow of a few thousandths really matters for that.

[Jim Koepke]

I have used one 1/4 inch chisel for over fifty years. It is the only 1/4 inch chisel I have ever owned. It has been sharpened so many times that at one point I put on a longer handle to bring it back up to an optimum length. For a tool you are really going to use, an hour of preparation is peanuts.

There are guys who are on their seventh set of chisels in the last ten years or something. For them preparation time is much more important: they are on to the next chisel before the work on the back has become a distant memory.

My 1/4" chisels are not confined to just one. There are a few for paring, one or two for mortising and a few for various other uses. For most of my needs there are at least four chisels of the common sizes in 1/4" increments.

Though what Warren says makes sense to me. Some folks take their chisels to the grinder every other time they need sharpening. For me a flat bevel avoids regular grinding. Most of my chisels have only had the bevel ground once in their years of use and sharpening.

My most heavily used chisels may be ground when the bevel starts to become rounded from sloppy freehand sharpening. That hasn't happened much in the past few years.

jtk