Cr-V in chisels

[Andrew Williams]

I was working up in Rochester today and went early so I could stop by Woodcraft (no woodworking stores exist within 2 hours of my home for some reason). I checked out the "sale" chisel set by Pfeil. They certainly looked nice, but seemed a bit shiny in a sort of Stanley Handyman way. Upon further examination I saw that the enclosed brochures indicated their steel as Chrome Vanadium. No indication of the exact percentages of either element was given, but my assumption was that it was a high enough percentage to call the stuff "Chrome Vanadium". On this basis I did not buy the chisel set. they were very sharp though. Do you think they would have been able to hold that edge as long as high carbon steel?

[Mike Henderson]

Very little steel used in tools today is plain old carbon steel - most of it is an alloy of carbon, iron and other elements that improve one or more characteristic of the steel. Chrome and vanadium are common elements in alloy steel used for tools. I'm not an expert in metallurgy but I think chrome is added to reduce corrosion and vanadium is added to increase toughness.

Pfeil is an excellent brand and I've never heard of any low end tools made by them. If the price was right, I would not be afraid to buy a set of Pfeil chisels.

Mike

[James Owen]

I was working up in Rochester today and went early so I could stop by Woodcraft (no woodworking stores exist within 2 hours of my home for some reason). I checked out the "sale" chisel set by Pfeil. They certainly looked nice, but seemed a bit shiny in a sort of Stanley Handyman way. Upon further examination I saw that the enclosed brochures indicated their steel as Chrome Vanadium. No indication of the exact percentages of either element was given, but my assumption was that it was a high enough percentage to call the stuff "Chrome Vanadium". On this basis I did not buy the chisel set. they were very sharp though. Do you think they would have been able to hold that edge as long as high carbon steel?

Andrew,

My experience with Pfeil bench chisels, as well as a good number of their carving tools, has been uniformly satisfactory. The quality and workmanship on all has been excellent, and they hold an edge very well. If you decide to go back and buy them, I suspect that you will be very happy with them.

For other comments on Pfeil, take a look at this thread:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?p=568349#poststop