Koymaichi Dovetail Chisels

[Graham Skinner]

Hi All.

Has any one used the Koymaichi dovetail chisels sold by Lee Valley, I am looking to buy a couple and was wondering what you guys think about them.
Or what you would recommend from other brands/makers.

Thanks for reading this Graham Skinner.

[Jim Nardi]

I've had them for 4 weeks now. Took less than 20 min's each to sharpen by hand. I took them to 8000 norton then used the 0.5 micron paper. The size and balance is very good. Not hard on the fingers at all. Well I haven't had to resharpen any of them yet and I chopped about 6 dovetails in cherry with each chisel. I asked for them just for dovetails. One selling feature for me was the preseated hoops. No other japanese chisels to compare them to but they are as nice as the LN's I own.

[Ryan Cathey]

A Tomigachi?!?!?!...Sorry bout that. Child of the Nineties lol

[Graham Skinner]

Thanks for the info Jim, I will go over to Lee Valley at the end of the week and have a look at a couple, I also like the look of the Nishiki chisels at tools for woodworking in Brooklyn, NY.
But it would have to be by mail order, and they would risk being pulled apart by Canada Customs.

[Jim Nardi]

I'm a beginner chisel junkie. You can't just order a few from Tools for working wood. Online ordering with credit cards can be dangerous.

[Pam Niedermayer]

Depends on how you do dovetails. If you only want to clean out the "corners," you want chisels with non-existent edges (that is, a single slope from center to bottom); in which case, you may want to take a look at Tasai's chisels (http://www.japantool-iida.com/_itycms/data/otherchisel/_detail/1187013210.html ) or the Blue Spruce set (http://www.bluesprucetoolworks.com/ ).

OTOH, if you want to chop with them, the Koymaichi are good, as are basically any other reasonably priced to expensive Japanese shinogi.

Pam

[Mark Singer]

I have a sime arilar set with white and blue steel......the Blue Spruce are better in balance and edge holding. For chopping they are good though

[Derek Cohen]

I have Koyamaichi dovetail chisels, but they are not the LV ones.

The four on the left in the bottom row ...

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Chisels/Japanesenomi-storageMay2007.jpg

They are used for striking. For pushing I prefer Blue Spruce. Note that the Koyamaichi, very shallow in the the shoulder when compared to the average Japanese dovetail chisel, are still not in the same class here as the BS. Therefore, aim to chop to that you do not damage the inside walls of the dovetail, and pare out the remainder with skew chisels.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Rod Wolfy]

OK Derek, that's enough tool porn for one post!

Rod