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You mean gas is caused by hoarding and not beans?Originally Posted by Patrick Chase
One of my drawers is full of user chisels for when someone other than me is going to use one of my chisels. Sometimes they even get taken out and used to make sure they are ready.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
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I fixed the original post (inflicted/afflicted).
Same here w.r.t. the drawer. Sometimes I give a set away to make room for more :-)
[OP]
Contributor
Soooo...either of you two have never even tried these chisels......I take it? Amazing.......
Almost like a movie critic going to review a new movie, stays long enough to watch the Pink Panther cartoon, then leaves, only to pan the movie....
Last edited by steven c newman; 09-26-2017 at 9:02 PM.
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Err, it was a joke. I compulsively try things, even when I know that I have no intention of using them for Real Work (tm). I suspect Jim does too. I haven't tried the Aldis because there aren't any up this way, but I've tried many many cheap chisels.
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I've tried one of the four in the set. As you recall, I noted earlier that they were pretty badly warped. I compared them to my Narex set and those Narex were very flat in comparison (as purchased). The Aldi was put in a vise and I was able to bend it back towards straight. After a few attempts I got to what I thought was close enough and then proceeded to do a quick sharpening with sandpaper. It was very easy to put an edge on, albeit I didn't go for a high quality edge. Overall, I felt the chisel was pretty soft. I planned to take them up to my cabin to keep up there for odd jobs so I wouldn't have to bring better quality ones up there. I don't feel they were a bad value for $6.99 though but they aren't worth much effort either. I have a second set that I bought at the same time that I planned to give to my son but not anymore. It was a bad idea to buy two sets.
[OP]
Contributor
That is very strange, indeed...as I have been using one set since they first came out. I am now also using the latest set....both will be my "Go-to" sets from now on. Maybe you SHOULD go buy them $80 chisels then....
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How do you come to the conclusion that my remarks are a put down of these chisels?
From what has been said by those who have bought them they are not on par with my everyday user chisels.
The only reason I haven't bought a set is there aren't any in my area to buy.
Like Patrick, sometimes it is difficult to pass up a tool for such a tempting price. I did buy a set of 3 Stanley chisels:
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...ley-Chisel-Set
The cheap Stanley set are actually decent chisels. My regular users already have multiple chisels in the same sizes. The are also set up for different tasks at the bench. One of my accumulations of bevel edge chisels have minuscule lands for reaching into corners. Another group of bevel edge chisels is set up more for light chopping work. They have more of a land on the sides. This set also has some length to them for getting the waste out of dados and such. There is another set of short chisels that are very handy. Then there are a bunch of square sided chisels for the heavy lifting. After that everything else is relegated to the drawer of extras. There are actually some very good chisels in there. The better behaved ones often get a chance to come out and play with the others.
A set of Harbor Freight Windsor branded chisels almost got a ride home with me. The set in the store had what seemed to me to be defects in manufacture that changed my mind.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
[OP]
Contributor
Whatever.....
Thinking of grinding the sides of some of these chisels to be closer to "Imperial" sizes.....That would result in the 8mm being slimmed down to 1/4"......and may even transform it into a mortise style..OR...a Firmer stile of chisel. Current 1/4" Mortise chisel is by New Haven Edge Tool Co. others are either Butchers, or OLD Buck Brothers.....Firmer chisels I have are by Witherby.....
Contributor
So many folks keep referring to these Aldi chisels as their "beater" chisels and yet Paul Sellers states multiple places that these chisels, when properly fettled, can do anything he demands of a chisel. Here is Sellers using his Aldi chisels in a recent picture he posted on Instagram. These are the chisels on which he modified the handles for aesthetics, not added functionality.
Sellers using Aldi chisels.JPG
https://www.instagram.com/p/BZggdH2g...ul.a.j.sellers
Member
Paul Sellers always takes "the road less traveled". Not conforming with the crowd is part of his appeal and it brings him followers. None of this makes those chisels better made. They probably are better than many other cheap chisels, but if he thinks that "fettling" can make them hold an edge better or perform like premium chisels, he's just wrong.
[OP]
Contributor
Says the voice that hasn't tried those chisels.......
They seemed to have held up very well in MY shop.....but..if buying overpriced tools makes you happy.........
Contributor
I have a different perspective. Paul Sellers is working very hard to de-mystify woodworking and take it back from something only "elites" can afford to do. His focus is to demonstrate that one can do outstanding woodworking without having to buy $30-80 chisels and $250 planes. His goal is to make this an affordable avocation for almost anyone to pursue, anywhere in the world. This informs his focus on acquiring good quality used tools that can be put back into service and on finding less expensive but still highly workable tools being made new, like these Aldi chisels. He's used them in his schools for the past half dozen years, so he's certainly had a lot of experience with them. He's never claimed these exceed other chisels; he's only stating that "these can be highly effective."
As to edge holding, Sellers has stated several times that these chisels take and hold an edge as well as any of the vintage high carbon chisels he's used and preferred over the years (Marples, etc). He still prefers the feel in his hands of his vintage boxwood handled chisels and of his Ashley Isles chisels. But, he demonstrates with the Aldi chisels to make the point that one can still get excellent quality results. His message is "these chisels can give me everything I demand of a chisel". And the quality of work he holds himself accountable to achieve sets a pretty high standard for any of us.
No offense intended to your assertion that some premium chisels may perform better; they may likely do so. And the harder steels used in some of these newer premium chisels may well hold an edge longer than the softer high carbon steel used in the Aldi and vintage chisels. Premium chisels certainly will be finished to a much higher standard from the factory. The Aldi are rough as rough can be straight out of the package and require some sweat equity investment to bring them to a working standard.
Contributor
And in mine, too.
Member
Why must there always be a false dichotomy between these and "$30-80" chisels?
Like most widely made tools chisels are priced along a continuum (with very nice options around $10-15), and subject to two truths:
1. In general you get what you pay for. Quality steel costs money. Quality processing and grinding costs money. QA costs money. There is no Santa Claus, no matter what some "Lifestyle Woodworker" may claim (and btw i've seen him post plenty of things that are just flat out false in the "earth is flat" sense of the word). You can certainly buy overpriced tools, but true quality in a newly manufactured tool does not come free.
2. There are diminishing returns. A certain amount of money buys you good steel and reasonable processing. Paying more than that delivers increasingly vanishing functional benefit. IMO for new chisels that breakpoint is somewhere around $10-15 each. Below that you're cutting bone, as Pat discovered. Above that you're paying for refinement (which costs significant money to provide, but provides relatively little functional benefit), consistency, and maybe exotic steel. Others will of course have different notions of "flesh" vs "bone" and different standards.
FWIW if I were trying to acquire chisels for less than $10 each or so then I would turn to the used market. I think that it's undervalued in the sense that you can get tools there for far less than the manufacturing cost to produce new ones of equivalent quality.
Last edited by Patrick Chase; 09-27-2017 at 10:24 PM.
[OP]
Contributor
While looking in the mirror...suppose you go and ask Mr. Sellers these questions? Everything else you just posted is the same old BS.......
I buy tools to USE, not to brag about how much they set me back, or to simply display in a cabinet....mine get used, and used hard.....those that can't take that kind of work get tossed...
Now, you are back on the ignore list.....go away...
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