LMI Chisels? Good for Paring?

[Patrick Chase]

Actually - they are Sheffield steel (they used to advertise EN31 - a UK version of 52100).. And they are way better than I thought they would be. I am seriously considering hacking off the handle + 50lbs of inter-handle steel and mounting the iron on a proper wood handle. They would probably make a decent butt chisel...

Yeah, I have a set of those that I keep as "beater chisels" to loan out to people. As you say they're not horrible, but I don't think they're great either. The irons are also overly thick, so you'd still have that to deal with even after chopping off the handle.

Given what they did with the tang I'm surprised they didn't make the iron out of S7 or something like that. That "through tang" is a recipe for shock.

[Mike Baker 2]

Actually - they are Sheffield steel (they used to advertise EN31 - a UK version of 52100).. And they are way better than I thought they would be. I am seriously considering hacking off the handle + 50lbs of inter-handle steel and mounting the iron on a proper wood handle. They would probably make a decent butt chisel...

I have the three piece set of them. They take and hold an edge as good as anything else I have. They are just really heavy/clunky.

[Jim Koepke]

My longest chisels are Buck Brothers and Witherby:

Bench Chisels.jpg

The two chisels on the bottom left are Witherby, the next three are crank neck Buck Brothers. The next six are my butt chisels by various makers. The skinny one is a 1/8" Buck brothers followed by a 1/4" and 5/16" Witherby chisels followed by a 3/8" Swan followed by a Buck Bros, a Witherby and two more Buck Brothers. My memory is faltering on the next three and then there are the mortise chisels.

The Buck Brothers may take a few more trips to the stones, but most of the time my feeling is the low bevel angle may also contribute to less edge life. Most of the time they seem to hang in for as long as need be.

jtk

[Patrick Chase]

The two chisels on the bottom left are Witherby, the next three are crank neck Buck Brothers. The next six are my butt chisels by various makers. The skinny one is a 1/8" Buck brothers followed by a 1/4" and 5/16" Witherby chisels followed by a 3/8" Swan followed by a Buck Bros, a Witherby and two more Buck Brothers. My memory is faltering on the next three and then there are the mortise chisels.

What's the pigsticker on the far right? It looks like a modern RI to my eye, but with the handle replaced or refinished?

[Jim Koepke]

What's the pigsticker on the far right? It looks like a modern RI to my eye, but with the handle replaced or refinished?

The maker's mark is Thos Ibbotson & Co. It is a 1/2" sticker bought off of ebay.

jtk

[Chuck Nickerson]

I have a full set of LMI paring chisels. The primary bevel is 17.5* and the secondary bevel is 20*.
They work well for my short paring chisel needs. But I don't expect great longevity at 20*.

[Matt Lau]

Hey John,

You owe it to yourself to try good Japanese steel sometime.