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Thread: Aldis chisels

  1. #46
    I bought a set of them a year ago. I used them a lot and don’t like the way they hold up. I ended up ruining the 1” chisel but I still have the other 3. They do sharpen and cut significantly better after an hour in the oven - that doubled their performance on wood.

    I posted the results of my chisel tests here on the forum. Old vintage octagon bolster chisels outran Aldi chisels by approximately 4x the amount of wood cut before they were dull.... Two cherries chisels run about in the same range as the old ones - so it’s not like modern manufacturers can’t replicate the performance of those old tools if they want to....

    Aldi chisels are what they are and I am fine with that..... I don’t need any more.

    Quote Originally Posted by steven c newman View Post
    What a bloody waste....right now I am USING my Aldi's chisels in the current build blog....on Ash...the only time so far an edge has "rolled" was went one of the chisels was knocked off the bench....chisels seem to have a way of landing bevel first. 5 minutes to fix, back to work. These are the same chisels I pare a tenon with...by resting me beard cover chin on the end of the handle, sighting down the blade, and push with the chin...

    I guess some need to learn more about HOW these chisels SHOULD used? Others decry these chisels..without ever having touched the items...Afraid someone else might see them actually holding them?

    Well, they ARE cheap enough..if you wish to waste them, it be your $7...not mine.

  2. #47
    Warren,

    Do you own and use any Aldi chisels? My understanding is that you do most of your work with 17th and 18th century laminated chisels.....

    Quote Originally Posted by Warren Mickley View Post
    The LV chisels have so many peculiar features one could write a chapter on it. Here are some notes on the handle. The handle is made of hard maple. The Aldi's are of beech. There is a reason why beech has been used for centuries for handles. Beech absorbs shock much better than hard maple. It is just a much better wood. Ash also absorbs shock and is also a traditional wood. For a guy who just screws around once in a while it doesn't make much difference, but for someone using a tool regularly there is a danger of overuse injury with a wood that transmits shock. Beech is less tiring, easier on joints tenons and such.

    The LV designers thought it was important to have the chisel balance at the ferrule. This is not a traditional feature for chisels. A 1" chisel blade is nearly four times that of a 1/4 " chisel, but the handle is not nearly twice as big. So for narrow chisels (and carving tools), the balance point is in back of the bolster, and for wider chisels the balance point is in front of the bolster and the chisel rocks forward so the blade is on the bench. In order to contrive a balance point at the ferrule, LV people had to make the handle especially fat for wide chisels and beef up the thickness of the blade for narrow chisels. These are not good trade offs.

    There are lots more things like this, but the main theme is that it is foolish to change a design without appreciating its sophistication and wisdom. In merely copying older chisels, the Chinese factory that makes the Aldi chisels avoids a lot of pitfalls.

  3. #48
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Koepke View Post
    There are many different versions of the same story:

    https://truewestmagazine.com/josh-tatums-con/

    This one does not mention filing the reeding on the edge of the coins.

    Supposedly the original falsified coins had reeding added with a file to more resemble the $5 gold coin. Many of these ended up destroyed by the U.S. Treasury Dept. Of course later there was a market for "racketeer nickels" sold to curiosity seekers and collectors. This caused a lot of the first edition of the 1883 Liberty nickels to be electroplated with a thin layer of gold and sold to collectors.

    jtk
    Jim,
    thanks for taking the time & effort to educate me. Much appreciated.
    Regards - Bill

  4. #49
    Quote Originally Posted by Warren Mickley View Post
    The LV chisels have so many peculiar features one could write a chapter on it. Here are some notes on the handle. The handle is made of hard maple. The Aldi's are of beech. There is a reason why beech has been used for centuries for handles. Beech absorbs shock much better than hard maple. It is just a much better wood. Ash also absorbs shock and is also a traditional wood. For a guy who just screws around once in a while it doesn't make much difference, but for someone using a tool regularly there is a danger of overuse injury with a wood that transmits shock. Beech is less tiring, easier on joints tenons and such.

    The LV designers thought it was important to have the chisel balance at the ferrule. This is not a traditional feature for chisels. A 1" chisel blade is nearly four times that of a 1/4 " chisel, but the handle is not nearly twice as big. So for narrow chisels (and carving tools), the balance point is in back of the bolster, and for wider chisels the balance point is in front of the bolster and the chisel rocks forward so the blade is on the bench. In order to contrive a balance point at the ferrule, LV people had to make the handle especially fat for wide chisels and beef up the thickness of the blade for narrow chisels. These are not good trade offs.

    There are lots more things like this, but the main theme is that it is foolish to change a design without appreciating its sophistication and wisdom. In merely copying older chisels, the Chinese factory that makes the Aldi chisels avoids a lot of pitfalls.
    I can't speak for those who pound chisels like a machine as a production woodworker to earn a living. I pound (not with a hammer, but with a maple mallet) or pare as an amateur woodworker, and my experience does not come anywhere close to the conclusions of your academic analysis about shock absorption or balance.

    Your analysis which sounds good on paper gives me (serious) doubts about how much and for how long you have actually used a Veritas chisel. I have owned five of them (O1 and PMV11; 1/4" to 3/4") and have used them for dovetails, mortise & tenon, dados, rabbets, frame & panel, inlays, and hinge work, the typical applications for chisels.

    I am bringing my car to a Maserati dealership for a trade and tell them mine is better than theirs. Or, I should get a dozen of the Aldi chisels and inquire with Veritas if we could swap....

    Simon
    Last edited by Simon MacGowen; 09-20-2018 at 12:27 PM.

  5. #50
    Quote Originally Posted by John C Cox View Post
    Warren,

    Do you own and use any Aldi chisels? My understanding is that you do most of your work with 17th and 18th century laminated chisels.....
    I use cast steel chisels. I like English chisels that are around 180 years old; that is 19th century. There is a reasonable amount of stuff around from that period because the machine age came soon after. 18th century chisels are quite rare and I have only seen 17th century stuff in pictures. For some reason cast steel was hard to laminate when it was first produced in the 18th century. Unlike the chisels that predated them (or were contemporary to them), early cast steel chisels were not laminated. Later only the heavy cast steel carpenter's chisels were laminated.

    I bought a set of Aldi chisels last week out of curiosity. They are patterned after the Hirsch/Kirschen/Two Cherries chisels and remind me of them in use. They do not have the annoying buffing or rounding over that Two Cherries people like to use. I have used worse chisels in my career.

    The main things that bring down the price for the Aldis are large scale, like 50,000 or 100,000 chisels per month, drop forging, which on a large scale is much cheaper than machining, cheap labor, and lack of marketing, a big part of American companies. The Chinese make many brands in the same factory and the price of a thousand chisels ready for import is not much more than a thousand dollars.

  6. #51
    I bought a set a while back. Today I bought three new Home Depot Buck chisels (yellow handles). I like Bucks because they're cheap, hard, and readily available. I decided to sharpen one of the Bucks and one of the Aldis.

    The Buck was flat and dangerously sharp in about 10 minutes. It took very little effort to flatten the back enough to prepare the chisel for sharpening. It was nearly flat to start with.

    The Aldi came with a distorted edge. Maybe someone at the factory dropped it. I worked on it for 15 minutes or so and decided to call it a day. Using a Diasharp X-coarse stone, I would say I got about a third of the way to an edge that was ready to sharpen. Flattening the back was not hard, but when I was done, the abrasion pattern was not as symmetrical as the Buck's, so the grind was not as even.

    I'll bet it takes me 45 more minutes to get the Aldi ready.

    The Aldi is softer than the Buck (just as Chinese Irwins are). You can scratch an Aldi with a Buck very easily, but it doesn't work the other way around. The softness of the steel prevents me from having any confidence in the Aldis. Of course I will give them a chance, but it's hard to see how a soft chisel can hold an edge as well as a hard one.
    Cry "Havoc," and let slip the dogs of bench.

    I was socially distant before it was cool.

    A little authority corrupts a lot.

  7. #52
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    I used my Aldi 3/4" chisel today to clean up some half laps after crosscutting much if the waste in two pressure treated 2x4s. It worked great to clean out 7 1/2 inchrs of waste on each of them so I could join them end to end to make a 15 1/2 foot 2x4. A little construction adhesive and a few coarse thread drywall screws and I was done. The Aldi's work great in jobs like this.

  8. #53
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    It has been my honor to receive a set of the famous (infamous?) Aldi chisels from another member.

    The Aldi came with a distorted edge. Maybe someone at the factory dropped it.
    All four chisels in the set sent to me had a wire edge. Not only that, some of them had nicked edges.

    Here is one of them:

    Aldi Rough Edge.jpg

    Not much of my time was spent on flattening the backs more than getting rid of the deepest scratches. My tendency is to work on that over time. A few hours was spent on getting them into shape. A bit more time was used because the two largest chisels tended to roll or chip after the first few times sharpening. The edges seemed to settle down after repeated sharpening.

    Here is a shot after trying to cut a thin strip of end grain pine:

    Frugleman's Macro Lens.jpg

    This was after the third sharpening. After a few more trips to the stones it settled down and started cutting the same piece without the drama.

    The 'out of the box' grind is a bit rough:

    Alsi Chisel Set of Four.jpg

    The large chisel on the right has had a quick interlude with an Arkansas stone at this shooting.

    Look at the second chisel from the right. Notice the beveled edges are kind of catty wampus. More about my thoughts on this later. A close look at the left of the edge shows a bit of distortion, maybe different than what Steve mentioned. At this price point one shouldn't be surprised by such manufacturing variations. This added to the prep time since it had to be ground out. The steel in these tends to hang on more tenaciously to their wire edge when stropping.

    The blades and handles were covered with a rough clear substance. It was removed using a little work with acetone. Without thinking this was rubbed over the handles. It removed not only the stamped on branding but removing the clear coat made the handles feel a lot better. An old rag saturated with furniture wax/polish was rubbed over the handles. Over all the handles are acceptable. They are a touch rough. They feel like they may have been tumble sanded in large batches.

    If someone asked me to classify these as to type, my response would be general bench chisel. My first thought when seeing them up close is they look similar to the Bocho chisels that OSH (Orchard Supply Hardware) started carrying before my set of Sandvik chisels was completed back in the late 1980s:

    Aldi & Sandvik chisels.jpg

    The three Sandvik chisels in my accumulation still get to come out and do some work at times. They were my first new chisel purchases, one at a time was all my budget would allow.

    These are bench chisels fully suited for chopping a mortise if one doesn't want to invest in a chisel specifically made for mortise chopping:

    Aldi Mortising.jpg

    Though if a person plans to chop a lot, nothing beats the monster:

    Pigsticker.jpg

    They take a decent edge. Shaving arm hair or wood they can hold their own:

    End Grain Shaving.jpg

    This is pine. The end grain has been pared smooth.

    One place where they do not fit my style is in clearing waste from dovetails. Of course these can do the job. They are a bit clumsy with the tall side lands rubbing up against the sides of the tails. My preference is for almost no side land:

    Aldi & Bucks.jpg

    On the top are Buck Brothers chisels from my paring chisels. On the bottom are the Aldi chisels. There is quite a bit of difference in the height of the lands between the associated sizes.

    The chisels were marked with a size that may or may not be the same as was measured.

    First is the 8mm/0.31", it measured 0.324". The lands measured 7/64". The bevel was at 30º. This one also has a slight bit of sloppiness where the metal meets wood. There is a bit of a gap between the bolster and the handle. There is also a blob of clear lacquer in the space.
    Second is marked 13mm/0.51", it measured 0.521 (note this was changed after measuring again today). The lands measured with one less than 5/64" and the other a little larger. The factory bevel was 30º.
    The third chisel is marked 18mm/0.71", it measured 0.722" ~18.5mm. The lands measured 1/16" on one side and 7/64" on the other. The factory bevel was 25º.
    The last chisel is marked 24mm/0.94", it measured 0.941" right on the money. The lands measured 1/16" on one side and 5/64" on the other. The factory bevel was 25º.

    For someone who wants an inexpensive set of chisels these will likely work fine for many uses.

    The handles along with being less than finished do not match. They definitely do not carry the cache of premium or high quality chisels.

    These are mass produced in Chinese factories were people do not earn what we would consider a great wage. The makers are not putting anything extra in the making of this product. My first thought on a way to cut cost was to forget the lacquer coating. Then it came to me this was necessary to keep the steel from rusting in shipping.

    When a premium chisel is purchased the hoops and ferrules are likely of a more substantial material.
    The bevels are likely better balanced.
    The set up time will likely be considerably less.
    If the chisels are made for paring they will have lower, and equal, side lands.
    The metal and handles should be much better finished.
    The sizing will likely be closer to what the label indicates.
    For me, most of my wood still comes in inch sizes so the metric sizing isn't my choice. For many things it doesn't really matter.
    For some folks a minimal set is fine. For myself, if chisels were readily available in 1/16" increments my accumulation would be larger.

    So it really gets down to what a person wants in their shop. For inexpensive useable chisels in only a few sizes, the Aldi chisels can be a good deal. If you like something that feels like it belongs in your hand and can sneak into those tight corners, you will likely have to spend a lot more.

    The Aldi chisels do seem to have a supply limitation and may be unavailable during the year. So if you want them, get them when you can.

    jtk
    Last edited by Jim Koepke; 09-22-2018 at 4:57 PM.
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  9. #54
    Join Date
    Jul 2017
    Location
    Calgary AB
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    Jim, a nice concise writeup. This should be a reference for the inevitable Aldi chisel threads to come.

    "Frugalman's Macro Lens." That gave me a chuckle! In all seriousness, what is it that you are using? magnifying glass? Glass scrap? I really would like to have a frugal macro lens myself since I am limited to an iPhone 5s I inherited.

    Thanks!

    Vince

  10. Quote Originally Posted by Warren Mickley View Post
    I bought a set of Aldi chisels last week out of curiosity. They are patterned after the Hirsch/Kirschen/Two Cherries chisels and remind me of them in use. They do not have the annoying buffing or rounding over that Two Cherries people like to use.
    Kirschen also makes them unpolished. These have crisp, sharp corners.
    Last edited by Jessica de Boer; 09-22-2018 at 6:27 AM.

  11. #56
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    Had two Hirsch some 15 years ago, or so. Ne straight, the other cranked. Both were way over polished, including the lands, even rounded onto the face (flat side of bevel). Didn't want to sell them, but gave tem away, and stayed away from that brand and Two Cherries. Unpolished, they would have been excellent. Had an excellent feel to them, balanced nicely. Didn't really use the cranked chisel, but I did the straight. Not having the face flat to the sides was an issue (and having to wear sunglasses while using them).

    Unpolished, I would definitely try one or two again.
    If the thunder don't get you, the lightning will.

  12. If I were to buy Western, factory made chisels it would be from MHG Messerschmidt. They have a "premium" line that's not too bad. The grinding is finer than the unpolished Kirschen and the flats on the sides are very small, about 1mm so you can get into very tight corners. The downside is that they use a high alloy steel, most likely a chrome vanadium of some sorts and I don't like that. I prefer a simple, pure carbon steel.

    https://www.mhg-tools.de/en/news.html

    Fine-tools in Germany sells them for a very reasonable price: https://www.fine-tools.com/mhg.html

  13. #58
    Good writeup Jim! I have mine at about a 20* bevel and they work fine for paring. I cut the silly hoops off the end and used a spoke shave to reshape them into what I liked. They aren't Ashley Iles by any stretch, but do everything I ask them to do. And for $7 I'm not afraid to experiment with bevel angles or customizing the handles.
    "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

    “If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”

  14. #59
    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Koepke View Post

    When a premium chisel is purchased the hoops and ferrules are likely of a more substantial material.
    The bevels are likely better balanced.
    The set up time will likely be considerably less.
    If the chisels are made for paring they will have lower, and equal, side lands.
    The metal and handles should be much better finished.
    The sizing will likely be closer to what the label indicates.
    For me, most of my wood still comes in inch sizes so the metric sizing isn't my choice. For many things it doesn't really matter.
    For some folks a minimal set is fine. For myself, if chisels were readily available in 1/16 increments my accumulation would be larger.

    So it really gets down to what a person wants in their shop. For inexpensive useable chisels in only a few sizes, the Aldi chisels can be a good deal. If you like something that feels like it belongs in your hand and can sneak into those tight corners, you will likely have to spend a lot more.


    jtk
    Jim,

    You certainly did a better job than Sellers in demystifying the Aldi chisels.

    The numerous discussions about the Aldi chisels here and elsewhere tell us one thing: The star power of Sellers!

    Who would've imagined that these (previously) little known chisels that might have been sold in a dollar store setting would receive such interest as well as scrutiny among woodworkers, if not for Sellers's recommendation.

    Simon

  15. #60
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    Hmmm. Been using mine for several YEARS, now.....Liked the first set well enough, that I bought the second set a while back. Both sets see a lot of use..not just in pine, but other hardwoods like Oak, and Ash.

    Maybe it is in the way one USES these chisels? Beater chisels? I have an entire drawer of such "beater chisels" I could use for the "rougher" work. Could also just use an old wide screwdriver.

    I treat my sets of the Aldi's AS real chisels....rather than treat them like junk. More interested in HOW a tool does it's job, than whose name happens to be on them. Anyone can print a name on anything, declare it the finest since sliced bread.

    Handles? These fit my hands, that is all that counts, as for as a handle is concerned. If a handle doesn't fit the hand, or makes the hand hurt using it....it is either changed, or it is tossed into that drawer..

    If one is afraid to use their "good" chisels to do a bit of honest work, and save the hard work for "lesser" chisels....what good is the "Good Chisel" for? looking pretty in a display rack? IF I get a tool in the shop, it is for doing the job....do I "LOVE" the tools? No..I have no intention of marrying a tool....I intend to put it to work, and make it earn it's keep....otherwise, why bother. I could just as well post a picture on a wall of "Pretty Tools"...have other things to do.

    Simpson showed you how to use a file, to change a chisels lands to suit. For those that claim to grind the edges off to make a scraper....Odd Lots sells cheap lathe tools, you could even use the one in that set AS a scraper.....since that is how it was made.

    Like I said, I have been USING my two sets for quite a while, now, have no need to buy any more, quite happy with what I have. I did used this year's $7 to buy hinges and handles for a project. YMMV.

    There is also OLD Buck Brother chisels in the shop, a few Witherby, and even a Butcher or two. One of the Mortise chisels is from Japan. Another is labeled New Haven Edge Tool Co., and is my "go-to" for 1/4" mortises. So..IF you will excuse me...I have work to do....you all can have fun with this topic.....off my watch, now.

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