Narex defects

[Jim Koepke]

We're talking about the skew chisels. There are lots of bevel edge (square) chisels.

It is easy to turn a straight bevel chisel into a skew chisel:

1:4%22 Skew Chisel Handled.jpg

This is one half of the pair.

If you go this route, don't make the angle overly acute. DAMHIKT!

jtk

[Andrew Pitonyak]

We're talking about the skew chisels. There are lots of bevel edge (square) chisels.

I missed that... And that makes sense. Never had a need for one. Don't get me wrong, I could make occasional use of one, but not a need. I guess if I tried one I might never go without one

[Bob Jones 5443]

I wanted to revive this thread because I have found that the skew chisel pair I received from Narex did not have any defects after all. I don't want to malign a quality toolmaker! It was my mistake. After I sent the first set back I worked on the replacement set, which also "appeared" to have surface irregularities. They were not irregularities!

As others have reported, Narex does use a rather tenacious lacquer to prevent rusting while in inventory and shipment, and it takes determination to clean it down to the metal. But that was all that was "wrong" with the first set. I looked at the replacement set with a 10X loupe and was able to see that the bumps and what looked like craters were in fact just lacquer droplets. I used acetone on a terrycloth towel and elbow grease, and when that didn't work completely I gently scraped the remaining lacquer off with the square end of a small maple stick.

Maybe someone here can recommend something a bit more aggressive than acetone for this.

But more than just not being defective, these chisels actually arrived with a secondary bevel! I've never seen that. They were wheel-ground at a 30º skew and a 25º primary bevel. This showed typical grinding marks from a coarse wheel. But then there was maybe a 0.4 mm secondary bevel. For a skew chisel this might even have been enough to do its job, but the back had pronounced grinding marks, so I went through the usual flattening and honing preparation, even down to putting on a 33º secondary and a 35º polish on the edge. Now they flick off waste in the corners beautifully. Also, given the relatively light duty asked of a skew in a dovetail, it's no surprise that they are holding the tiny tip quite well.

So now folks will see this thread pop up again and perhaps they'll read that the Narex 1/4" skew chisel set is in fact a high-quality tool. Like Bill Carey elsewhere in this thread, I enthusiastically recommend them for this specialized task. Just be ready to hone and polish by hand. (I'm an Eclipse jig guy, so this took some care and attention, but it was probably good practice.) When the time comes, I've already seen how I can use the SE-77 jig on the Tormek to regrind the 25º primary bevel.

[Bill Carey]

Bob - glad you got it worked out. And that you like them. And not least of all, that you took the time to post the update. Class move.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

I wanted to revive this thread because I have found that the skew chisel pair I received from Narex did not have any defects after all. ... Narex does use a rather tenacious lacquer to prevent rusting while in inventory and shipment, and it takes determination to clean it down to the metal.

I can so see this happening to me :-)

Very thankful for the update.

[Jim Koepke]

Bob, Thanks for bringing us all up to date on this.

Maybe word will get back to Narex on this. Maybe they will at least pack a note with their chisels about the aggressive means needed to remove their coating.

jtk

[James Pallas]

Bob , very good of you to post your last one. I don’t know what that stuff is they coat things with and others besides Narex use it. It is indeed some tough stuff. I tried acetone, lacquer thinner and alcohol. Finally just used paint remover. That got it off. Didn’t just wipe off needed to scrape still. It wasn’t Narex but turning tools but the same kind of stuff.

[Michael J Evans]

Probably a dumb question, but why the need to remove the lacquer or whatever it is? Wouldnt standing honing and flattening of the back remove what is needed? What is the problem with leaving it on

[Bob Jones 5443]

Nothing dumb about that question!

There were globs of it on the sides as well. Not the best for a skew chisel.

Also, I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of lacquer bits coming off on my waterstones.

[Tony Zaffuto]

To flatten the back and hone the bevel, the lacquer will need removed. If you don't, you will most likely clog your sharpening stone. As far as the rest of the chisel, it is yours to do whatever you like to it!

For me, with the Narex chisels I have, I found the coating to be a bit worse than other current makes. I ended up letting the chisels soak in lacquer thinner and then scraping off.