Quote Originally Posted by John C Cox View Post
For example, my BORG sourced Buck Comfort Grip chinesium chisels run circles around my Narex Richter chisels when paring, but when chopping, the Richters beat them hands down. Go figure, right?
That's might be a sharpening issue. I actually own a set of both of these chisels and haven't noticed the Buck Brothers doing any better when it comes to paring. I find them about equal at that task. But I have noticed that they're a lot less fussy about sharpening than the Richters. To be honest, I'm not sold on the idea that honing jigs give as good and consistent results as most people suggest. The distribution of force is off when you use one. But that's probably not the issue. What I'm guess might be the issue is some stones don't work well with harder metals, and some stones don't work well with softer metals. I'm not entirely sure as to why, but I've definitely noticed it. Like my Shapton Pro 320 grit (the blue one) won't put a usable edge on any of my woodworking tools or German knives (HRC 57-59), but will put a scary sharp edge on my Japanese (HRC 63) kitchen knife. It'll grind and shape the softer metal, but it'll never put a sharp edge on them. And I have the same issue with one of my Arkansas stones and my stainless steel keychain knife.