Lee Valley Chisels

[Lyndsay]

Re: Lee Valley Chisels

now why did i think i had to lap the whole chisel??????????????????
went with your (Rick) advise and lapped an inch or so and got it done in an hour. Thx Lyndsay

[matt]

Re: Lee Valley Chisels

Would this be suitable?

Give it a try and see what happens. You have to start some place right! If your technique is good and its not sharp enough, you can buy some higher grit paper. CanadianTire usually stocks up to 2000 grit, check the automotive section.

Sharpening can be a major rat hole, I know I've been in it. Don't forget that then end goal is to do woodworking and not achieve the perfect edge.

[MAWarner]

Re: Lee Valley Chisels

I also got my seven out of ten chisels yesterday. I do not have water stones and was planing to backlap with sandpaper on a substraight and also sharpen to 800 grit sandpaper. Would this be suitable? I just cannot justify putting another couple of hundred dollars in cutting a few dovetails at this point in time. Maybe buy a stone every couple of months etc
Did you go to the 8000 stone with yours Matt?

[Rick in Oakville]

Re: Lee Valley Chisels

The backs of these chisels are fairly flat but need work to remove the grinding marks (which are straight across rather than swirls). I found Norton 3X sandpaper glued onto a sheet of thick (3/8") glass works very well to quickly remove the grinding marks. I used 80 grit but I think something less rough might leave behind smaller scratches to be cleaned up by further sharpening. Next time I may try some 120 or 180 grit I have. It only takes a few minutes at most to remove the grinding marks on the first couple of inches at the tip of the blade. I expect an hour or less will have all of the seven chisels up to 1 inch ready to move on to sharpening. The three big chisels may take a little more time each depending on how far up the blade you want to go to remove grinding marks.

[Arminius]

Re: Lee Valley Chisels

I got my seven of ten today...three on backorder, and they seem like very good addition to the chisel army. Years back I picked up lapping compound and patiently lapped out the machine marks on a piece of hardwood, whenever I picked up a new chisel. Has anything changed over time to reduce the effort in this process? Seven new chisels in one day seem a little overwhelming. Thanks. Lyndsay

Not really - I have only done a couple at a time, and have several to go whenever I foresee using them. However, overall the Narex chisels are great value, a very good chisel for about the same as some completely unusable ones.

[Lyndsay]

Re: Lee Valley Chisels

I got my seven of ten today...three on backorder, and they seem like very good addition to the chisel army. Years back I picked up lapping compound and patiently lapped out the machine marks on a piece of hardwood, whenever I picked up a new chisel. Has anything changed over time to reduce the effort in this process? Seven new chisels in one day seem a little overwhelming. Thanks. Lyndsay

[sapwood]

Re: Lee Valley Chisels

I am about to purchase new, upgraded chisels. It's tempting to wait and see the Lee Valley (Veritas) when they come out but may not wait without knowing these are traditional socket chisels with wood handles rather than something like the Lee Valley saws - functionally fine but not my style.

[Rob Lee]

Re: Lee Valley Chisels

Hi Rob;

No worries. When I wrote "took it as a sign from god that there are better quality chisels in my future", I was thinking about your premium chisels. Any idea when we can expect to see these in the store? Also are they good old fashioned O1/A2 or something fancy like CPMV? O1/A2 would mean I would not have to upgrade my sharpening infrastructure. All of my planes are from LV with A2 so I really want to try O1. If my understanding is correct traditional chisels were made with O1 Thanks again for your generous offer. This is what makes LV a leader.

Regards,

Hi -

Yes - our chisels should be appearing before Christmas, hopefully much earlier. The first released bench chisels will be O1 steel, and we'll be announcing a second steel at the same time. Date on those will depend solely on the ability of the mill to supply steel. Lead times are horrendous right now on powdered metal steels... 8+ months!

Cheers -

Rob

[Teak]

Re: Lee Valley Chisels

Hi Rob;

No worries. When I wrote "took it as a sign from god that there are better quality chisels in my future", I was thinking about your premium chisels. Any idea when we can expect to see these in the store? Also are they good old fashioned O1/A2 or something fancy like CPMV? O1/A2 would mean I would not have to upgrade my sharpening infrastructure. All of my planes are from LV with A2 so I really want to try O1. If my understanding is correct traditional chisels were made with O1 Thanks again for your generous offer. This is what makes LV a leader.

Regards,

[Rob Lee]

Re: Lee Valley Chisels

Hi -

A few comments on some of the posts in this thread...

Teak - we will certainly take back-orders for the chisels... if you still want them at the now-expired intro price, I'll be glad to honor that. Sorry for the confusion.

Open stock will be listed soon on the website - we had to wait for the dust to settle on the sets. We will have stock of all sizes 1" or less, but we consumed most of the 1 1/4, 1 1/2, and 2" chisel filling orders for the sets. Since these are coming from the Czech Republic, and are not a stock item, the lead times are long.

Even at regular prices - these chisels are a good buy. Well made, well hardened, and accurately ground. The handle style is a classic European shape - which may not suit all users, but that's why we offer other styles of chisels. I am buying my two sets when they come back in stock; I don't see how they can make this quality at these prices.

As many of you may know- we will be introducing our own chisels later this year - made here in Ottawa. They will start at $30-$40 per size... and head North from there! For limited runs of precision tools - most of the cost is labour and machine time. We bill machine time at $20-50 per hour, and labour at skilled machinist rates. Then add in the cost of premium steels (up to $18 lb - also applied to the steel removed to form the net shape) and it's not hard to see why the price is where it is (or will be). If I look at our least expensive chisel in development right now, more than $18 of our cost is labour and machine time! Conceptually - there no difference between the economies of scale for mass produced cars, and mass produced chisels. Narex would be the ford Focus of cars....a premium chisel would be a Bentley....of course, there customers for both.

Cheers -

Rob

[matt]

Re: Lee Valley Chisels

I've prepped my set of ten, but other than testing the edges on end grain pine I haven't done any real work with them yet. All I can vouch for so far is that they take a keen edge and that the backs are quite flat. Except for my 2", they all took minimal time to prep. The 2" inch was a bit of a chore since mine had a low spot on the top right. I'm very happy so far. I'm starting a couple of new project soon, so I'll be sure to give more feedback. I already like them better than my Hirsch set though...

[MAWarner]

Re: Lee Valley Chisels

Hi Larry
I know these chisels will not compete with you high end ones you have mentioned. Wow the Harold and Saxon's must be quite a chisel. I don't do much hand tool work but am going to try some so these will do me. I also bought a set of 5 Beaver (Swedish made) chisels at a yard sale the other week so these set should outdo me.
Teak and Andrew , when I ordered them they are shipping the set of seven and BO the 3.
It is forums like this that really can sell tools. Bulk orders for some discount consideration would be nice to do.

[Andrew_K99]

Re: Lee Valley Chisels

Excellent feedback. I dropped by at the Edmonton store this morning and ordered the full set (10 chisels) and was told they are out of stock (no news) and that no backorders are being accepted either! That was news as my understanding is that 10 chisel set was made up of 7 + 3 ( 1 1/4, 1 1/2 and 2") so they should have been able to fill the first seven and backorder the three. Anyways I did not argue; took it as a sign from god that there are better quality chisels in my future

When I bought them they didn't have the 3 larger sizes in so they gave me the 7 pack and back ordered the 3 piece set. I guess the demand is a lot higher than expected so they have stopped taking back orders?

AK

[Teak]

Re: Lee Valley Chisels

Excellent feedback. I dropped by at the Edmonton store this morning and ordered the full set (10 chisels) and was told they are out of stock (no news) and that no backorders are being accepted either! That was news as my understanding is that 10 chisel set was made up of 7 + 3 ( 1 1/4, 1 1/2 and 2") so they should have been able to fill the first seven and backorder the three. Anyways I did not argue; took it as a sign from god that there are better quality chisels in my future

[giraffelt]

Re: Lee Valley Chisels

Murray,
you asked: Those who have bought them and used them, are they a really good chisel or a decent chisel for the price, or one you would sacrifice instead of your good chisel?

I picked up a full set of 10 last week. I bought them because I wanted the larger sizes (11/4, 11/2,2) but LV isn't selling just the larger sizes which I don't understand because those 3 came boxed separately than the other 7. Anyway my limited experience with them is as follows:
- relatively flat backs however, I did lap the backs to get them to where I wanted them
- since I have a set of BE chisels at 25 degrees primary, I reground the Narex to 35 ( the 35 is a secondary) ; also in part because I think the steel is too soft to support a 25 degree edge
- I then honed them to 8000x
the above was easy to do because the steel is relatively soft which I suspect will require more resharpening than on my other chisels (hirsch, LN, BS, HS) going forward.
For the price they are ok in my opinion as an extra set but they won't be my go to chisel of choice and I won't be using them for dovetailing. What I dislike about them about them are the handles. They are much too big for my liking both in terms of diameter and length. I much prefer the feel of my LNs and BS's. I definitely will rehandle them at some point.
My best chisels are my Harold and Saxon's from Australia but one can't compare a $120 chisel (and 2.5+ years wait time) with a chisel with an average cost of $8.50.

conclusion, the 3 larger ones will be used when needed, the smaller sizes probably never.


Larry