Ashley Iles Mk.2 Bevel Edged Chisel Passaround

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matthewwh

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The new Ashley Iles Mk.2 bevel edged chisels are due to be launched at the beginning of November.

I have managed to squeeze a few samples out of them ahead of time and so (with Charley's permission) I thought it might be fun to do a passaround so that members of the forum could 'test drive' a couple of the new chisels in their own workshops without actually having to buy them. It will also hopefully give people who are new to woodworking an opportunity to handle a cabinetmakers chisel, as opposed to a bevelled firmer, and understand why they are different.

AshleyIlesMk2Chisels.JPG


Members who also have an interest in custom knives may already be familiar with the concept of a passaround, but for those who aren't here's how it works: If you'd like to take part, you add your name to the list and send a pm with your address to the person before you. When they have finished with the chisels they pop them in the post to you and you have a go with them for a few days. When you are finished, you post them on (by recorded delivery please) to the next person, and so forth until the last person sends them back to me at Workshop Heaven. We will only do a couple of sizes in order to keep the postage costs sensible.

tenthorizr.JPG


What's new:
Ashley Iles have taken on board all of the comments (good and bad) that they received about the original bevel edged and made the necessary changes to arrive at the Mk.2 version.

A major criticism was the flatness of the backs, so they have changed the grinding process completely. Whereas the bevels used to be ground last, they are now done first and then after the steel has settled, the top and bottom faces are carefully brought down to the final dimensions. This means that the steel has done all of it's moving before the backs are ground. The backs are then slowly hand ground to avoid heating the steel again so when they leave the factory they should be within a minute or two's work of 1/10 of a mm hollow over their length. Please don't flatten them any further than 1/10mm - the hollow is enough to facilitate very fast sharpening but it's effect on the accuracy of the tool (in the order of 1/100th of a mm per cm of cut) is not significant.

Another common comment was that the large handles were too large for the smaller sizes, so the 1/8" to 1" range now have a new smaller handle which gives them a much more balanced feel. The big handles are still available to order for those that preferred them.

The very thin sides are one of the things that distinguish a Cabinetmakers bevel edged chisel from a bevelled firmer, and one of the things that customers loved about the old AI's is that they had probably the thinnest edges on the market. The new grinding process has now enabled them to get the egdes down to about half the thickness they were before.

The primary bevel has been lowered from 25 to 23 degrees so that if sharpened using a honing guide, the 25 degree setting will produce a nice secondary bevel for paring. For chopping work - with the chisel perpendicular to the surface - they recommend a 35 degree secondary bevel.

Anyway, if you'd like to have a play and draw your own conclusions - here's the start of the list:

Matthew
 
Great idea Matthew,
I'm familiar with the passaround concept and attend cabinetmaking classes at the workshop of UKW member Mr T, so we can appraise them there , giving 7 opinions for the price of one.
List:-

Matthew
Tulsk
 
waterhead37":w33jr30w said:
They sound as though they will be a lot better than the old ones.

They sound as though they will be a lot better than quite a few other chisels out there.

BugBear
 
I managed to have a look at both the Ashley Isles and Ray Isles chisel sets at Stoneleigh.
Ray told me he grinds the blades for both and that they are identical - they certainly look the same to my untrained eye - so the choice is really between the handles.
I really liked his handles - they look all angular and uncomfortable, but actually fit my hands really well, so I bought a set of 8 of the Ray Isles with a lovely leather tool roll for just £119.

Now I've just got to wait until Christmas...

I have looked at the Lie-Nielsen before and looked at the Blue Spruce chisels on the CHT stand. They are beautiful tools, but look delicate and I know I'd be afraid to use them. Also 2 of them was more than I paid for 8 Ray Isles chisels...
 
Hi Matthew.
Thank you for the opportunity!
The only 'good' chisels I've ever used have been oldies bought on the 'bay which have never really lived up to what I thought I should expect, so I just keep on sharpening my Marples :( and dream!.
I would love to try one of these, but can't see a link to the list. Should there be one? Or is being on the thread OK?

Thanks

Jim
 
Paul Chapman":30bq6a2k said:
several people have had problems with tools rusting when kept in leather tool rolls :shock: :shock:

me too :(
 
I have a set of the Mk 1 Chisels and can say they are the best chisels I've owned, they really are good, so these new Mk 2's look set to be excellent, alhtough I've never thought that the sides should be any thinner, but I guess it can't hurt.

I also like the bigger handles, helps stop me from getting cramp, but can understand making the sized handles.
 
I'd like to think they also have addressed the tendency of the brass ferrules to split. Incidentally, are the Mk 2's precision ground or still hand-linished like the Mk 1's?

I've been happy with the Mk 1's - fine tools they are too. I expect I'm very much in the minority where the large handles suit this Mr Fat Sausage-Finger-Meat-Hooks perfectly :wink:

I too wasted 30 squid on a posh leather roll fro Axminster. A 5 squid canvas one would have done a better job. The chisels immediately sliced their way through the stitching along the bottom of the pockets (nope, the muppet who designed the roll didn't make it by folding the leather. Yup, they rusted so I squirted all the pockets with Rust Preventative Spray from Screwfix. That solved it permanently (4 years now and not a speck of rust).

Ike
 
Wow, what a lot of replies!

Jim,
All you need to do is copy and paste the list into your post as it stands and then add yourself to the bottom, so:

Matthew
Tulsk
Jim

is the list as it currently stands.

Ike,
I think Barry did mention something about annealing the ferrules to make them softer - apparently its much more of a problem in the U.S. than over here, but if you have any with split ferrules you can pop them in the post either to me or straight to the factory and we'll get them sorted out for you.

Regarding suede tool rolls, I was recently made aware of the rusting problem and sent one to Paul Prince of Shield Technology - who better to ask about rust? Paul ran his own tests and also sent a swatch of the suede away to be chemically analysed by a lab. The problem occurs because of residual tannic acid in the suede, this can easily be fixed by sprinkling a teaspoon or two of bicarbonate of soda over the tool roll and rubbing it into the suede or washing the roll in a sodium bicarbonate solution. I have passed all of this onto the manufacturers and asked if an additional step can be added to the manufacturing process to render them Ph neutral at the source. The other tip is to insert the handles of the chisels into the pockets rather than the blades.
 
matthewwh":3v76f9ii said:
The other tip is to insert the handles of the chisels into the pockets rather than the blades.
I can see that being a problem for some, with the AI's they almost poke out of my tool roll, with hte sharpened blades pointing outwards, it's an accident waiting to happen! I think it would be better to just use canvas if storing for a length of time... which reminds me, i should really check on mine, they've been in the leather tool roll for a couple of months now :oops:
 
Been there, done that, yep, another situation that calls for some specialised woodworkers terminology! I use the end of a bit of polypropylene strapping or a very fine wedge of scrap timber to ease under the wax first, this creates an air pocket and they just slide straight off.

Going back to Ike's point about the finish which I missed earlier, they are still hand finished.
 
Matthew wrote:
Ike,
I think Barry did mention something about annealing the ferrules to make them softer - apparently its much more of a problem in the U.S. than over here, but if you have any with split ferrules you can pop them in the post either to me or straight to the factory and we'll get them sorted out for you.

Thank Matt. I think I was the guinea pig on this issue at the time. Barry experimented on the set I returned, and re-did them with the annealed ferrules. I didn't let him know the outcome after the following winter, but I'm happy to say it was 100% successful and I haven't had a split one since. Thanks to good customer service, my goodwill remains intact!

regards,

Ike
 
What steel are these made from?

By the way, I've a few of the stumpy pattern they produce for the US market, I think they're called Butt Chisels. They're very useful for all sorts of jobs, especially when you hold the chisel blade itself to say chamfer the edges of a tenon, or trim off the loose fibres when you've cross cut a work piece.
 
They are I believe O1 carbon steel, hardened and tempered to Rockwell 60-61. Every chisel is hardness tested.

Ike
 
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