Ashley Iles Mk.2 Bevel Edged Chisel Passaround

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Hi Bob,

Yes the main listings are all Mk.2 now.

I think I still have a handful of Mk 1's which will end up in the specials section.
 
Hello,
I was the first to receive 3 chisels that Matthew kindly sent out for trial/review, so firstly a big thankyou from me. As I don't currently have a workbench at home; due to workshop build, I had to have play at Chris (Mr T) Tribe's shop, where I attend cabinetmaking class. As my time with them was thus very limited I cannot draw too many conclusions. Chris had a Mk1 chisel for comparison, the first things to note was the much smaller handles on the smaller sized chisels, as well as the thinner cross section.
Unfortunately we found that we needed to do a lot of work on the backs to get them flat.This may have been down to my technique as I am a relative novice, though I did follow the DC recommended method and used DMT blue diamond stones.It took me about 40mins of rigorous work on the 7/8ths one.
That said I liked the feel of them in use and will be looking to get a couple in the near future.The second photo shows the work left to do on the 11/4 as I sent them to Jim, the other 2 both showed the same pattern where the high spot was on flattening
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj31 ... 008007.jpg
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj31 ... 008004.jpg
thanks again Matthew for letting us try the chisels
John
 
A bit late, Ive just seen this thread,
Any chance of being on the list Mathew please.
 
Hi,

No need to ask, just copy the list into your post, pop yourself on the end and send your address by PM to the person before you. So the list as it now stands is:


Matthew
Tulsk
Jim
Gardenshed

Following on from the first report back on these, I think I may need to reiterate the point about not lapping the backs. I have been very careful to specify to AI that the backs should be hollow enough to facilitate easy and fast honing, but not hollow enough to adversely affect performance. I took my lead from David Charlesworth, to whom I believe we all owe a great debt of gratitude for his tireless work in promoting best practice.

In his blog, David refers to a Woodcock paring chisel that received some major attention, saying:

"The other crucial detail is that over its full length, the blade was clearly forged and ground with about 0.5mm of hollow in its length. A most desireable and essential feature, deliberately created to aid preparation, sharpening and correct support for the cutting edge.

So please remember to send those bellied new chisels straight back to the manufacturer if you are unlucky enough to come across them.
"

In my specification to AI for the backs of the Mk2's I took this even further and asked them to produce a chisel that would be capable of taking a paring cut over the full length of the blade without diving by more than 0.1mm (DC's standard working tolerance).

After literally months of effort the first prototypes came in and I was delighted when they kept a 0.15mm feeler gauge out. - meaning only a touch to be taken off the very tip on the first honing by the user to bring them out bang on target at 0.1mm hollow in the length. In terms of hand grinding by eye, this level of skill would even make the toolmakers of yesteryear blush.

As we approached the final delivery date, a problem was encountered with the 2" blades developing a quirk in the width at the very tip of the blade - this had not been a problem with the shorter chisels as they don't extend as far onto the surface against which they are ground.

Consequently the entire surface had to be adjusted (also done by hand by the Foreman Mick) you can only imagine how nervous this made me, a fortnight from when I'm supposed to be delivering them to customers! The next day, I received a phone call from Barry to say that they had successfully corrected the error and the blades were now coming out consistently at 15 thou hollow. After a quick calculation I said; "that's not good enough, they need to be half that!" I didn't quite catch Mick's reaction (I was on speakerphone at the time) but I think it was something to do with getting blood out of stones, or more likely, getting it out of me?

This however, was nothing compared to the revelation that came several days later, after Mick had fiddled, fettled and scraped his way down to under 7 thou, when Barry realised that he was using a set of metric feeler gauges instead of his usual imperial ones, so the first result was actually 0.15mm (which would have been fine) and Mick and Paul had now gone to all that trouble getting them down to 0.07mm!

The upshot of all this, is that it may be a few days before we can get the pre-ordered chisels out to customers - I am trying to email everyone individually too to let them know about the delay, I'm hoping we can get all of the pre-orders fulfilled this week. On the bright side though I can unequivocally say that there is absolutely no need to lap the backs.
 
Hi Matthew

John spent some time lapping the chisels at my evening class last week. I had previously worked on the 1/2" one myself with good results after a short time.

The work we did on the chisels was to achieve a polished flat in the area immediately back from the edge, not to flatten the length of the chisel. Any grinding marks left in the area along the edge will effect the cutting quality of that edge.The problem we had with the larger chisels was that there seemed to be a flat area back from the edge which did not extend to the edge or the sides, almost the reverse of a Japanese chisel. This can be seem in the second of John's photographs. I guessed this was a problem caused by the steel moving when the bevels were put on the top face, as I say this was only a guess as I am not very well versed in the technology of tool production.

I liked the 1/2" chisel that I worked on. The smaller handle made the tool better balanced than the out of proportion handle on my AI 3/8" and it did not roll arouind as much. The cut was good when paring end grain and the edge kept well, although this can only be judged properly over a longer period. A good tool.

Thanks for sharing them with us Matthew.

Chris
 
Hi Chris,

Thanks very much for your post.

I'm delighted to hear that my concerns about trying to flatten the whole back were unfounded. I'm only too aware of the amount of effort involved in tuning chisels with the equipment normally found in a woodworking workshop, hence the efforts to keep the finger numbing back polishing to an absolute minimum.

It sounds as though the larger chisel had a mild case of the problem that was identified with the 2" blades, in which case the changes described above will have sorted it out on the production tools. The issue of distortion from bevel removal should already have been eliminated by reversing the grinding order.
 
I'd be delighted to try the new MK II's for a couple of days.

Matthew
Tulsk
Jim
Gardenshed
Mignal
 
matthewwh":1luflvfw said:
The new Ashley Iles Mk.2 bevel edged chisels are due to be launched at the beginning of November.

I wonder when these will arrive on this side of the pond?
-Andy
 
Joel,

When you have them, will they also be available in "butt" style? Do you have any plans for a TFWW version with "London Pattern" handles?

T.Z.
 
Tony Zaffuto":3ew8pubx said:
Joel,

When you have them, will they also be available in "butt" style? Do you have any plans for a TFWW version with "London Pattern" handles?

T.Z.

The American Pattern will stay the same handles - although they are already ground with thinner edges than before (and are less and less a butt chisel).

I personally have never liked octagonal handles. I find them clunky - so I may not be the best judge but I think after you have handled the MK2's you will be really pleased at how the handle works with the chisel. it's very very nice. Ray Iles occasionally stocks the octagonal handles but the boxwood that is currently used for the handles isn't very good and Rosewood just doesn't work well for any chisel that is meant to be struck.
 
AHoman":20mb7d9h said:
matthewwh":20mb7d9h said:
The new Ashley Iles Mk.2 bevel edged chisels are due to be launched at the beginning of November.

I wonder when these will arrive on this side of the pond?
-Andy
More to the point, when will they arrive here :)
 
Joel Moskowitz":12qxoj7x said:
[...] the boxwood that is currently used for the handles isn't very good and Rosewood just doesn't work well for any chisel that is meant to be struck.

Joel,
Will you be able to get these with beech handles?
-Andy
 
AHoman":ijt853t8 said:
Joel Moskowitz":ijt853t8 said:
[...] the boxwood that is currently used for the handles isn't very good and Rosewood just doesn't work well for any chisel that is meant to be struck.

Joel,
Will you be able to get these with beech handles?
-Andy

Do you meant the Mk2's or the American Pattern?

of the former I think so. Of the latter my guess is not because the American pattern handle is a custom and you get just get a few sets in beech. Do you have a problem with the bubinga? Personally I like both but Bubinga sells a lot better but beech is a great handle wood for chisels.
 
Joel Moskowitz":1in5bayn said:
Of the latter my guess is not because the American pattern handle is a custom and you get just get a few sets in beech. Do you have a problem with the bubinga? Personally I like both but Bubinga sells a lot better but beech is a great handle wood for chisels.

Hi Joel,
I'll try out the Mk II in beech when you get them in stock, well, probably Jan or Feb before I'll have the $ to do so. I just like the beech.
-Andy
 

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