Brief mortice chisel comparison + feedback Workshop Heaven

[AJB Temple]

I was recently in the market for some replacement mortice chisels. Had an unfortunate experience buying Narex when the supplier sent me bevels instead.

Matthew of Workshop Heaven fine tools PM'd me to offer me one of theirs to try. He sent me one to try out, despite not knowing me from Adam and not having had or even asked for any payment, and it arrived the next day.

By that time I had followed some forum advice from my original thread and bought some old pig stickers on eBay and also bought a few Lie Nielsen mortice chisels from G&S (who also provide excellent service and good prices).

I thought for your delectation and delight I would post a quick review. I did no sharpening and honed no secondary bevel for this brief very subjective comparison (though I will when I get round to it). Just chopped out some mortices in a bit of overhead framing I needed for my workshop electricall set up.

Pictures:

Subjective quick views.

Pigsticker. I bought it for some oak framing work really as it will get abused. All of them (there were several) were very beefy indeed, and the handles are massive. Idea for my purpose, but not great for more delicate work. part of a job lot of 12 chisels that cost me £18 including postage. So works out at £1.50 per chisel. Which is ludicrous;y good value.

Lie Nielsen: from memory this was about £40 from G&S. I have bought quite a few bits of LN stuff from them this year and the service is always spot on. Machining quality is immaculate. Handle finish is immaculate. Not sure about a socket handle for chopping out mortices, but I have had no trouble so far. I put it on my German vernier (repeatable accuracy) and a 1/4" chisel measured exactly 1/4" .

Narex - service from Matthew at Workshop Heaven is impeccable. Top notch. His observation (of my thread), service and generosity to trust a total stranger with a tool on appro means I am guaranteed to buy from him again. This was a metric chisel 6mm and the blade is machined well. It is not what you would call perfectly accurate as it measured over on the vernier. However, who needs total precision for the kind of use this tool will be put to. The blade is a good deal thicker than the LN. I would say it is a somewhat more heavy duty tool. The handle looks horrible and cheap, but works fine in use. Putting it in context the new price is under £15 and for that money these Narex chisels are a steal. I used it to cut out some slots in overhead ceiling joists and it was ideal.

Conclusion:

If you want perfectly flat back, perfectly accurate sizing and high level finish (plus good packaging) then the LN fit the bill. There are other premium brands too, nut I am quite happy with these.

At around 1/3 of the LN price the Narex are a bargain. Czech made. Having sharpened it up properly now I am impressed with it. if I didn't already have the LNs I would buy some more and probably will anyway at this price.

Adrian

 

[Adam9453]

Its interesting reading your review and I have to agree that I have been thoroughly impressed with workshop heaven, I have admittedly ordered from them only once so far but lets put it this way, my christmas link will consist to a link to their site and particularly more of the wonderful ashley iles chisels.
The ashley iles chisels were so sharp and flat straight out of the box that I put them to work immediately and they push through timber with only light pressure required. Thoroughly impressive when compared to my construction type stanley bevel edge chisels which even when just off the sharpening stone, don't carry anywhere near as good an edge. Obviously I would expect more from a more expensive chisel but the difference is night and day.
Keep up the good work, workshop heaven.

Please note I have no relationship with workshop heaven except that of an extremely satisfied customer. Having said that, I wouldn't turn down a freebie or some discount :wink:

 

[Paddy Roxburgh]

When you say the Narex measured a bit over are you referring too the picture of the verniers reading 6.07mm? If so I would suggest that it is as likely to be the verniers as the chisel. I use cheap digital verniers all the time but I wouldn't put to much faith in the 100ths of a mm. Indeed after one of the threads here about how fine shavings from different planes were I found if I gave them a squeeze I could make shavings that were 0.00mm, maybe I should go to Japan and enter one of their competitions. FWIW I recently bought a 1/2" Narex Mortice chisel from Matthew and put the verniers on it and to my surprise it came up as exactly 0.500". I do kind of know what you mean about the handles, they would look better without the black dye, the natural handles on my Narex cabinet makers chisels look much better. That said they ( I bought a 3/8" as well) feel fine in the hand and I bashed out a few mortices with one sharpening at 35 degrees (ish) and they were great in use.
Paddy

 

[AJB Temple]

Hi Paddy. It is not a cheap digital vernier. I know they all look the same but this one is German made, calibrated and repeatedly accurate. However, the chisel, as I said is great value. A

 

[Paddy Roxburgh]

Fair play AJP. I always find the last digit on my verniers a bit of a distraction, I kinda wish it wasn't there sometimes as I catch myself worrying about wood coming off the thicknesser (which I spent a lot of time shimming and messing with as it used to come out mm s out) being a few 1/100ths of a mm inconsistent then remembering that 1/10mm is accurate enough for anything I do.
I went to a friends house once and he had stuck masking tape over the bottom of the telly because he is Greek and there was a Greek film on the telly and couldn't help reading the subtitles in English (long before the internet and smart tellys where you can turn the subtitles off, a Greek language film was a bit of a rareity for him) I have considered taking a similar approach with my verniers and putting masking tape at the end. As Richard Maguire said on his blog the other day if its smaller than an 1/8" then it;s unmeasurable.
Paddy

 

[Cheshirechappie]

A small point worth noting with mortice chisels (indeed, chisels in general) is that the size is usually a bit 'nominal'. A mortice chisel of a stated size, especially the vintage ones, could be quite a few 'thous' larger or smaller. This isn't really a problem, because the usual method of working by hand is to set the mortice gauge to the chisel available, sink the mortices with it, and mark out the tenons with the same gauge, thus cutting to fit. The absolute size of the chisel (and thus the mortice it cuts and the tenon that fits it) matters not a jot, provided it's in the right general order for the work in hand - normally about 1/3 of the rail thickness.

Good mortice chisels (certainly the pigsticker type - this may not apply so much to the sash type) taper slightly in width, being wider at the cutting edge than at the shoulder, thus helping the chisel to release easily in deep mortices. I once bought a second-hand mortice chisel that tapered in thickness - but the taper ran the wrong way; it was thinner at the cutting edge than it was about 1 1/2" up the blade. That IS a problem, because the chisel is going to stick in any mortice cut with it, so the chisel is unusable as is. I can only surmise that a kack-handed previous owner had applied it to a grinder to thin it down a bit for some reason. I solved the problem by buying another chisel!

 

[AJB Temple]

Good point Cheshire chappie. This is why I said I didn't care about exact sizing. I just measured the chisels to see what the manufacturing standards are like and to measure the taper. I also checked the flatness of the back, but this was purely for interest as it will make no difference in use.

I find the pig stickers rather unwieldy in the hand, but I bought them for timer framing (I have a couple of much larger chisels as well) not shop work.

If I was starting from scratch and needed or wanted some mortise chisels, I would certainly buy the Narex ones in the sizes I needed. Not necessarily the sets of 5 or 6 as really two or three is enough for most jobs, though the Narex sets are boxed and so cheap for such a good quality tool it is almost a no brainer.

 

[bugbear]

I'll just inject my usual point of pedantry, and remind people that the calipers being used are "digital calipers" not "digital vernier calipers".

The lack of a vernier scale is the clue here.

BugBear