stanley 5001 chisels

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lurcher

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hi could you pleaseenlighten me on these stanley chisels i have some and a set of marples and a set of footprint .
as they seem to be of the same standard of manufacture alot thicker than the marples and footprint but after that what i the ig attractioon for some people.
lurcher
 
I think the major attraction is that their upper surfaces were polished, there was a surcharge for this when they were offered new (I've read it was 50% but I don't know how accurate that is) and it may have ensured that to those in the know they've retained a higher value since.
 
yes it's the quality of steel, and also the shape of the handle, they just feel good and well balanced, I have only one but it's a great chisel, prefer it to my narex set which have pretty bulky handles.
 
I have a set of them (5001s) , and they are nicely made in terms of profile. Mine are not consistent in hardness, either, but the marples blue chip set I had years ago also had a soft one in the bunch.

I am tempted to reharden my 5001s as I really like the profile of the grind on them. That desire is tempered by the fact that I have other chisels that are fine, and no idea if they will harden properly in a propane weed torch heat environment and a vegetable oil quench.
 
I have a set of 5001's which I inherited from my father and a set of 5002's I bought myself in the late 60's.
Both sets show varying hardness - some are very soft.
I tend to use them for rough work (DIY) and keep my favourites ( a set of Japanese ones) for quality work.

Rod
 
Hello,

Having owned 5001's Marples and Footprint, ( and an embarrassing number of other makes) I can say that the differences are subtle. I suppose the 5001's were a good quality at a relatively reasonable price, which Stanley never matched since, so make them legendary. They were nicely balanced, reasonably tough, had machining marks factory polished away and had nice, thinish lands for much of the chisels length. Blue chips were good, but less well finished and the lands less fine and quite variable. I've had some fine enough to compare well with 5001's and others almost like firmers. Footprint I find better than Marples Blue Chip actually. The ovoid handles are quite nice, the finish of the blades somewhere between the Stanley and Marples and the lands quite fine. I think the steel is a bit tougher than either. I would not pay a premium for 5001 chisels, but would buy them with great enthusiasm if the price was right.But whilst footprint are available used for so much less and on a par, I would have those, if value was an issue and I needed more chisels. I don't. TBH, footprint are head and shoulders above Narex. It is a shame they are no longer made.

Mike.
 
I've got one 5001 chisel, 1" sized, inherited it from my father who despite being principle engineer for BAE systems, used it to open paint tins, stir that paint and also to split bricks.
Great with formula and a slide rule, not so good in a practical sense :LOL:
 
I've got one 5001 chisel, 1" sized, inherited it from my father who despite being principle engineer for BAE systems, used it to open paint tins, stir that paint and also to split bricks.
Great with formula and a slide rule, not so good in a practical sense :LOL:
My grandfather was a fitter at BAE Broughton hs125 iirk...

What did you dad work on must have had some great stories!

Cheers James
 
My grandfather was a fitter at BAE Broughton hs125 iirk...

What did you dad work on must have had some great stories!

Cheers James
I couldnt tell you exactly, maybe type 42 destroyers. H had a lot of drawings on the dining table as he worked long into the night and I read that in a title. Most of it was in brown files marked secret. That said it might have been the type 22 frigate, I kind of remember him saying something about Frigates, but I was young at the time so cant say for sure.

But most of it concerned the navy, subs and that ilk. He was on some of the nuclear subs during sea trials, so I think he's stuff to do with them.
We didnt actually get on, and that level its super high pressure and pretty much worked to 2 or 3am. No real time for family life.
Any stories Dad did come out with concerned serious flaws in the designs of our carriers, different systems we use and the American carriers use.
I remember once he told me that they were working with early Macintosh computers and he did the calculations, inputted the data into the computer(this was probably the 80's green screen type) and said the computer answers were wrong, so he did them again on the slide rule, input that data and again the computer was wrong, so he reprogrammed it to match his answer, he was that confident in his own abilities.

We had one funny incident about a year before he died, I was getting a lot of work done on the building, i was renting, and the builders kept getting things wrong, or would turn up at the wrong time when they'd been told constantly when they should have turned up.
So Dad contacted the project manager in charge of the works and he told Dad to quote "You must remember Mr *****, I have over a dozen people to manage here"
The only time I heard Dad ever swear was when he was telling me this and said. I deal with the work of some 50,000 people. Everything concerned with building a submarine passed over my desk, and it was at this point I knew I was dealing with a F****g I***t :LOL: Who could not liaise 12 people.

Despite us not getting on I do miss him. He knew everything about everything and no question concerning things like metallurgy, physics, mathematics, design, engineering etc was beyond his ken. I sometimes feel i've lost out on accessing that knowledge.
I suspect he was a savant. I've autism, and I believe he did too, mainly from a few things mum has said over the years. He was a member of mensa for many years, but I dont know if he or anyone put much thought into that type of thing, though its not unusual for autism to be a hereditary disorder.
 
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Post above about being unsure about rehardening didn't age well. I'm sure I could do it now, but 5001 set is long gone .
 
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