So... I ordered some Henry Taylor carving chisels...

[jamie shard]

But first let me say I also have some Ashley Isles fishtail chisels that arrived first and they kinda made my jaw drop in how solid they felt. I sharpened the straight fishtail chisel and the thing cuts beautifully.

My first reaction upon seeing the HT was... well I'm not too impressed. Seems like a fair amount of work will be needed to get the steel cleaned up (they are the black coated on the shaft and straw color on the ground bevels). Of course sharpening will take time, no big deal in itself, but then the handles also seem kinda thin and light. I'm debating if it is even worth the effort to get them tuned up.

So before I sink a lot of time into getting these tuned up...

Should I return the HT and spend more for the AIs? Or even Dastras? I don't mind spend more money on better tools. I thought HT might be at the value point, but for a few dollars more would I be getting a significantly better tool?

-jamie

[Mike Henderson]

I have a few Henry Taylor carving tools and they're fine. I did have problems with them initially - the edge was too hard and it would chip - but once I had sharpened it a few times, the steel was fine.

Mike

[jamie shard]

Just to close the loop... I decide to order the Dastras and... they are wonderful in every way.

I also bought used buffer and cleaned up a slightly different set of HTs for the lesser-used sizes. They are definitely functional, definitely cheaper, an okay complement to the main set of Dastras... and now nicely cleaned up.