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