My set of Stanley 750 Sweetheart chisels arrived this morning. I thought I'd record my first impressions and a few pictures. My experience with chisels has been Marples blue chips and other inexpensive sets. These all took a bit of effort to setup, especially flattening the faces. It's too early to tell, but the Stanley 750s appear to be much more carefully milled. My guess is that they will be much easier to setup.
My main reason for buying these was the "feel" of the chisel. I'd hoped they would be better balanced and that the handles would be more comfortable. They absolutely hit the mark in this respect. They feel very natural in my hand and the balance is fantastic. Nimble comes to mind. The are lighter than any of my other chisels and I expect then to be a pleasure to use.
The bevels look to be 30 degrees (I didn't measure). I'll probably regrind them to around 25 and use a secondary bevel at about 30. We'll see how they hold up and adjust from there. I may start out at 20/25 and only go steeper if I have to. I'll decide after the faces are done.
As for the fit and finish. They are good, better than any other set I've owned but not near what I'd expect from premium chisels. One handle, for example, has a dark spot. It's purely cosmetic, but the premium brands would have tossed it. In addition, the Stanley 750 logo on the 1/8" chisel is printed on the wrong side. So QA is marginal. This is in line with what I expected. These are not premium chisels. they are good chisels that cost me 1/3 as much. So far, they appear to be a good value for the money.
The steel came coated in lacquer, so I set them to soak in lacquer thinner for a while. I'll report more once I can start flattening the faces and honing the bevels.
Box and leather tool roll.
Stanley-750-1.jpg
Unlike previous reports indicated, the chisels did not ship in individual boxes. They were wrapped in plastic.
Stanley-750-2.jpg
Chisels sans plastic wrap.
Stanley-750-3.jpg
Here's the misprinted logo on the 1/8".
Stanley-750-4.jpg
The mill marks on the faces seem fine and very even. Straight horizontal lines make the think they were milled rather than sanded flat, but that's only a guess. It's tough to tell with the lacquer coating, but the milling seems very fine and should be easy to flatten and polish.
Stanley-750-5.jpg
The full set again.
Stanley-750-6.jpg