I saw some Youtube dude proclaiming the virtues of the new Irwin chisels. I decided to try one. It arrived today.

Before doing anything, I decided to see how hard the steel was. I took out a Kershaw pocket knife, and I scratched the back of the chisel. I made tiny microscopic scratches in it. When I tried to scratch the knife with the chisel, the chisel slid on the knife like a butter knife on glass. No scratching.

I then grabbed a Home Depot Buck Bros. chisel and tried the same test. This is one of the cheapest chisels in the universe. The Irwin chisel could not mark it, but the Buck Bros. chisel could mark the Irwin.

I'm sending the Irwin back. Am I being unreasonable? Seems to me that a good chisel should be nice and hard. I suppose the Irwin will take an edge quickly, but it will also lose an edge quickly.

I don't feel bad about sending a scratched chisel back, because the next buyer will need a microscope to see the scratches, and he will want to flatten the back of the chisel anyway.