Last week during a discussion where someone asked about chisels, I made the remark that maybe I should sell my "antique" chisels and my blue chips and get 1 set of good chisels instead of trying to find the rest of the oldies to complete that set. After thinking about it for a little bit, I decided that I should try, and had both sets sold the next day. So I ordered the Ashley Iles bench chisels from Tools For Working Wood on Wednesday and Fedex delivered them Friday after I was gone for the weekend. Got them unboxed and ready to go this evening. Overall, I'm very happy with my purchase. They didn't quite "come from the factory with a edge which can be used as is" as was described--some actually had some chipping on the edges, but I was able to quickly flatten the backs of all 8 chisels with a diamond stone and waterstones and then sharpen with my Tormek in about 1-1/2 hours which isn't too bad. I bought 1/8" thru 1" sizes. After sharpening, I played around with some soft maple and they cut beautifully. They are also very easy on the hands and eyes.
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