Thread: Barr Framing Chisel - Great but Disappointing

Whinging about it on an open forum wont resolve your concerns. Contact the company and request a partial or full refund.

No. I assumed with framing chisels and hand forged tools that maybe that was normal. Also it's something that can be fixed, albeit with some elbow greese. I may email Barr Tools directly and let them know in case it's a one-off and they want to keep track of quality control etc.

I'm the type of person who generally just fixes stuff if it can be fixed rather than sending things back or going back and forth with emails. The only time i've ever bothered was with a Lie Nielsen saw recently but ended up fixing that myself as well. Not that anything is broken here, I just wasnt expecting it to be quite so terrible given my experience with every other chisel i've bought (veritas, koyamaichi, ouchi, other japanese, cheap bunnings stanleys, etc)

Anyway, here is a pic of the chisel next to a Veritas 18mm bench chisel. Because everyone likes pics.

20170704_212559.jpg

And this is after 4 hours of flattening (mostly on the extra coarse DMT). Mostly fixed aside from that one patch mainly.

20170704_212648.jpg

Originally Posted by planemaker

Whinging about it on an open forum wont resolve your concerns. Contact the company and request a partial or full refund.

I'm not concerned, just surprised and a bit dissapointed. I'm still hopefull it will be a great chisel and have good edge retention etc. It was certainly hard enough trying to flatten it so that bodes well for its hardness!

Dom; contact Barr and make them aware of your disappointment. Within their online advertisement you have the option to receive a full refund or replacement within 1 year of purchase. https://barrtools.com/

Stewie;

Originally Posted by planemaker

Dom; contact Barr and make them aware of your disappointment. Within their online advertisement you have the option to receive a full refund or replacement within 1 year of purchase. https://barrtools.com/

Stewie;

Yeah ok. I'll contact them, even if only so that they are aware of possible quality issues that are slipping through (assuming that they view this as sub-par). I wish I had have stopped and taken some pics of the chisel back as-received. I was actually just in a rush to make it presentable because I wanted to show my dad & friend who were both keen to see it but I was too embarrassed to show it with the back the way it came so got stuck into flattening immediately. It was only after a couple of hours that I began to grow irritated lol.

Let us know what the response is. IMO the high-end tools makers could do more QC.

Dom, I wouldn't expect something sold as a 'framing chisel' to be near-perfect, but for the back to be up to 1mm out of flat does seem unusually crude. My idea of a framing chisel, based on the few oldies I've seen is not something that looks like a high-end bench chisel; the backs were flattish, but far from precision-ground. I'd want the first inch or two of the back to be flat & shiny to take a good & straight edge, but the rest of the back could just be 'reasonably straight' and it should do its intended job.

As I see it, you don't need or use cabinet-making precision when cutting the humongous mortises for framing in green or partly-dried wooden members, it just isn't practical, so a chisel that emphasises mass over finesse is probably appropriate. Horses for courses, & all that.....

Cheers,

Dom,

I can't comment on the quality of the tools, the brand, etc., but the one thing that I immediately say is:

I can't believe you flattened the ENTIRE back of that huge chisel!

That is some serious dedication... I never flatten any more than I absolutely have to. If you only work the front inch or so of the chisel, it goes way, way faster. The rest is unused, so it doesn't need to be like that.

I've never flattened an entire chisel back, but I honestly would not be surprised if there was that kind of variation more often than you'd imagine. Not on the uber high end stuff of course, but on older chisels or brands like Narex, etc. I might expect to see that sort of thing. I honestly don't know.

Best advice I can give is to shoot them an email and ask them if it's normal.

Cheers,
Luke

Originally Posted by Luke Maddux

Dom,

I can't comment on the quality of the tools, the brand, etc., but the one thing that I immediately say is:

I can't believe you flattened the ENTIRE back of that huge chisel!

That is some serious dedication... I never flatten any more than I absolutely have to. If you only work the front inch or so of the chisel, it goes way, way faster. The rest is unused, so it doesn't need to be like that.

I've never flattened an entire chisel back, but I honestly would not be surprised if there was that kind of variation more often than you'd imagine. Not on the uber high end stuff of course, but on older chisels or brands like Narex, etc. I might expect to see that sort of thing. I honestly don't know.

Best advice I can give is to shoot them an email and ask them if it's normal.

Cheers,
Luke

Hi Luke,

Flattening the entire back was not really by choice. Given i need to be able to pare mortise walls and tenons up to 8" deep i need to be able to use the full length of the chisel.

The way it was if I only flattened the first inch or so as soon as I pared beyond that inch the chisel front edge would pitch up and down and even roll left to right etc.

I'd think that a maker could have a hard platen on a variable speed belt grinder and do a pretty good job making the back a little convex as it should be on a timber framing chisel.

It's not easy to make things like that or run a business, so sometimes you draw heat if you offer any criticism, but the few timber framers I've gotten have been vintage for about $25, with a nice uniform gradual convexity in their length on the back. I just don't think they can be bettered.