"Benjamin's Best"

[RevMoose]

I am preparing to spend a little Christmas money and wanted to buy a couple of bowl scrapers. The price for Crown, Henry Taylor or Robt. Sorby gouges and scrapers is pretty scary. I was perusing the Penn State cataloge and they advertise a line of turning tools by "Benjamin's Best." The scraper's are 1/4 inch HSS and sell for less than half of the above mentioned premium brands. I want good quality but don't necessarily need the name if the tool is good. These are from China. The Chinese are getting their act together and some goods from there are very good - others are pretty poor quality. Has anyone used these tools, and if so, what would your recommendation be.

The URL for the tools, if you want to know what I am talking about is: http://www.pennstateind.com/catalog/00071.htm

So far, I have been pretty impressed with the quality of Penn State's pen kits and the rest of the stuff in their catalog seems to be of good quality, so will give these chisels a try if I get a good recommendation.

Thanks in advance for your help,

Dan

[Boxinator]

The PSI turning tools are great... especially for someone just learning to turn and learning to sharpen. I have a whole drawer full of them and it is basically all I use.

Take a look at this: http://www.theturnersshop.com/turning/cheap_tools/cheaptools1.html

Hope this helps!

Corey

[SawDustSniffer]

first time i have heard of them , sorry cant vote
http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/showthread.php?t=40602

[hughie]

Dan,
A bit hard for us'n down under to comment. :D But we do have Chinese HSS tools available here, M2 grade. Whilst they are not top of the range they do perform well and are a very good buy.

If yours are simlar [ as I suspect they are ] then its a good place as any where to start.

If you do a search of Chinese, HSS, M2,tool steel etc you will find several postings on them or alternately check this link out.

http://www.mcjing.com.au/

They are a major supplier of Chinese HSS tools and tool steel in my neck of the woods

[Gil Jones]

"Benjamin's Best" is an OK tool line to start your turning tool collection from. If properly sharpened they cut OK, but not as smoothly as a Crown PM, nor will they hold an edge nearly as long. Of course, you can about buy a "Benjamin's Best" set for the cost of one or two Crown PMs. They are supposed to be HSS (M2 maybe), but I am able to cut mine with a used file, so I wonder about the quality of the Chinese HHS used to make them (or their ability to properly temper HSS).
Good tools to learn on, and the scrapers do a very fine job.
The only "Benjamin's Best" tool that I cannot recommend is the 2" roughing gouge. It is (like most roughing gouges) forged HSS, and the shape is neither symmetrical, nor properly designed, IMNSHO. When I use it, I usually get a slight feeling of "be careful, or it is going to get me" (if that makes sense).