Bargain Japanese chisels

**elanjacobs** · 29th August 2010, 12:02 AM

I was trawling the intarwebs and found these on eBay JAPANESE OIRE chisel 10P "NA" with contain scroll plane - eBay Carpentry, Woodworking, Tools, Tools, Hardware Locks, Collectibles. (end time 02-Sep-10 00:57:22 AEST) I thought for $210 for a set of 10 (3mm to 42mm) I couldn't really go wrong so I bought them.

Couple of weeks later I get a package in the mail, open it up and have a first look at them and I can honestly say I was shocked at how good they looked out of the packet. Ran a finger over the edge and it was razor sharp, put a square to it and it was almost perfect and to top thing off, a couple of swipes on a diamond stone showed that the backs were DEAD FLAT. Went straight to the 12000 Shapton (which was bought from the same eBay seller) and in under 2 minutes I had a mirror finish on the back and bevel.

Took it to an American Oak table pedestal I was working on and tried it on some endgrain that needed trimming (I throw stuff straight into the deep end

). Got a beautifully smooth cut, both with hammer bashing and fine hand work and they felt well balanced and easy to control even with my smallish hands.

Compare all this to my Iyoroi chisels from Carbatec that cost almost 5 times as much AND required a good 90 mins each to flatten and square and I think I did quite well. Just need to see how they hold up to the test of time.

So if anyone is thinking of entering the Japanese tool market but is wary of the cost and time involved or just wants to get some sizes that they don't have, this is definitely a good buy.

**Pac man** · 24th September 2010, 10:32 PM

Hi,

I have seen these chisels from 330_mate on ebay.Are you still happy with them?
Whats the finish like as its hard to tell on the sellers photo's. Could you perhaps take some photos of them an upload? I'm trying to decide whether to part with the cash.

Cheers

Pac man

**woodie one** · 25th September 2010, 12:03 AM

Some of the photos on the web site appear to show quite distinct black regions along the join between the steel blade and the iron back of some chisels. Are these imperfections / weak spots / voids between the laminations that could weaken the chisels when they are used "with enthusiasm"?

caveat emptor

**elanjacobs** · 25th September 2010, 10:30 PM

So far I'm still quite happy with them, they don't hold a scary sharp edge for as long as my Iyoroi chisels, but they hold a good working edge well and I don't play nice with my chisels - it's chopping endgrain American Oak and I hit them with a real hammer too

For the price I can find them hard to fault.

As for the dark lamination lines, I don't think they're an issue and, AFAIK, all laminated blades will have a darker line where the two metals mix. As I said above, I don't treat them gently and they haven't shown signs of weakening. The only lamination issue I can find is that on the smaller ones some of the soft backing iron is all the way to the edge, but again, for the price one can't expect master craftsmanship and the smaller ones are much harder to laminate and also wouldn't see as much heavy use as the large ones, except for mortising which is quite intense anyway.

So, at the end of the day, they're not top quality (probably the "Stanley" of Japanese tools) but they're a very good starting point for Japanese chisels and I challenge anyone to find something better at that price.

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