Thread: The Review you have all been waiting for

I received a box of chisels recently from an old friend whose husband had passed away. I knew it was coming and I had visions of finding some rare and wonderful treasures.
Not quite. These were a bunch of useful sized chisels that he had collected over the years and they were pretty sad. Plastic handled no names mostly. The nicest looking was one that you will all be familiar with. It usually comes with others in a set of three or four in a plastic sachet, and sells for about $10 per set in Buy-Lo, Go-Lo and the Reject Shop. I won't tell where they are made but if you look carefully at the photos you will see.
Now, I have never been tempted to buy one of these, and when I see them hanging up in shops, I hurry past in case I might be seen in their company.
However, I was cleaning up in the shed this morning and found the box again. I wondered how bad they could be.
First step - wire brush all the rust from the blade. Only a little pitting and well away from the edge.
Next - flatten the back. Now, I thought that if this looked like it was going to take longer than a few minutes, I would throw the chisel back in the box and do something else.
Here was the first surprise - the back was ....... flat. Only took a few swipes on the oilstone to get it good enough to proceed with.
The bevel was slightly out of square but I left it that way. Honed the bevel and then put a secondary bevel on it - all by hand and no jig - not prepared to invest the time in setting up.
Quick polish on the White Arkansas stone and we are good to go.
Moment of truth.
Paring end grain. Don't start with anything too challenging.
Meranti - piece of cake
Red Cedar - cut it like butter
Jacaranda and Rosewood - same story
Flooded Gum - this'll pull it up - Straight through, over and over again.
Now I don't have anything harder, and certainly no Jarrah.
I was impressed.
How long will the edge last - don't know.
The chisel has already wildly surpassed my expectations of it.
I won't be swapping it for one of my Bergs anytime soon, but I will pass those chisels in the supermarkets with a bit more respect in the future.
Cheers
SG