Thread: What are these chisels ???

A "Perfect Handle" tool was originally one of a range of forged products with riveted wooden scales patented and made by H.D. Smith & Co. of Connecticut.
The “Perfect Handle” Hatchet – Who Knew? | ConnecticutHistory.org
Mostly you see screwdrivers. The original H.D. smith ones can be expensive.
I'm pretty sure the Schwarz blogged about them some time ago.
LV also make some:
Woodworkers' Parallel-Tip Screwdrivers - Lee Valley Tools
More Perfect Handle history here:
OldTools Archive -- thread with message 190534

Not sure what the chisels aimed at. I guess the solid steel tang would be similar in use to a Stanley everlasting chisel. Solid tang chisels seem to be more favoured on construction sites rather than cabinet making but they look a bit nice to be belting with a chippy's hammer.

I'm a bit leery of the stainless blades, but stainless metallurgy seems to have come a long way in the last decade or so.

They look like a corporate gift - snazzy but crappy. They might be brilliant but they look like they could have the logo of an aluminium extrusions or injection moulding company printed on the blade.

Is that too cynical?

Reckon they're Chinese Jobbies. No country of manu specified, which usually means........

Hi Sim,
Where were you Sun.
HTPAA had a Tool Sale in the Glenferrie Primary School, & there were more Chisels there than you could throw a book at.
Why Buy American when they are in your back yard.
Ask Doggie WWF Member, as he had heaps of chisels.

If you do a Google on 440 stainless steel you'll get some factual info & lots of opinions. Seems like it's the pick of the SS alloys for blades, but the knife nazis won't have it for thier high-quality knives under any circumstances. Note they've kept the hardness of these chisels to the lower end of what we've come to expect for carbon steels. This seems to be the normal range for 440, and fits my own experience of using SS knives over the last 40 years. The better knives are ok, and not too brittle, but no SS knife I ever used would hold an edge quite the way the equivalent CS knives did. It wasn't a big deal, you just paused to sharpen a little more often (especially when students tried cutting through the steel benches with them ), & the corrosion resistance & cleanability of SS probably more than made up for its deficiencies.

I reckon these chisels would be ideal for folks who haven't the inclination or the time to fuss over their tools, and especially if they work where conditions are conducive to rusting. For some people, durability is a bigger consideration than edge-holding - they just hit a bit harder rather than sharpen often....
Cheers,

I'd even go so far as to say that the rust resistance qualities of these chisels would be their most outstanding qualities. for use onboard a boat or other wet or corrosive environment the fact that they would simply survive could trump edge holding characteristics.