Buy a chisel? Pros and Cons of Top Chisel Brands (Part 4)
I love to see the development of hand tools in my life. Some of the most inventive new products come from two Canadian companies, Veritas and another startup Blue Spruce. I first saw Blue Spruce tools a couple of years ago when I bought one of their beautiful scoring knives and that tool is still one of my favorites. It is easy to classify these tools as boutique tools. They certainly belong to the same lineage as “Gentlemans Tools”. These tools were made in the Victorian period for the weekend craftsman, often with ebony handles and shiny brass fittings to differentiate them from the common worker’s tools. But we all love shine and it’s nice to have well-made blades and comfortable handles for a change.
I first saw the new range of Blue Spruce chisels about a year ago when one of my students bought a set of dovetail chisels. Since then they have put out a slightly heavier bench chisel set which I think is more suitable for the furniture maker. Blue spruce makes exceptionally well designed products, the back of the blades is absolutely flat, and the bevels are ground very close to the back of the blade, providing a good line of sight. However, they are heavier than conventional carbon steel blade, but lighter than the Lie Nielsen equivalent. Beveled edge dovetail chisels are slightly different in that they have a much lighter blade and construction. These tools aren’t really designed for heavy mallets, they can be lightly tickled with a nylon hammer, but that’s all you can get.
As attractive as these blades are, and their very attractive, beautifully turned handles, the finish is reinforced with a resin that hardens the wood fibers. They have clearly been designed and manufactured with quality in mind and that is very nice. But these babies would not find a place in my heart, especially the beautiful light beveled edge blades and paired chisels. Why? Well, it is a matter of function, the function of a blade of this type is to be able to cut wood to cut the fibers of the wood. Rather than choosing a steel like high carbon steel that has the sharpest edge, Blue Spruce has chosen A2 steel. A2 steel maintains a very good sharpness for a long time, especially when it has a honing angle greater than 30 °. However, our tests have shown that when we are honing at a lower angle, close to 25 degrees or even below 25 degrees for manual stripping, A2 steel does not take on as sharp an edge as it is possible to get in sheets. high carbon steel and crucible steel. So sorry to say I have to stick with the steel bananas.
Other leaves that have found a place in our hearts are those from Japan, what the Japanese would call dovetail leaves or “Umeki Nomi”. These have the benefit of laminated construction, that heating and hammering that seems to enhance the structure of the steel and, unlike most Japanese blades, they are thin and shapely with bevels similar to a western pattern.
