David Weaver
...as i recall, those chisels are hardened by austempering rather than the typical critical heat and fast quench. I don't know exactly how austempering works and am being too lazy to go reread it other than to find that it cuts steps and leaves a final product at about 59 hardness. The idea of pushing to 61 or 62 (which is probably ideal for chisels and where most of the chisels that warren prefers are) isn't attainable.

That leaves them in striking distance of being nice work chisels. The benefit of this method as a problem solver (not as an obligation) is it takes a chisel that's kind of frustrating to work with and makes it a winner.

I have a rosier view than others will because the sharpening cycle time on a 2000 grit diamond stone and then a buffing wheel is something like 30 seconds, and then on top of it, the edge lasts many times longer. It's a cheater's way to get to warren's edge care efficiency. If I had a force recording scale, I would probably give in to doing a test to prove cut efficiency (resistance), but it's better just observed when you find something like you did - a test where you're seeing edge failure -the kind that was often advised to be solved by purchasing and waiting.