Carving tool advice

Ashley Isles, ebay, really? Better go bid on those

John, NY

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Re: Carving tool advice

Rob in Kansas

>About two weeks ago I posted a general question about carving tools. Just do a search under my name and you'll find it.

William Duffield said the Ashley Iles had a good reputation. I ordered a couple from Joel and even wrote that they were for after Christmas so he could push my order aside for Christmas orders if he needed to. Regardless they arrived much quicker than I expected (Thanks Joel!). I have too much to get done before I can start on my project so I can't give a report even if I felt I was experienced enough to give an opinion. So they are sitting there torturing me to use them until after Christmas!

Also Paul Dzioba suggested I get one new tool to see how it is sharpened because many get mangled in improper sharpening.

Hope that helps,

The other Rob

Re: Ashley Isles, ebay, really? Better go bid on t

rob ring

>You know, i thought about not mentioning ebay to avoid other bidders...but thought it would be disengenuous since I'm asking for free advice.

Rob

Re: Ashley Isles, ebay, really? Better go bid on t

John, NY

>Sorry, couldn't resist. I'm not bidding against you. As far as I understand it the Ashley Isles stuff is pretty top notch. The swiss stuff may be better but I would think its marginal.

My small amount of carving stuff is all Mathieson, Addis, Sorby and oddments... ie old! I found the Henry Taylor stuff I bought to be very flimsy compared to the old stuff I already had but I believe the Isles stuff to be several notches above HT.

Re: Carving tool advice

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>If you're going the ebay route, I'd look for Ashley Isles, Addis (JB, SJ, or whoever, doesn't matter), Dastra, Stubai, Pfeil, Two Cherries, Hirsch, Witherby (haven't see too many carving chisels here), PS&W (Pexto), Swan, old Buck Brothers and/or Charles Buck, Herring. I think that's your search term.

Pam

Re: Ashley Isles, ebay, really? Better go bid on t

rob ring

>I figured you were just yanking my chain, but fair is fair. I'm an econ guy, so I accept the free market and all the stuff that makes ebay a phenomenon. I just hope there's not too much demand for what I want.

Rob

Re: Carving tool advice

rob ring

>Thanks for the run-down on brands, Pam.

I've seen a lot of Buck Brothers listed as "cast steel." I'm not as familiar with carving tools as I should be, but I thought good chisels and gouges were forged. Is cast steel a lesser grade of tool or just a historical marketing term?

Rob

Re: Carving tool advice

joel

>Cast steel is a term used to describe higher quality tool steels and was used in tools from about 1800 (give or take really not common until later) until about 1940 (give or take)

It has nothing to do if the tool was made by casting or forging and all edge tools used to be forged (casting would break)

Re: Carving tool advice

rob ring

>Thanks for clarifying, Joel. So much to learn, but that's part of the fun.

Re: Cast steel

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>I'd believe Joel on this one, he knows a lot more about western blades than I do. For that matter, he knows a lot more than I do about most anything woodworking.

When it comes to Japanese chisels, which I didn't mention because the carving chisels are really different and you don't see them all that often on ebay, you look for forged and laminated. A lot of the old western chisels are also laminated, and work beautifully.

Pam

Cast Steel (Long) *LINK*

John, NY

>Definition of Cast Steel: A term originally applied to crucible steel and sometimes today used to describe tool steels. The term is misleading and is falling into misuse.

Until 1742, producing steel was a difficult task. The quality of the steel was often unreliable. The steel was made by heating iron bars which were covered in charcoal. The heating was continued for up to a week. The material produced was called blister steel.

Blister steel was then turned into shear steel by wrapping blister steel bars up in a bundle and then heating them again before forging the bundle. The heat and the action of the forge hammer welded the rods together as they were hammered to the size required. This shear steel was used to make razors, files, knives, swords and the other steel items for which Sheffield became famous.

No more than about 200 tons of steel were produced each year in Sheffield, using this process.

Benjamin Huntsman's crucible steel process changed all that. He was the first person to cast steel ingots. The process produced uniform high quality steel in reasonably large quantities,

M. Le Play, Professor of Metallurgy at the Royal School of Mines of France, wrote in 1846 that Huntsman's memorable discovery advanced the steel manufactures of Sheffield to the first rank, and powerfully contributed to the establishment of the industrial and commercial supremacy of Great Britain.

Within 100 years of the invention of the process, Sheffield was producing 20000 tons of crucible steel a year. This was 40% of the total amount of steel produced in Europe at this time


Crucible Steel

Re: Cast Steel (Long)

rob ring

>Like I said, LOTS to learn.

Re: Carving tool advice

Jeff Heath

>Ashley Isle Carving tools are top notch.

Jeff.