veritas chisels

Scandalous..........

Re: veritas chisels

March?  With no communication?

Re: veritas chisels

No. I had to ask a couple of times. Some time in May, I believe, someone there gave me the impression that it was the usual (these days) supply chain issues; and I thought it was about the steel or ferrules. But , the most recent call to them indicates it's the wooden handles that are holding things up. I jokingly asked if they wanted me to go up there to turn them some handles. We had a laugh and turned the conversation around to my rescue dog.

Re: veritas chisels

These last few years, particularly with Lie-Nielsen, have shown just how little is actually accomplished all under one roof.

Re: veritas chisels

I talked Lee Valley people at WIA in 2011 and suggested they offer the chisels unhandled. That idea seemed not to have occurred to them. I would think some of the chisels are sold to woodworkers. 

Re: veritas chisels

Offering them without a handle seems to be a great idea. I for one love to make my own handles. But I suspect Veritas wants to make sure that their premium chisels have a really fine well-made handle at this price for all to see and admire.

handle making

I saw the handles being made in the LV factory.  Maybe there is a cherry shortage in Canada. Some years ago Mr. Lee would chime in here and clear things up.  

unhandled would be my preferred way of buying

Narex offers their chisels unhandled.  They are very cheap this way.  

Re: handle making

I don't suppose people would mind an appropriate  wood other than cherry, though. Are Veritas chisels always made from cherry?

Re: handle making

The LV description indicates torrefied maple for the handles. I am thinking Rob may be on the floor grinding metal.

Yah, it seems a weak reason for delays, but I noticed more than a few "out-of-stocks" a couple weeks ago throughout the offerings.

Maple

From their product description:

The hard maple handle has been torrefied, a heating process that changes the structure of the wood at the cellular level, stabilizing it against swelling and shrinkage caused by humidity changes.

Re: handle making

Perhaps an instance where gilding the lily comes back to haunt you.  

Long backorders tell you all you need to know though.  I thought they had some sort of automated system that sent out communications on backorders.  Could have sworn I saw this on one of the forums.  Guess I'm dreaming it.

Re: unhandled would be my preferred way of buying

Where can one buy the unhandled Narex chisels? Are their higher-end chisels available that way?

Narex sources

I do not recall where I bought them and I don't keep records.  I found the source by searching Narex on the Internet

Re: unhandled would be my preferred way of buying

Googled ‘narex unhandled’.  Couple of options came up:

Narex unhandled

https://taytools.com/products/narex-6-piece-unhandled-bevel-edge-set?variant=31429148016727&currency=USD&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic

https://www.amazon.com/Narex-Piece-Unhandled-Premium-Chisel/dp/B07T816DN9?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&smid=A1F0ZX9W2WURWY&th=1

wiley

thanks

Re: veritas chisels

Ordered and paid, or just ordered?

Re: veritas chisels

I paid ; but they don't put the payment through until they send out the order. They are not terrible people; it's just that they just don't have their act together as far as actually making and delivering the product. There was once something similar after Gerry Glazier went out of business making turning tools.; some other company bought the rights and started advertising and supposedly taking over. They had a huge promotion at one the the annual AAW meetings in Richmond , Va. ( something like a decade or more ago)But few if any of the new tools ever were made or delivered. Thompson eventually got into it and did well. But the people who first took over never really got off the ground. I asked Lee Valley if something like this is going on now. They said , "no."

Re: veritas chisels

I talked Lee Valley people at WIA in 2011 and suggested they offer the chisels unhandled.

Here is a 1" Veritas "paring chisel" ... well, it is really a Veritas O1 bench chisel with a Lie Nielsen paring chisel handle. The blade was one of those I road tested pre-production (around 2011), and the handle was a gift from David Eckert, who headed up LN Australia around that time. 

Here alongside another 1" O1 Bench chisel ...

Actually quite nice in the hand.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Re: veritas chisels

But I much prefer the standard bench chisel handles. They are one of the best. I appreciate that some may wish to purchase quality chisels without handles if this made them cheaper, but that would be false economy in my opinion.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Re: veritas chisels

Hi Eliot,

Am sure LV is doing everything possible.  They have big orders waiting.  Dieter Schmid in Germany is expecting in ‘Week 37’:

 https://www.fine-tools.com/veritas-chisels.html

You’ll like the steel, as long as you hollow grind (I have plane blades bought as a result of David Weaver’s testing).  

Wiley

Re: veritas chisels

I'm OK about the wait. Looking forward to enjoy them when I get back to my shop in Maryland.

Re: veritas chisels

Hi - 

Late to this party - and didn't see this....

Chisels are our worst production problem - from material supply, to a failing mill, to a failed woodshop lathe....

They will be coming back onstream Aug-Sept. That also depends on our new lapping capacity arriving on timely basis - which has now slipped from Early August.  It would be nice if all of the problems arrived in parallel - but so far  - every problem is arriving in sequence. 

Over the past year and a half - we have ordered and installed more than a dozen new CNC machines. In fact - we are buying two more today - despite not having power available to turn them on yet  - as the City of Ottawa has taken more than a year to advance our power upgrade - now headed for the design phase. In addition to new capacity - we have also hired about 50 people for the shop and assembly - and those folks are making a difference.

At the same time - we are still subject to delivery disruptions and changes from suppliers. Just yesterday we had notice of a change to 21 week delivery from a specialty extrusion firm, and we actually had to order some 1095 steel from Mcmaster Carr just to get enough to make slitting cutters for the 300 or so combination planes we have completely ready to ship - but missing the slitting cutters, and our steel order won't be in until October.

Boxes, packaging, supplies - it's all a mess. 

The good news is - for those that have ordered - your prices are fixed - no matter what happens to our costs.... and they are significant increases still to come.

Turning - we just took a metal lathe out of the shop to replace the failed lathe that made handles, and are also about to buy a custom system for high volume handle production....but no idea when that will arrive.

Production is running at record levels - and increasing weekly. We are making tremendous inroads into the backlog that built during the first year of COVID - which was substantial.

It's been a fun couple of years.... but at least there's is a tunnel to go through, and we do see light....

Cheers - 

Rob

(and yes - we'll sell the blades unhandled once we have suitable stock of the handled ones...)

Re: veritas chisels

Because I started this thread , I suppose I should respond. I had only some idea how much trouble you were having when I ordered this set of chisels on March 5th. At that time the story was that it would take about four months to get the order. I thought that four months was a long time, but I was willing to wait for what everyone was telling me were superb tools. When I called Lee Valley on several occasions, the expected time of arrival kept getting longer. Late July at first, then August. You are mentioning September now. I trust there will be an end to the problems eventually. In the great scheme of things, it's not the end of the world, and as it turns out, I am away from my shop anyway, in CT instead of MD , where I live  most of the year and where my shop is located. I look forward to receiving these tools perhaps in September when I will be back to woodwork in Bethesda, Maryland.( I'll call again to have the address changed back to my MD address.) I should add that your staff has each time been as helpful as possible and genuinely reasonable and polite. There has been no real harm done.