Narex Richter Bevel Edge Chisel Set of 5

Product Information

To mark the hundredth anniversary of Narex, the company launched a new chisel series named after the company’s founder, Vaclav Richter. These chisels are a real credit to this anniversary. Another point of view is that as woodworkers we hope that people appreciate out hand-made creations and the effort that has gone into the work. In some cases machine made dovetails in items from the Far East will be more precise than mine, but mine are hand cut and that counts for something – I hope. In the same respect, I like to buy hand-made tools. i can aford them in small number and I love to use them because I know a guy from, for example, Ashley Iles (who have been mentioned here) ground them by hand. If we only promote cheap mass-produced items then why do we bother doing woodwork at all when it can be churned out by machines – is there any value in hand-made? I find it quite depressing when I shop for tools in large stores to find that its nearly all cheap and mass produced, and i’d argue a lot is rubbish and won’t last a lifetime at all (so I don’t buy it). In addition to all this, buying the likes of Ashley Iles and Clifton planes supports local craftsmen, when the craft has largely died out. If we as craftsmen don’t see the value in the crafft of toolmaking, why should we expect others to value our craft of woodwork? The blade is impressive. There are no visible machine marks and no sharp edges apart from the cutting edge. It’s polished to a flawless satin sheen too. The chisel’s factory-ground 24° bevel is honed with a slight microbevel and suitable for use right out of the box. I still honed mine further to suit my personal preferences, allowing them to perform even better. The chrome-vanadium blades are tempered to achieve a minimum hardness of 62HRc. The quality of the steel and the way it is hardened and tempered makes the chisels very high quality. I could feel their hardness during the sharpening process. Although it was possible to sharpen with my traditional Japanese waterstones, it took a little extra time. Once sharp, though, the chisels stayed sharp for an extended period of time. Put this baby into the corner. The side bevels on these chisels taper to a thin edge. As a result, they fit excellently into tight and angled corners, so you won’t dent or bruise dovetails as you pare away waste. To mark their 100th anniversary, Narex has developed a line of chisels that are certainly some of the finest tools that this small, renowned Czech firm has ever produced.

Of course, the Narex Ritcher chisel feels like a perfect chisel. While it mostly is, we noticed some features that surely could use improvement. The Chrome Manganese steel isn’t the only remarkable feature of this chisel. After the manufacturers created the blade, they also cryogenically treated it to increase its wear and tear resistance. Myself, I think their standard stuff is more than good enough. Perhaps the Richter steel is more performant. But do you need "more performant" than their less expensive chisels?

The hardness spec provided with the richters is what I'd refer to as medium-hard temper. It's specified as chrome vanadium steel (there are tons of specs for chrome vanadium steel, at least as wide as 0.5% carbon to 1.5% carbon, so that doesn't tell us that much other than that it's probably fairly plain steel, which is good for chisels). Models reviewed include the Lie-Nielsen, Veritas Mk.II Deluxe Honing Guide Set, generic side-clamping guides, the Kell No. 2, Nano Hone’s Sharp Skate 4, Trend, and the Veritas Sharpening System Right after initial hardening, cryogenic treatment cools the steel down to very low temperatures by using liquid nitrogen to as low as −190 °C. This completes transformation of austenite, which increases both the hardness and toughness of the steel. These features aren’t that big of a deal. In fact, we only noticed them when we tried to compare them with other chisels in its class.

The bottom line (ha ha) is that the standard Narex items work very well indeed; come near ready for work with only minimal fettling of the working end; and are inexpensive partly because they don't spend enormous efforts on the cosmetics rather than on the functional aspects. For reasons I won't drone on about, I recently exchanged many of my chisels of long use for Narex chisels. In truth it was partly to drum up some tool-buying cash by selling some rather expensive items (such as Blue Spruce) the cash from which bought about 10X Narex items compared to what the equivalent Sprucers would cost.

Beyond boosting the chisel’s wear and tear resistance, the cryogenic treatment also altered the toughness and strength of the blade. We’ll show you everything about this chisel set and the Narex brand. For starters, the Narex brand is one of the top reliable brands in the industry.

I can only say this much as a maker of tools (not for sale, an amateur maker) - you can fairly easily make tools and see all of these differences in play as a spec. 62/63 hardness is barely sharpenable on oilstones, but still sharpenable, and on plainer steel, the wire edge falls off more easily. 59 hardness in the more mediocre line will lead to a more persistent wire edge.To put the finishing touches on the efficiency end-users can achieve with the handle, the manufacturers gave the handle friction shellac and proper sanding. Some don't like the fatter-handled version of Narex chisels but they do have other configurations of many bench chisels, with slimmer and more traditionally-shaped handles. Myself, I like the fatter handles because they fill my chiselling grip.