From the moment you first pick up a Narex Profi mortise chisel you'll know that you made the right choice in hand tools. Crafted of high-quality chrome-magnesium steel and hardened to HRc59, these mortise chisels can carry their weight throughout your work day.
Call me crazy, but I find chopping a mortise by hand to be one of the more enjoyable parts of a project. I get to grab a big beefy mortise chisel, a mallet that Thor would appreciate, and take out all my aggression on a piece of wood that will actually be of use when I am done!
But it may surprise you to know that this wasn't always the case. In fact, before I got a proper set of mortise chisels, I would put off the task for as long as I could manage. The right tool can make all the difference on your outlook about the work that we do, and once you make the step into a quality set of chisels the difference really is quite staggering. If you are ready to make that step, then I think that you'll find these Narex Profi Mortise Chisels will make a world of difference...
Narex has a few different lines of hand tools that are all distinguished by the quality of materials. The standard line comes at the most economical price point, while the Profi line we'll talk about here are intended to be for the more discerning, even professional woodworkers. When it comes to chisels, the biggest factor in quality comparisons almost always comes down to the steel, and quantity is probably the largest. When more steel is packed into the body behind the cutting edge, the chisel has more rigidity and strength, so you lose less of that edge with each swing of the mallet.
Like any chisel, the most important part of a mortise chisel is its ability to take and hold an edge. Narex uses chrome-manganese steel alloy for just this reason and then hardened it up to HRc59, which is the perfect degree of hardness for the kind of work these chisels are meant to do. One of these mortise chisels is able to stand up to the workday abuse imposed on it without adding difficulty to the resharpening process later on.
The geometry of the blade is very important for a mortise chisel to work efficiently. First, it must be thick in order to stand up to repeated mallet blows. The bodies of these chisels taper slightly from 1/2" thick at the handle to 3/8" at the base of the bevel. This thickness is also very important as it creates a long bevel that is used to pry away waste, think of it much like the rounded portion of a claw hammer for pulling a nail.
The sides of the Narex are beveled at 3°. This is enough of an angle to keep the chisel from binding in the cut, but not so much that the chisel will twist when struck. There is a fine line here and Narex seems to have walked it well.
The bevel on these chisels comes out of the box ground at 25°, which is ideal for the purpose of prying waste from a deep mortise. Narex suggests that these chisels be honed with a micro-bevel of 35° to increase the durability of the cutting edge, and I find this to be a very good suggestion as the micro-bevel also makes for quick work at the sharpening station.
All the quality steel and bevels in the world won't help if the handle is uncomfortable. The Narex have a stained beechwood handle with a steel ferrule and hoop for durability. The Oval shape makes it easy to control the angle of the cutting edge and makes for a comfortable grip even during prolonged chopping session - not to mention that they won't roll off the bench.
If you have never had the pleasure of chopping a mortise with a well-made mortise chisel, do yourself a favor and pick up a set of these Narex Profi Mortise Chisels. The Five-Piece Set will be sure to give the right size for almost any project and take mortising from a task you avoid to one that actually you enjoy.