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. The process used to make the original narex chisels is different from typical, and they have a hardness ceiling and are usable chisels but are mediocre. I have the set of Richter's and they seem like a high quality chisel to me, but I have never had another high end chisel to compare to. I went from yard sale / antique chisels to these. In North American hard woods, I could have easily been as happy with them as with my Veritas and Lie Nielsen, but this is my subjective/non-scientific opinion. These are a steal @ 1/3 the price of the Veritas PM-V11. In the picture, below I have the 1/2" sizes in the Richter, Veritas, and Lie Nielsen. Also, note, regarding feel in the hand, I have big hands (wear XL gloves) and they feel great. Also, chisels are all about feel and they may not feel the same to another woodworker . I would of never dropped that kinda cash on chisels myself (because I'm a tinkerer at best) but the wife really wanted to get me something nice for father's day.

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. Narex Richter chisels don’t need a second chance to make a positive first impression. For me, it was so positive that I bought a set after trying out a student’s. I’ve used them now for months, and from day one I’ve liked the way they looked, felt in my hand, and performed. Still Tough Enough for Mallet Work — Premium materials and processes give these chisels the strength to withstand heavy cuts despite their sleek profile. For starters, the handle is carved from European ash, responsible for its beautiful grain, toughness, and strength. The choice of wood shaped this handle into an ergonomic one.These honing guides may be worth considering, especially if you use sandpaper on glass or diamond plates Sometimes a manufacturer will make substantial functional improvements to something and sell it as a premium item. Sometimes the improvements are largely to the image rather than the substance of that sold. I'm not saying this is necessarily true of the Narex Richter range .... but it could be. :-) Pretty much anything on 60-63 hardness would cause indifference from most experienced woodworkers who use a lot of hand tools, and the feel of the chisel and other aspects would be more important than anything else. If you work with a set of chisels long enough, you should be able to learn to accommodate them so that they don't take damage while you're working. The issue with mediocre chisels is that sometimes the accommodation makes a chisel undesirable to use. Of course, the Narex Ritcher chisel feels like a perfect chisel. While it mostly is, we noticed some features that surely could use improvement.

Paring chisels are used for fine paring (or hand trimming) of joints. You can pare with normal bevel edge chisels, but paring chisels can help with creating smoother joints. They are typically longer, thinner, and are sharpened at a lower angle than other chisels (around 20 degrees), which enables you to trim end grain with greater ease. However, with a 20 degree angle and thin steel, they should never be used with a mallet. They can have a bevel or no bevel. The handles are very comfortable and nicely finished, although lathe sanding marks do show. The handles are all the same size. After reading a FWW article many years ago by Mario Rodriguez, I have re-handled many of my own tools. For chisels, I really like to graduate the handle sizes for the set. This seems intuitive to me, so the Richters are a little different from most of my other sets. A key feature to these chisels is their side bevels, which taper to a very fine edge, making them ideal for reaching into confined spaces and angled corners, like those common in dovetailing. But the edges aren’t so sharp they slice you; rather, they’re polished and softened. I can’t recommend a catalog anymore, and nor do I recommend a magazine either. I can’t. I make a point not to copy anyone anywhere and when you write and ask me whether I watch this or that youtuber, blogger or vlogger I should tell you this and then ask you not to ask me: If I have watched 30 minutes of woodworking guru output since YT came into being 15 years ago I would likely be exaggerating 10 times".There's an idealized test where these came out on top, but the test provides a bias for a chisel in the medium hard temper range, so it's not a surprise to see they'd come out on top.

I still prefer O1 high-carbon steel, the steel found in vintage chisels. And as mentioned above, I’m still testing out Cr-V steel. Here are the buying options for these Lie-Nielsen woodworking chisels: The new 8150 range Czech made NAREX RICHTER cabinetmakers chisels are forged from high quality Cr-V steel and are cryogenically treated and tempered to at least 62 HRc. The sides are ground thin to minimise friction when cutting which is very useful for dovetailing. The result is an ultra-thin side that makes it the perfect chisel for digging into tight spaces. In addition, the surface is mirror-like, which makes it an excellent dovetail chisel. The Narex Richter chisels have a nice balance between maintaining an edge, but not being too hard. These chisels are forged from high quality Cr-V steel and cryogenically treated and tempered to at least 62 HRc. I like the thin sides that makes it easier to get into tight spaces. The handles are ash, which is nice, but they don’t offer much grip, like an octagonal handle would. Not a big deal. I’ve found the edges to hold pretty well, but I still want to give these a few more months of use with my woodworking students before I can give a big thumb’s up. Lie-Nielsen Bevel Edge Bench Chisels. Worth the price? So, thanks to the Cryogenic treatment of the blade, you’ll use it for a long time without the blade losing its quality and sharpness.In recent years, technical development has taken place,as a result, the quality of blades has increased, the shapes of the handles have been modified to become ergonomic, and the products have been given amodern design. The fine grinding is so good it's almost a polish - on all surfaces, but crucially it is still a ground surface so there is no undesirable rounding off of the underside of the edges, they are optically flat so I would recommend doing as little as possible to them in preparation and maintainance. The edges are as fine as hand ground chisels, barely there at all, making them suitable for the finest precision joinery. The first captivating feature of the Narex Ritcher chisel is that they are forged with premium quality Chrome Manganese steel.

one other point that seems to be a big deal to a lot of people here. Is that they did not have any weird anti corrosive stuff on them (cosmoline), that I had to work to get off. I believe they have some kind of plating on them, but I'm not sure why you'd want to remove it.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. That's arrogant, solipsistic and something of a jarring cognitive dissonance, given that he portrays himself as a "woodworking guru" outputting his stuff largely via Youtube and other on-line channels, a lot of it paid-for "lessons" for which the free stuff appears to be the PR. And the "I make a point not to copy anyone anywhere" is such obvious nonsense. Did he make up all of woodworking by himself, then, like an Ayn Rand "hero" with a motor?