ok, in an effort to get talking about hand tools (rather than talking about how neat it would be to talk about hand tools) I'll get the ball rolling by throwing in some thoughts about my current and recent collection: I've recently been rewarding myself for all my hard work by upgrading some of my old standbys with what I hoped were going to be superior tools (been on the agenda for years, but got distracted by the Festool slope for a while there)
Chisels, after years of being frustrated by Marples (The common cheap blue set which seem to be the best available from the borg) I finally acquired a better set. I brought a set of Crown chisels (ok, i was influenced by them being sheffield steel - I seem to remember from my youth that all the chisels we were using then were pretty darn good, and by the nice rosewood handles - because i have learned from those wonderfull Festools that professional tools sell the next job at that customers) - I digress (and seem to have succeeded in mentioning Festool several times too) - anyway, I love these things, astonishingly sharp compared to the old marples, beautifully made, and actually about $20 each (not really much more than the marples), hold an edge really well, good purchase
(The Marples seem to develop notches if there is a nail in the same room with them)
Planes: DD started a discussion in another thread which I expressed interest in, namely his apparent delight with Veritas planes, I requested the master pass on more of his wisdom and experience with us, but perhaps DD if you read this here, this would be a good place to respond. (I use a couple of aging but well tuned Stanleys and thought I was happy with them until DD spoiled it for me)
Steve
