Narex 3 mm (1/8 Inch) Woodworking Cabinetmaker's Chisel with Beech Handle 810103

I raised this review to 5 stars from 4 stars because it's an excellent chisel. The reason I docked it one star originally is due to the protective laquer that comes on it, which is probably the case with all mid and lower priced chisels. Personally, I can't stand the lacquer and, removing it is never as easy as some reviewers lead you to believe. I have 3 other Narex chisels from Lee Valley, which are basically the premium chisels on Amazon but with the dark colored handles from the regular line. Anyway, all 4 Narex chisels came with the same lacquer protective coating. I tried wiping it off with mineral spirits, then soaked them in mineral spirits for a few minutes, and finally resorted to lacquer thinner. The lacquer thinner worked best but I had to soak and scrub them all. The toughest area to remove was right on the bevel. I ended up using my random orbital sander to get that part off because I was tired of scrubbing and dealing with lacquer thinner.After cleaning up the chisels I flattened the backs and honed the bevels on my DMT diamond stones. Flattening took about 30 minutes, and 25 minutes of that was spent on the 5/8" and 7/8" chisels. All three sharpened very fast and easy on my stones, which tells me the steel might be a little softer than my old cheap set from HD, but I prefer the faster sharpening even if it is more often. I keep my diamond stones and strop near by at all times so I can maintain a sharp edge on all of my tools.Narex chisels are a pleasure to work with and perform much better than their price might lead some to believe. They have a nice weight and are comfortable in the hand. I prefer this handle shape because it doesn't roll off my workbench and it feels quite natural when I grip it. The steel is easy to sharpen and holds and edge quite well. I can't compare the edge retention to LN or other high dollar chisels, but I have no complaints whatsoever. These truly are a bargain at this price, especially the premium line if you require thin side lands.I do not believe Narex can be beat in quality for the price. However, if you are going to be cutting dovetails or working in tight recesses, then the premium line sold on Amazon or the Lee Valley version is the best way to go. The side lands on the premium chisels are very thin and consistent all the way down the chisels. I don't know of any other chisels maker that offers the thin side lands in this price range. I believe you would have to step up to Ashley Isles, Pfeil, or of course, Lie Nielsen or Veritas (Lee Valley). Also, I bought the Stanley 750s and sent them back the next day. The side lands on those are about twice and thick as the Narex Premiums.

Great chisel for small detailed work. Came in sharp, so be careful when u first open it. Good quality steel, as it stays sharp. The handle is also ergonomic and comfortable to use. I’m honestly thinking about getting more Narex chisels.

Great quality with this chisel. Super sharp as well.

I like this little (1/8") guy for cleaning up slots in boxes. I have been experimenting with box joints and they look cool but because of the design have limited ways of getting a bottom in there. This chisel lets me use a slot router bit to make the dadoe and then use 1/8" stock for the bottom.Not as easy as miter joints but no one said it was easy.I have a pretty full set of Narex chisels and files and find them all really reliable and robust. If I lost the set today I would replace it tomorrow with the same.

Funny I just found this in my "to be reviewed list." I was thinking about it today. I spent the summer stripping 11 full-sized doors in the front bedroom. (I JUST finished stripping those floors over Thanksgiving weekend!) So one of those doors (105 years old) is twisted. I think it was somewhat twisted when it was installed but got really bad over the years. At some point they took it off and moved the hinges a bit so it would close. In that effort, they broke off half of one of the screw-heads. So when I took it off to strip it (ALL hardware in this house was painted over... boil it on low simmer and use a brass-bristle brush to clean it off, then Bon Ami and clear dish soap with a soft sponge to clean the brass and make it gleam.) sorry - when I took it off to strip it, I had to futz around until I could break off enough of the head to remove the hinge. (I used a "spring-loaded center punch to repeatedly punch a hole in the top, then carefully used a 1/4-inch bit at an angle to drill off enough that I could then break it off.) So I bought this chisel to remove the remnant. In the meantime, I found a "broken screw removal bit" on Amazon and bought that. Well, getting the the bit over the stub was just a bit sketchy, so I used the chisel to carefully create a groove around the screw. The rest was ez-pz. But now I have this specialty chisel... what will I do with it? Well, back to the stripping. Some of the corners needed a small chisel to get into to pick the paint out. The base-CAP on my baseboards (yeah I stripped all that too and it is a BIG room) has many curves of various profiles. It also has a bare 1/8-inch top surface and top-vertical surface. Many decades ago they covered all the wallpaper with a spackled texture (the previous owners did some really weird stuff) and that crud was all over the top of the base cap. This little chisel was a perfect tool for catching the top-vertical and using it like a scraper to scrape off the globs. I used a 1-inch razor sharp chisel to hone the wall-crud just above the cap, and then the 1/8 chisel for cleanups.

I bought this as a dovetail clean out chisel. I got it and like most chisels it was not sharp out of the box, it sharpened up very quickly and made VERY short work of what I needed to do. I can see this as one of my go-to clean up chisels. The handle is sturdy and the bolster is on tight and doesn't move. The handle will get tailored to my hand in a week or so, I want to get used to it first. My hands are not overly large and the middle part of the grip rides on my hand wrong. So this may not be for people with small hands. That said, I plan on buying another one to set the angle differently for inlay projects.