Ping for Robin Lee

[wood_newbie]

Mr. Lee,

I know you (at least occasionally) monitor posts on this newsgroup, so I wanted to throw out a suggestion, scratch that, I wanted to *beg* you for a new Veritas product.

There is currently one manufacturer in the Milky Way Galaxy who makes registered mortise chisels in true Imperial/fractional sizes: Lie-Nielsen. I'm sure they are wonderful tools...just like Lee Valley/Veritas they do excellent-quality work.

They are currently backordered for four months. I called, and they said that demand so far exceeded supply that four months was the best I could even hope for.

There is only one other manufacturer out there making something even close, and that's HMG out of Germany...they sell exclusively on Hartville Tool's website. I bought one because the catalogue description said "square." Only to find out their idea of square is actually to bevel the sides about 4 or 5 degrees inward. They are nice chisels, and measure spot-on at the stated size, but there not registered to say the least.

So I hereby grovel at thy feet to throw us poor yanks a bone and sell some real imperial *registered* mortise chisels.

Can I get an Amen from the group here???

[Doug Payne]

These aren't Imperial sizes?

[Larry Bud]

[Leon]

Naw, hey had them already. OP did not Google LeeValley. LOL.

[Enoch Root]

Who could resist such an entreaty?

er

[wood_newbie]

(non-registered) HMG at Hartville Tool, they are acutally sized to the closest millimeter.

[wood_newbie]

Wrong. Lee Valley's are only labeled imperial. They are sized metric.

Look it up.

[John Grossbohlin]

Out of curiosity, why does this matter? Here's my thoughts on this... If you chop out your mortises with a chisel, and set your marking gauge with that same chisel so you can lay out the tennons, and assuming you saw to the marks well, the tennons will fit the mortise. It's kind of like using a hand made ruler... as long as you measure everything for a project with that ruler the pieces will fit together regardless of how consistent the ruler's markings. Do you have some other issue that is of concern?

John

[Leon]

I'll take your word for it THIS TIME.. LOL

[alexy]

It's a matter of principle. You can't let the camel get his nose under the tent. Today it might just be metric-dimensioned joinery buried in our furniture, but if you don't stand up for what you believe, soon they will be teaching metric in the schools, and before you know what has hit you, they will confiscate all of your measuring teaspoons, tablespoons, cups and quarts!

Do what's right! Stand up for imperial measures, and fight metrification!

[Oleg Lego]

The alexy entity posted thusly:

Save Imperial, Kill a Meter!

[Connor Aston]

these are what you need let me know and I could post them to the US. Or give me a list of questions to ask an I'll phone and ask them. Connor

[ljaques]

Oh, just _great_! Bloody Liberals. First it's our guns, now it's our chisels which have to be registered. When will it end? ;)

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[Doug Payne]

They've changed then. Mine are real Imperial, fractional metric. i.e.

1/4" is 6.4 mm, 3/8" is 9.5 mm, 1/2" is 12.7 mm, not the other way round. I guess they're older.

[Doug Payne]

[arw01]

What does it mean:

The blades (4-1/2" to 7" long) are rectangular in cross section and TAPER 1/16" from the shoulder to the bevel. The heavy hardwood handles (6-1/2" long) have steel hoops top and bottom and a thick leather shock washer next to the bolster.

I know a bevel is on the cutting edge, but where is a shoulder on a mortise chisel and why are they tapering something?

Alan

[Gordon Airporte]

I'm pretty sure that the 'shoulder' is where the blade attaches to the handle, even if there isn't a appriciable ledge there. Presumably they are tapered this way so the edges of the blade don't bind on the edges if the mortise when you're chopping one really deep. The downside being that this contact helps register the cut properly.

{}

[Java Man]

We Canadians are fully "metricated", but the teaspoons, tablespoons and cups are still alive and well. But you're right to be wary -- the metric system was, after all, a French invention. Once it takes hold, people start voting for socialists and forgetting to shower.

;-)

Rick

[Mark & Juanita]

The forgetting to shower part is bad enough, but then there's also the women refusing to shave that really tears it. ;-)

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[ljaques]

On Sat, 28 Jan 2006 19:00:41 -0700, with neither quill nor qualm, Mark & Juanita quickly quoth:

They all smoke, don't shower enough, don't wear ANY deodorant (which tears it for me), and don't shave their pits or legs. Yeah, like I want to go to Europe. 'Course, their women are slimmer than ours, but I just found a slim one here. They can keep their Eurail Passes.

I've been working on mixed metric/sae vehicles for years. What's the difference? Metrics are slightly more standardized. I have tools for both so it matters not to me. I'm learning to think in both metric and sae when doing anything any more. (Does that make me bi-standardized?)

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