Narex Chisels, Reviewed

Narex chisels are recommended more consistently than anything else in this category, and the recommendation is usually made without distinguishing between three quite different product lines at a fourfold price spread. This page does that, because the lines are not interchangeable and the cheapest one is the right answer more often than the recommendation implies.

A note on what this is first: we have not handled these. It is a comparison of published specifications, grinding quality as described by the sellers, warranty and parts documentation, and the cost-per-decade arithmetic from live prices. Full method on the methodology page.

The classic bevel-edge set

Four sizes, Czech chrome-manganese steel, beech handles, and the price at which this whole site's argument about chisels holds up. Hardened properly, backs flat enough that lapping is a job rather than an ordeal, and side lands thin enough for general work.

For most people this is the correct purchase and the other two lines are refinements they will not notice. The money not spent here goes on a stone, which will improve their cutting more than either upgrade would.

The premium hornbeam set

The same steel, better ground, with hornbeam handles instead of beech. Hornbeam is significantly denser and takes decades of mallet work better; the grinding is closer to finished out of the box.

You are buying handles and setup time, not cutting performance. That is a legitimate thing to buy — a handle you enjoy holding gets used more — but it is worth knowing that is what the premium is for. The metric sizing (6, 12, 20, 26 mm) annoys people working to imperial plans.

The Richter line

This is a genuine upgrade rather than a finish upgrade. Cryogenically treated chrome-vanadium hardened to around HRc 62, ground and polished so that first-use lapping is minimal, ash handles with stainless ferrules.

The published hardness figure is the thing worth paying attention to. Most makers in this band publish no hardness at all; a stated HRc means someone measured it. At 62 the edge holds noticeably longer in hardwood than the standard line — and is correspondingly slower to bring back once it does dull, which is the trade harder steel always makes.

Whether four to five times the price is worth an incremental gain depends entirely on how much you sharpen. If you are still learning to sharpen, harder steel punishes poor technique more, not less, and this is the wrong first purchase.

The mortise chisels

A different tool rather than a different grade. Thick, square in section, hooped handles, built to be levered against. If you chop mortises by hand, a bench chisel used the same way will snap and these will not. If you cut mortises with a router or a drill press, these are four beautifully made objects doing nothing.

The thing Narex does not publish

We could find no warranty terms published by Narex itself.A UK specialist retailer states a lifetime guarantee on their range, which is suggestive and is not a manufacturer's document, and a US marketplace listing for one Narex product records “written warranty: no”.

So we rate all Narex chisels tier C rather than tier A, deliberately conservatively. It matters less here than it would elsewhere: a chisel has no consumable part, so what makes it a lifetime tool is that there is nothing on it to wear out. But if you are choosing between makers on published cover, Narex publishes none, and it would be wrong to let a retailer's claim stand in for one.