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More than likely, you'll get one somewhere in between.Rather than gamble on getting a sharp Chinese-made corner chisel, why not buy a corner chisel that you can count on to be sharp: the Whiteside 9600 Corner Chisel (WHITESIDE MACHINE 9600 SQUARE CORNER CHISEL W/ 3/8 SQUARE HARDENED STEEL CUTTING BLADE).I went through several Chinese-made corner chisels and butchered many test pieces before I discovered the Whiteside 9600. It appears to be difficult to find a reasonably sharp corner chisel. Although it looks just like the Chinese version, the 9600 is made in the USA by Whiteside Machine Company. The Porter Cable corner chisel is the same generic, Chinese-made corner chisel that everyone sells. Sometimes they're sharp, sometimes they're dull. It's extremely sharp, costs the same as the Chinese version, and is available on Amazon. Seems like a no-brainer.
That means it doesn't hold the business end accurately or well and it probably would not last very long even if you could get it to work. It was a rush-job, (like always) to finish the upstairs of a residence before the deadline and on budget. He routed the bulk of the hinge-mortise with a decent jig and laminate-trimmer, then proceeded to hack away at the corners with this thing. Now I know at least one demographic. as you would expect.
That is assuming you have a good corner chisel and know how to use it. He tried again on the bottom hinge-mortise, hit too hard and stuck the chisel into the cheap hollow-core door. The idea behind this is contrivance that it "self-registers" to the corner from two sides, then you whack the steel post which drives the blade, (presumably) perfectly into the corner. The magnetic idea seems MUCH better than the cheap metal plate held on by two little screws. When I picked up this kid's tool and examined it, I saw the blade / post is cheap steel, and the stamped steel guide is flimsy and ill-fitting. When he finally got to the bar, I bought him a beer. Meanwhile, I had all three of my mortises chiseled clean, drilled pilot holes, installed hinges and was starting to hang my door when the kid threw this thing down the 2-story chute into the waste bin.[.]. He neglected to practice using the tool first, and he also forgot that he would need to use a regular chisel to finish the job.Now, I have used standard corner chisels before, and they can help speed up certain operations.
I would be surprised if any American company pays more than one dollar a piece for them.I got a chance to see one in action the other day. It is precision ground from hardened A2 tool steel and has an accurate aluminum magnetic guide block. Seeing as how they all look the same, I suspect they are made in the same place and sold to various distributors with slightly different colors or specs. If you like the idea and want a good one, Lee Valley sells a much more sensible magnetic design ( the Veritas magnetic corner chisel) that looks like it might actually work.
Even if it worked perfectly, (which is does NOT) you would still have to pare to the corner with a regular chisel. When I pressed the blade out of the guide, I saw that it was poorly ground and not sharp. both bad things for any cutting tool.Well, the poor kid used it, hashed on his first two attempts and then started swearing. I do not know exactly where they get these, but I have seen them popping up all over the place under various brand names from different sources. The magnetic design would allow a better feel for the transmission of power from your hammer, and would allow a better line of sight. It is also thirty-five bucks. If I had to do nothing else but chop hinge-mortises all day, that would be the one I'd invest in. As it is, with a regular chisel, "the old-man" mortised and mounted three doors while the kid with this tool was still explaining to the foreman why he ruined an eighty-dollar door.I always wondered who buys this kind of cheap gimmick.
We all laughed. A journeyman carpenter was actually bragging to the trim crew that he could mortise the door hinges faster than "the old man" (me) because of this nifty new tool he had acquired. Lesson learned.It is disheartening to see a venerable company like PC selling crap like this. The blade is held loosely but it binds if you hit it off center, which he did. It took a lot of clean up to fix his mistake caused by trusting this cheap tool. inexperienced kids.The kid had to stay late to inlay-patch the botched mortises, wait for the glue to dry, trim the patches flush, then re-mortise for hinges and hang the door. Maybe their marketing guys thought it would help sell more routers and jigs.
This corner chisel is designed well, but unfortunately it is not very well sharpened. It mashes wood fibers instead of cutting them. In the end, I went back to my flat chisel to square out the corners.
This is what it is and does what it says. It is a good corner chisel that works very well. If I use it six times a year that is a lot, but when you need it, you are thankful for having it.
Is it me, or what. Once I router cut a door-hinge mortise using a Porter-Cable hinge mortise jig, I can't seem to get the Porter-Cable corner chisel far enough back in the corner of the router cut to get the edges lined-up. After I use the corner chisel, I still need to a wood chisel to take out a little more in order to make a perfect corner. It almost looks like I need to do a little grinding work on the corner chisel with the bench grinder to make it align properly.
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