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Anyone try the stryi brand from ukraine? Seem inexpensive. Wanting a gouge for archtop and a 1 inch chisel to replace a chipped one I was using carving necks.

Honestly, their website is kinda cagey in a way that makes me think they are reselling Chinese made product.

Chinese made stuff isn't necessarily all bad. The thing is, there's not enough information to tell whether it's higher end Chinese stuff or lower end fare. I wouldn't hesitate to try it if it was properly heat treated 100CrV, (the Chinese equivalent of W1,) but I'm not a fan of the lower grade steels.

Speaking of cheap chisels, I noticed StewMac has some new StewMac branded chisels for less than $10 each, including curved chisels. I'm not really in the market for any more chisels, but for that price I figured I'd order a couple and see if they're any good.

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Tell us how they shake out on wood compared to other quality chisels you own.

I'm not Stew Mac, and everything I've bought from them has been good... BUT... Why would they compete with other items they sell? They sell the Two Cherries chisels and their own house brand. The house brand units cost ~20% of the Two Cherries... They're even priced below hardware store fare, so that's where I would expect them to shake out. I can't help but think if they were great, they'd wear the "Dan Erlewine uses these" badge of honor.

All that said, my bevel edge MKC chisels came to me at ~$8.00 each and sport a fine side-bevel profile similar to Narex Richter or Woodcraft socket chisels. On wood, in my hands, they run comparable to the Narex.

I agree with this. They look like they might be rebranded GREBSTK chisels. Even if that is the case, it will be nice to have a second curved chisel around. I'm really curious about their claim of them arriving sharp and ready to work. That wasn't even the case with my Lie Nielsen planes.

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Instagram: @jfrenchluthier
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Dang, my definition of sharp is messed up. I spend all my time wishing I could get my planes BACK to how they arrived from Lie Nielsen.

Kidding… sort of…. Not really


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Lie Nielsen does a better job than most! In my experience they just need some honing.

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Instagram: @jfrenchluthier
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There are a bunch of pretty large tool making plants in China that make wood chisels. They sell several blade styles, many handle configurations, and typically 3 alloy choices. I would classify the three standard alloys as:
"It will open paint cans and scrape dried gum, but don't use it on wood"
"A decent user but nothing special"
And
"At least as good as anything else you own."

On top of the standard options, you could pay to upgrade to whatever you want.... So if you want custom handles, finishes, and blade grinds, engraving, multiple normalizations, cryo, and custom heat treatment to a specific rockwell, you can get all that too.

The miscellaneous Amazon brands are just a short run of these which are and packaged and sold under their own brand name.

If I was Stew Mac, I'd try to make sure the stuff bearing my own name was objectively good.

So, based on Woody's advice, I went back to the Ashley Iles chisels and just kept grinding back and sharpening till they held up. On average, they required 1/8" more than I had previously ground back to get them to hold up, but they seem to now. The worst was the 1" - which is now almost 3/8" shorter than new.

The good news is that they all seem to hold up well enough to make it out of the "Duds."

Edit to add, I completed my standard battery of chopping and paring tests after several rounds of grinding back, and the Ashley Iles Mk2 are now in the keeper stack. Just know the score on these before you buy. They're good, but they may well take a LOT of grinding to get to the steel that holds up to actual work.