About a month ago I purchased a set of 12 "professionally sharpened" Schaaf carving tools off of amazon.
Given the limited amount of carving I intend to do, I just couldn't justify the prices of the very high end tools and took a chance on these.
They are made of the same or very similar tool steel as the high end brands, so they should wear the same under use.
Result - all but one came ready to go out of the box - they all cleanly cut hard maple, sapele, walnut and canary wood with relative ease. Basswood turned to butterwood.
The one exception was the 8a-10mm shown in the picture. It as sharp as one would want, but just skewed and left with a horn on one side.
I emailed Schaaf and no questions asked they are sending a replacement.
Yes, the handles are finished with a grossly applied shiny something-or-other, but they fit my hand just fine and I'm more interested in the result than the look of the tool.
If I were a serios carver, I would probably consider the high end brands, but for what little I intend to do, this was the right purchase for me.
Given the limited amount of carving I intend to do, I just couldn't justify the prices of the very high end tools and took a chance on these.
They are made of the same or very similar tool steel as the high end brands, so they should wear the same under use.
Result - all but one came ready to go out of the box - they all cleanly cut hard maple, sapele, walnut and canary wood with relative ease. Basswood turned to butterwood.
The one exception was the 8a-10mm shown in the picture. It as sharp as one would want, but just skewed and left with a horn on one side.
I emailed Schaaf and no questions asked they are sending a replacement.
Yes, the handles are finished with a grossly applied shiny something-or-other, but they fit my hand just fine and I'm more interested in the result than the look of the tool.
If I were a serios carver, I would probably consider the high end brands, but for what little I intend to do, this was the right purchase for me.
