pweiss@sun.uucp (Paul Weiss) (09/23/85)
Freud (USA) has just begun selling handtools, hoping to capitalize on their hard-earned good reputation for circular saw blades and router bits. Well, sorry folks, but the chisels and planes I've seen so far are god-awful. I made made the mistake of ordering a jointer plane (07) from one of the mail-order houses which advertises in FWW. My reasons were that the Freud tool is about 2/3 the price of the Record, and that I couldn't find anyone around here who was yet selling the new Freud's. I packed it back up, screamed bloody murder, and returned it on the same day I received it. The bottom was wavy, the mouth looked like it had been cut into the sole with a cold chisel, and the handle looked like recycled crate wood painted up by a kindergarten kid. The frog was a raw casting - neither the bottom webs which are supposed to seat to the body nor the top which is supposed to seat to the blade were machined at all. Therefore the frog wiggled on the body even when the mounting screws were cranked down, and it was impossible to set the blade so that the edge was parallel to the sole. The cap iron was light enough to bend with my hands, and would have needed hammer work before grinding it to fit the blade. The blade is a stamping, with a burr all around the back, and scratches all over both surfaces. I could go on, but cut expenses elsewhere, OK? I griped about the plane to a salesman at Rosewood Tools (nee' Cutting Edge) in Berkeley, and he said he won't carry the hand tools. (They do sell and recommend the saw blades and router bits.) He keeps one set of the Freud chisels around as demos. Picks one up in his left hand, picks a Sorby or a Footprint up in his right, and proceeds to cut a piece of the Freud off with the other. Hmmmm. Has anybody got a Bailey 08 (preferably) or 07 they want to part with? Paul Weiss