Craftsmanship in Wood

I was wondering if folks had any recommendations for a paring chisel in the $90-150 range? Primary usage would be for furniture type joinery on american hardwoods and softwoods. Thinking in the 3/4-1" sizes. I already have a few Koyamaichi bench chisels, so I'm a bit curious how other makers might compare to them in this price range.

Here are a couple I'm looking at:

http://www.japanwoodworker.com/Product/ ... umura.aspx
http://www.hidatool.com/woodworking/chi ... ck-chisels

Thanks.

Some goog'ling online, seems to indicate that Stu at Tools from Japan said no one in Japan is generally familiar with the Matsumura brand, and some online reviews state the quality is below tha tof Koyamichi. Curious if anyone has any experience.

FYI - The Koyamaichi's, I'd fall back on are these:

http://www.toolsfromjapan.com/store/ind ... 12_489_494

Siavosh,

I have a pair of those in Yasuki blue steel and I'm quite happy with them. If my previous post was taken to be a deterrent it wasnt meant to be.

Thanks Brian, not at all. I have a couple Koyamaichi's and I love them. I'm just open to learning about other makers, and having a chisel box with a variety is attractive to me. But if other makers don't hit the same reliability/price-point as the Koyamaichi's, I'm more than happy to go back to them.

I am pretty happy with the Ouchi carving chisels I have. Tomohito has some Ouchi shinogi style white steel #1 push chisels on his site that would tempt me.

Ouchi is not bad also if you need to order something. I have ordered ouchi's and received them in 8-10 weeks, where as Tasai is 6 months and Kiyohisa is 4-5 years.

I met Matsumura in 1999 - his forge is in the same area as Tasai, Funahiro, etc.. He cranks out product and has a sweet air hammer. His chisels are okay - i've got a couple. Price point is good.

Why not try a Yamahiro paring slick?

Siavosh, it appears you have two accounts - 'siavosh' and 'siavoshb' - what's up with that?

Hi Chris, thanks, where do folks order Yamahiro chisels from?

Haha, didn't notice. I think if I recall correctly, I created a second account cause I forgot my login a while back, and now that I'm at work, my work computer browser auto-logged in through the old account. Feel free to disable one of them, and I can try to use the same one going forward.

I will show you my kyptonite;

http://japantool-iida.com/chisel_others/index.html

Proceed with caution

siavosh wrote:Hi Chris, thanks, where do folks order Yamahiro chisels from?

Haha, didn't notice. I think if I recall correctly, I created a second account cause I forgot my login a while back, and now that I'm at work, my work computer browser auto-logged in through the old account. Feel free to disable one of them, and I can try to use the same one going forward.

Will disable 'siavoshb'. Thanks for your understanding.

As noted by Brian, Iida carries Yamahiro, though that dealer's prices are not the lowest you will find:

http://japantool-iida.com/chisel_others ... amahi.html