This Ain't Good! Marple Chisel

[cwsmith]

I don't know if anyone would find this of interest, but I thought I'd post anyway.

I was at the local HD and took a look at the Marples' Chisel set that is the subject here. It looks like the pre-Irwin set that I bought a year or so ago, but with these differences:

No mention of Lifetime Warranty
Blade stamping "Made in Sheffield England" is now "Chrome Vanadium"
(the new package now reads, "Made in China to Marples specifications"
The "Sheffield" were "sharpened and honed", the made in China are just "sharpened".
These look almost exactly like the set I bought, except for the above. The newer blades look brighter, almost polished; while the Sheffield set that I have look more like honed steel and you can see the honing marks.

So, I decided to look these up on Home Depot site and here is the description page: http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/...cStoreNum=8125

Then I checked the Irwin site and got something completely different:

http://www.irwin.com/irwin/consumer/...rwinProd100002

You may note that the Irwin Marples "Blue Chip" set is made in Sheffield, England and it doesn't appear that they have the steel caps on the handles.

Now I'm wondering if these current Home Depot chisels are an exclusive, and perhaps not the same quality as the older "Sheffield" chisels, or the current Irwin Marples "Blue Point" chisels.

CWS

[ryan.s]

Now I'm wondering if these current Home Depot chisels are an exclusive, and perhaps not the same quality as the older "Sheffield" chisels, or the current Irwin Marples "Blue Point" chisels.

CWS

I wouldn't be surprised. I had a friend that used to work for B & D and told me that some of the Dewalt stuff that HD carries is made differently than Dewalt products sold elsewhere. They were made to HD specs which are designed to lower costs.

[Uncle Cracker]

There was an interesting piece the other day on the news about how Ebay is becoming a worldwide "e-fencing" giant, where people deal in stolen merchandise on a large scale. One person interviewed was a HD rep, who spoke of people dealing in hundreds of items that HD "knew" were stolen from them. HOW did they know? Because they were versions of familiar tools and such from major brands, but were "made only for Home Depot". With HD's buying power, you can bet they're manipulating the manufacturers into building proprietary, and possibly inferior, products exactly to HD specifications.

[Ken Massingale]

I don't know if anyone would find this of interest, but I thought I'd post anyway.

I was at the local HD and took a look at the Marples' Chisel set that is the subject here. It looks like the pre-Irwin set that I bought a year or so ago, but with these differences:

No mention of Lifetime Warranty
Blade stamping "Made in Sheffield England" is now "Chrome Vanadium"
(the new package now reads, "Made in China to Marples specifications"
The "Sheffield" were "sharpened and honed", the made in China are just "sharpened".
These look almost exactly like the set I bought, except for the above. The newer blades look brighter, almost polished; while the Sheffield set that I have look more like honed steel and you can see the honing marks.

So, I decided to look these up on Home Depot site and here is the description page: http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/...cStoreNum=8125

Then I checked the Irwin site and got something completely different:

http://www.irwin.com/irwin/consumer/...rwinProd100002

You may note that the Irwin Marples "Blue Chip" set is made in Sheffield, England and it doesn't appear that they have the steel caps on the handles.

Now I'm wondering if these current Home Depot chisels are an exclusive, and perhaps not the same quality as the older "Sheffield" chisels, or the current Irwin Marples "Blue Point" chisels.

CWS

Yes, I should have mentioned this.
The guys at Woodcraft went through their stock to get the last 1/2" chisel they had that had "Made in Sheffield England" stamped on the shank. They said all the new stock is made in China.

[jking]

Good for your Woodcraft guys to step up and deal with a customer service issue that wasn't even theirs to begin with. I used to have a Woodcraft here until a couple of years ago & I found them always very friendly and helpful.