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From: pweiss@sun.uucp (Paul Weiss)
Newsgroups: net.rec.wood
Subject: Warning on Freud handtools
Message-ID: <2813@sun.uucp>
Date: Mon, 23-Sep-85 15:09:12 EDT
Article-I.D.: sun.2813
Posted: Mon Sep 23 15:09:12 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 25-Sep-85 08:31:49 EDT
Distribution: net
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Lines: 32

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


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