Evaluation of the LV PM-V11 chisel for chopping dovetails

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1,405
Location
Villa Park, CA
Some time back, I expressed an interest (in a forum post on Saw Mill Creek) in the new Lee Valley PM-V11 chisels for use in chopping dovetails. Rob Lee contacted me and offered to send me a 3/8" chisel to evaluate, providing I gave him feedback on it. I set up a testing procedure and tested the LV chisel against several other chisels that I had in my shop. I've documented the tests and the results here.

For those of you who want to jump ahead, or don't want to read a long evaluation, the result is that the new PM-V11 steel holds up very well when used for chopping out dovetails, better than any of the chisels I tested it against.

I'd appreciate your comments on the testing procedure. And if you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer them here.

Mike
 
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