Dovetail cutter

A week or so ago, someone started a thread, is a £10 Chinese dovetail cutter any good,

Zoro tools(Cromwell) have a system where when an item hasn't sold for x amount of time, it auto generated a price drop, sometime well below it's value, I just bought 2 items from them that have been reduced, one a 60 degree dovetail cutter from Sherwood cutting tools, this normally sells for about £55, it was £7.99 when I bought my first, it's £8.70 now, still cheaper than a Chinese one, and a set of 5 centre drills for £12.99, normally about £20-22

Sherwood I've found to be some of the best cutting tools available, I hope this post is allowed, I'm not affiliated with this seller in any way, just thought a few people might appreciate this bargain dovetail cutter.

dovetail centre drills

Excuse my ignorance, is the 1" referred to the shank or the biggest end of the cutter?

1 Inch refers to the full width of the cutter, if you were to to place it upright sitting on a rule, The shank is 1/2 inch on that one I believe.

Thanks for the link iv just picked the dovetail cutter up myself.

just bought one, no actual pressing need, but something every home should have!

Done likewise !

Andrew.

Just worth pointing out that Sherwood tools come from a forest in China and have never been anywhere near Nottingham, but nice to know that you find the far east product one of the best

I don't really care where tools come from as long as they are good. I have used Sherwood off and on for years and they have been every bit as good as Dormer, Osborne and the like. There is just more junk produced in China than in Europe and the US.

Andrew.

Andrew.

Not always, I bought a load of Carbide endmills (about 20) when they were on offer in ther flyer leaflet and they all cane in a box direct from sandvik with a delivery note with me as the drop adress.

Steve

We live in a confusing time, you would think there is nothing more British than the Sherwood Forest but the name has been appropriated by a major tool merchant to be used on tools from whatever sources they use. Is the name intended to convince us it is a British Product? Dasqua is a brand used by Chronos and it would seem to be Italian but Dasqua doesn’t make me think of Italy, it has a Far Eastern ring to it for me. Starrett claim to make tools in North and South America, China and Scotland, Moore and Wright would seem to have some of their range made in China.

China comes in for a lot of criticism for quality much as Japan did 50-60 years ago. I suspect that as time goes on the cheap rubbish will be made elsewhere and we will prize the Chinese quality as happened with Japan. Once the aspirations of a workforce are raised they want better pay and that cannot be funded by making cheap rubbish. It does make life difficult if you want to buy quality rather than cheap, if you buy something cheap enough then your expectations are low but what’s confusing are seemingly random brands at the mid price point, are you paying dear for rubbish of getting good value for money from a well made import? Confusing ain’t it.

Mike

Can you show me some proof of this, bearing in mind this is normally sold for £54 as the metric equivalent here shows 25mm dovetail I've never seen any Chinese tools of this type sold for that kind of money, or of this quality, but I'll gladly look in to your information showing me these are made in China.

You can find your own proof or the lack of, on tinernet

Some inconclusive information regarding place of origin (but generally upbeat about quality) on this earlier thread here.

I agree Dave, he should have provided his own proof when making that claim.

Thanks for the heads-up Peter F - my dovetail cutter (£8.70) arrived today, and wherever it was made it looks good, tho not tried it yet. Annoyingly they're down to £7.78 on Zoro ebay now, but given £54 for the 25mm (or £112 for what seems to be the same thing on the Cromwell site) I can't really complain.

Robin.

Peter, mine arrived yesterday too. Also not tried it yet but many thanks for the heads up.

Dave

Just ordered mine at £7.78! Cheap as chips!

Martin

You're welcome, yes that is annoying, but if you're ever interested in anything from zoro that you don't need immediately, add it to your watch list and keep an eye on it for price changes.

You're very welcome. I think over 50 sold from me posting this here, hopefully we'll see lots of projects from people on here, I've already got a very unique use for mine planned.

Cromwell pricing is strange- I went in to the my local branch in search of a mid-range drill chuck recently. After talking with the chap on the counter I walked out (ran actually ) with Rohm super precision chuck for £25 on offer. It's a pretty a good chuck! God knows what the list price was.

Robin

Edited By Robin Graham on 21/04/2019 00:00:01

Edited By Robin Graham on 21/04/2019 00:00:58

Edited By Robin Graham on 21/04/2019 00:01:41