At Grandpa's Little Farm, we focus on offering user tools. For this reason, we try to steer clear of collectibles. This is also the reason we have begun to carry a line of new items. We decided some time ago that we would not offer certain old tools for both safety and practical reasons.
Chisels are a primary practical reason for not selling certain used tools. Simply put, the technology has gone too far us to try to restore old chisels to a condition that would compete with what is being offered today on the new tool market. Forge welded Witherby chisels are without a doubt, things of beauty. The problem is finding sets at a reasonable price without the need for extensive restoration is just about impossible.
Enter the modern chisel. Alloys are far and away superior. New chisels do not need extensive work on their initial sharpening and hold an edge far longer than their antique counterparts.
The decision to offer new chisels was greatly influenced by our association to the Two Cherries brand. These are superior German made tools that come back polished and ready to use right out of the box. At the farm, we inspect every tool we sell, including new ones. So far, we have yet to need to do no more than look each chisel over before repacking them to ship out.
This was my personal collection of chisels when we began offering Two Cherries. Most of these have already been replaced, and plans are to eventually have this cabinet full of nothing but Two Cherries!
Some of you may already know that I purchase tools for testing and inspection. Once I have used them for a while, I generally offer them up as used merchandise. When I started doing this with the Two Cherries, I started getting rid of my other chisels to make room for a full set of these elegant beauties! Two Cherries is my personal choice of edged tools.