Mild steel would be fine I dont see it as a copy
Walter I don't think any of us qualify to call the tool tat without first testing it from what I can see apart from the handle being laminated which could still be OK for all we know, it looks to be a very well engineered tool but both of us can only say it looks to tat or ok Maurice has use the tool and is well satisfied with its performance.
As for copyright on the design of the handle you could well have a valid point but perhaps that is the reason he has laminated his so that it is different
But after all the going back and forth we both know we will never change each others minds I think we know each other better than that so I think we will have to agree to disagree on this one Walter God bless you my friend long may we continue with our differences of opinion who knows we could both be wrong but dose it really matter happy turning
I dont see it as a copy
I agree they are expensive, but even if, as you suggest, it only takes a few seconds to make the metal components on a CNC machine, someone had to invest in the machine, the factory to house it, the labour to operate the machine, raw materials, marketing, and the research and development to create the tool in the first place.
That is why patent law exists, to protect that investment so that someone cannot come along and make a blatant copy is a shed somewhere and sell it for a third of the price of the genuine article.
Profit is not a crime, profit is the reward for enterprise in the same way that wages are the reward for labour. Excessive profit is perhaps morally reprehensible, but without seeing the profit and loss account of the company concerned we are not in a position to judge whether their profits are, as you so colourfully put it, "mad".
Profiting from someone else's idea is however illegal and that is why companies like Easy Wood tools will happily spend thousands of dollars protecting their patents and copyrights.
If all or any of the design of the Easy Wood tools has been patented or the design registered then no matter what you or me or anyone else thinks then the perpetrator is liable to face a civil action in the courts if they find out about it.
Gosh, what a lot of tetchy comments!. I looked at Easy Wood and Hunter Hercules but could not justify the expense. I have 3 of these "tat" tools and they do the job brilliantly at a ridiculous price. As for the handles, they are round, have some shape and have 4 wireburn rings - nothing like the Easy Wood apart from this. As for copper ferrules, I have no problem with this (yet). I am not clever or confident enough to make my own carbide insert tools so these are just the job for me.
I would of thought they subcontract the machineing because u would not invest the amount you would need to to purchase the machines Which would total out way the amont they make
Well on that note friends I'm going out in my workshop to make another 9 in 1 tool and a 1/4" scrapper to quote Brian from another forum sue me have a good day
Which would be next to nothing
Without access to their accounting records we have no way of knowing. Anyway, lets not fall out about it, it doesn't really matter to either of us one way or another because we both agree their prices are more than we are prepared to pay anyway.
Well that put the cat amongst the pigeon. I just thought I would give people a simple turners view of a product that is available (and has been for some time) and for me does a good job at a reasonable price.
Isn't that what you see from supposed experts in the woodturning magazines each month for highly expensive branded items or is it only any good if it has a NAME on it?