Narex Pair Right & Left Hand Marking Striking Notching Violin Knives 813701/813711

These are a quality set of marking knives. They come very sharp but a quick honing on a leather strop with rouge will bring them to mirror sharp in just a few minutes.They handle well, are thick enough to be able to pick them up off the workbench but not so thick that you can't get them into some tight places. They guide well along straight edge or square and are pretty much a joy to use. Enough weight that you can just about use the weight of the knife for that first light scribe line.Highly recommend.

I'm a woodworker and use single bevel knives like this for marking, especially for hand cut dovetails. The single bevel allows you to put the flat of the knife against the tails when transferring to the pin board so the mark is exactly in place.The 12mm width is my perferred width.But these knives need a lot of setup before they're really usable. That's why I called them "Kit Knives". You get the basics with them, but there's a lot of work to do before they're usable.1. The backs may have been ground flat, but there are serious scratches cut into the metal, and those scratches go to the cutting edge. Having those scratch marks in the cutting edge means that the edge is now a serrated edge, not a sharp edge. The back has to be polished out with water stones to remove those scratches, and that takes a fair amount of time and effort.2. The bevel that Narex puts on the knife is way too high. I had to regrind the edge on my powered grinder and then polish the edge on water stones. Again, that takes a fair amount of time and effort.The knives are a bit less than 12mm wide and slightly less than 3mm thick (a little less than 1/8"). This is thicker than I like. I have Pfeil violin knives - they are about 1/16" thick and have much lower bevel angles (available from SW Strings). The other knives I have are Japanese Kiridashi single bevel knives. These are laminated knives with low bevel angles.The metal in the Narex knives appears to be good so I'd expect the edge to hold up well. It's just too bad that they don't prepare the knives better for use and leave so much work for the user. I expect that now that they're fettled they will work well.

With a bit of sharpening they are tools I have already used a lot.

Exactly what I wanted. These allow me to make accurate cut lines for dovetails. Really help with accuracy.

On one of the knifes the tip was chipped off. Waiting for replacement. They look like they will work well though

Extremely well made marking knives- have a night weight and feel. They should last a lifetime. Left and right were slightly different lengths for whatever reason.

Quality marking knives. They are a mainstay in my shop. I would recommend these to wood workers who build cabinets with hand tools. (Saws, chisels, planes...)

Perfectly sharp single bevel marking knives for cutting along a guide but hard to hold in your hand to do the job. It needs to be set into a handle.