Good pal of mine (worked under Makepeace) showed me his chisels recently, plastic blue handled Stanleys…his work is exquisite and he can hand sharpen a chisel in 2 mins flat.
I did notice some very nice James Swan chisels go for under $100 on Ebay (US), seems some bargains to be had at the moment.
Also have a read on Derek Cohen’s take on chisels and sharpening, he knows his stuff.
Funny old world, the joiners I know use Stanley yellow handled for a lot of their work, mainly large joinery. Just hand sharpened before use.
The Ashley’s are a decent set, nearly bought then but opted for the Pfiel at the time because smaller. Don’t buy Pfeil, bloody hard to get an edge on, keeps it, just hard work and faff.
I always end up reaching for my beat up old English ones and have resisted the shiny, save that for planes 
I wonder if it would make better sense to spend a bit more on sharpening set up and just get some old blue handled Stanleys or old Marples problem being off course what would you need (minimum) to spend to get a good shapening set up?
£300 on a machine maybe a few high grit water or diamond stones, honing guides are not cheap and you don’t want to be buggering about with one of those on your no. 8 blade. Tormeks are slow, maybe the new axminster might be ok but not read any reviews or the machine you have Bob, can’t remember what its called.
…just checked , its not cheap,
I’ll have a read on that fella when I find me glasses. Also write up a bit on the linisher when I’m on my lappy tomorrow. I’ve tried a few sharpening systems, seem to have found one that works for me. You can spend a fortune on sharpening but a combo stone and guide will get you going until the OCD kicks in. I’m not kidding myself, I’m a part timer at this, a full time cabinet maker will have spent years perfecting tool sharpening to such an extent where skill saves time and money.
The one I bought is the Sorby linisher, Axminster essentially copied it within a year but as always, different belts and attachments so no interchangeability.
New is easier as I was going to suggest it to the wife for Christmas 
Seems like a good place to start: Ashley Iles Mk2 Bevel Edge Chisels Set of 4 + Free Tool roll [BE4] : Ashley Iles Tool Store
*** PLEASE ORDER BY 25th NOVEMBER FOR CHRISTMAS DELIVERY ***
I’m patient.
True, you didn’t specify which Christms 
Any recommendations for an impact driver?
Festool or Milwaukee
Whichever one you already have the batteries for. If not, it’s hard to go wrong with Makita, DeWalt, Milwaukee, etc.
Whichever battery system you already have or want to get into.
I have Makita Brushless, its superb but then I have other Makita LXT stuff so it makes sense.
Snap 
Used to use dewalt, but then changed to makita, hard to fault them
I do have a DeWalt drill. The Makita looks good but I suppose there is no standard for batteries and the DeWalt ones won’t work with Makita
Correct, This is why I’d always say if you only have one item, decide early on which system you want to get into, as batteries/chargers are the expensive part.
I used to have a Bosch cordless drill, and decided on Makita to start with just for the shear variety of products in the LXT system, I now have an LXT Drill, Impact Driver, Router, Hedge Trimmer and now Mower. The wife is now eyeing up the dinky 18V LXT Chainsaw…
Look for the torque value, you usually get what you pay for. Brushless is usually higher torque.
