Sharpening a chisel

I have unreasonable sentimentality about Stanley Model 40 chisels. I started buying them about 30 years ago just as they were being discontinued. They seem to sharpen easily and hold a good edge. I was always missing the one inch chisel and recently was lucky enough to find one on eBay.

Step 1 Beat up chisel handle

When I received it, I noticed that the back of the handle had been hit pretty hard over the years.

Comments

[Rahere]

I keep a 8000 slip for the bevel - those water wheels are expensive and take up space I'd rather use for something else.

[yomero]

lovely tutorial, the moment i saw the honing of the edge i thought of a straight razor, and i never imagined this things needed to be so sharp

[mje]

Nice instructable. I use a Veritas sharpening jig, which makes it easy to put a proper bevel on if you don't do this sort of thing every day. I also use the sandpaper-on-glass trick for sharpening as well as prepping the back, going to 1600 grit. Cheaper than waterstones ;-)

[cobourgdave]

Your instructable is great. It has been a very long time since I was taught how properly sharpen a chisel. I agree with all the steps you have shown, with one possible variation. I follow up hand stoning with a leather strop. I have an old shoe sole that puts a very high polish on the blade and assures a razor edge, needed for work on soft wood. Incidentely, the same process should be used on hand plane blades. Thanks.

[carlbass]

I agree completely. I mistakenly left it out of the instructable but I often strop the tools on a piece of leather glued to a board that I rub that has rouge on it

[nspirit]

OOoohhhhh ... didn't know i had to sharpen my chisel.
In a way it make sense.
Thanks for this instructable that'll be really handy :)

[mikeasaurus]

A thorough write up!
It's funny how sometimes we get used to working with dull tools and don't realize what a difference a sharp blade makes.

[pfred2]

Sometimes dull blade is better. Believe it or not a dull knife cuts foam roofing insulation much better than a sharp one does. Drove me nuts to learn it, but I've come to accept the fact today. I wouldn't want to butter my toast with a sharp blade either. But we'd use butter knives on roofing insole.

For everything else I got used to sharp blades at a very young age. 20 years ago I thought I knew everything there was to know about sharpening too. Since then I've learned a thing or two though.

Today for instance I wouldn't consider a chisel edge fully sharpened unless it was stropped. Wire edges are for scrapers.

[markstutzman]

If you're talking about rigid foam insulation, a handsaw cuts it much more easily (and more quickly) than any knife, dull or sharp.

[pfred2]

This looks like what we used:

http://img.archiexpo.com/images_ae/photo-g/waterproof-rigid-polyisocyanurate-foam-and-bitumen-insulation-panel-for-roof-449951.jpg

A dull knife goes through that stuff like it is hot butter. A sharp knife sucks though. I've used both. I wouldn't have brought it up if it wasn't different.

I never saw anyone ever try to cut the stuff with a hand saw. Mostly because no one had a hand saw, and dull knives worked so well why would we use anything different?

[carlbass]

I agree about stropping.

[pfred2]

Just something about it. For years I didn't do it and wondered why my edges dulled more quickly than I thought they should. Today I think it was because the wire edge was bending over on the blade. A strop until the wire edge breaks off cures that.

[carlbass]

They dull more quickly and they're subtly but noticeably not as sharp

[pfred2]

Yeah instead of saw sharp they get slippery sharp after stropping. Like you polish out the last scratches on the edge. Do you charge your leather strop with rouge? I have a stick of this red stuff I use. I can't even remember where I got it from. I just know I got it now.

[CapnChkn]

I like that item you're oiling the metal with. I've never seen anything like it. What is that called, or how is it made?

[carlbass]

I bought it at a local Japanese woodworking store. Here's a good view of the felt applicator

http://www.fine-tools.com/G-applikationsflasche.html

[Nostalgic Guy]

A good 'ible, well explained & well illustrated.
I agree with mikeasaurus it's surprising how people can get used to dull tools.
I recall many years ago spending most of a Sunday getting a workmates chisels up to standard & another Sunday a week or two later teaching him how to keep them like it, he seldom used them but at least when he needed to they did the job properly.
I have always belived that any tool well looked after & maintained is far more useful than the most expensive one mistreated & neglected.
Any chance you will follow this up with one about maintaining your stones & wheel?

[Infrasonic]

Steel and ateel and of course steel are so different in many kind of capabilities. You never can say that any old one is better than any new one or counterwise.

It is a long time of experiance and the result of many tries to find what is good or not.

I love to see someone who takes care for his tools and knows how to make them usable.

[pfred2]

I cannot agree with your statement that just the maintenance of tools makes some better than others. I've been sharpening steel for too long now to believe that all steel is created equally.

So far the best steel I've had the pleasure to sharpen is in some kitchen knives I own. Knives made by Henckels for a company named Hoffritz that were cyrogenically treated. I could cut a Japanese waterstone clean in half with one of those knives, and still slice a tomato paper thin after the fact.

[Nostalgic Guy]

I think you are missing my point; when I say that "I have always belived that any tool well looked after & maintained is far more useful than the most expensive one mistreated & neglected." I mean that simply because a tool is expensive or high quality it does not mean it will perform the job well if it is not looked after.
Imagine trying to cut a waterstone in half with your knife if it had been left in the bottom of a damp drawer rattlling around with your spanners & hammers for a few years, I doubt you would have much luck.
I have a one inch chisel I bought about twenty years ago for about £1.20, I had left mine at home & needed one to trim around a door frame to fit some cables for an air conditioner, it ihas been well looked after & is still sitting in my workshop now, sure it does not hold it's edge as long as my higher quality ones but it does perform a more than adequate job & I still use it regularly.
The ones I mentioned previously I sharpened for my workmate were if my memory serves me made by Marples, not I will grant you the most supremely high quality available not equally they were not exactly rubbish & many people myself included have enjoyed using their Marples tools for many years; his ones howver had been kept in a plastic bag in the bottom of a tool box, three of then had NEVER been sharpened & the forth had a sloping cutting edge & a CONVEX!!! bevel.
I ask you this, if you had to use one or the other given the choice of using my £1.20 dirt cheap but honed & well maintained chisel or his much better quality & far more expensive but blunt & chipped Marples ones.
"Which would you choose?"

[pfred2]

Don't be silly. The only right answer is to sharpen the Marples and use your cheap chisel as a putty knife :)

[carlbass]

Thanks. I'll do another one about sharpening but right now there are two ahead of it about things I've been making

[pfred2]

I have some Japanese waterstones. They're OK, I prefer my Arkansas sharpening stones to them though. I'm a westerner. I finish up with a red rouge charged leather strop. Nets me an edge sharp like a razor, durable too. I rough with them synthetic diamond hones. They're not half bad. You should try them. Oh, this is my secret ingredient, get this stuff called Super Clean, or the knock off Purple Power amazing stone lube!

What I really hate about Japanese waterstones is they spall if my shop freezes. Something about water freezing in stones that isn't good you know?

[CementTruck]

Great Instructable.

How much is a good set of Japanese water stones?

[carlbass]

You can buy a combo waterstone with two grits for about $35. That would be enough for most tasks. At the other end of the specturm, you can spend up to $100 per stone -- way overkill unless you do a lot of sharpening