[Shop-talk] Sharpening a woodworking chisel?

[David Scheidt]

On Tue, Jun 16, 2009 at 12:51 AM, Peter J. Thomas<pj_thomas at comcast.net>
wrote:
> David Scheidt wrote:
>> diamond stone.
>
> Matt writes that he has a single stone that is eight years old, though it
> may be a two sided combination stone. B So I suspect, one: it's not coarse
> enough to remove significant material and two: it is clogged and gummed up
> from oil and steel sitting and oxidizing over the years. B Assume it is a
two
> sided, it takes a lot of work with the fine side to remove the scratches
> from the coarse side. B Assume its single grit stone, its a even more work
to
> flatten a chisel back with a fine stone alone.
> You are correct, scary sharp can get expensive over time, but the one time
> cost for a half a dozen sheets is acceptable for the initial truing of the
> chisel set.

MIssed the "one stone" thing.  Yeah.  probably a two sided silicon
carbide stone.  They're a lot better tools then they're generally
given credit for.  the coarse side will remove material in a hurry,
but requires a fair amount of pressure.  The other thing is that they
should be used *dry*, not with oil.  And, as sold, they're machined to
size, so the top layer isn't a very effective cutting surface.  A
touch of flattening will take care of that, either with a dimaond
stone, if a suitably sized one is available, or failing that, a nice
flat piece of concrete.  There's a nearly infalliable way of cleaning
these stones, too:  a dishwasher.  If it's got lots of oil in it,
soaking in a tub of dishwasher soap and water will remove much of that
first.



--
David Scheidt
dmscheidt at gmail.com