WoodCentral Forums

Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge

Further adventures grinding

Posts

Further adventures grinding

#1

Further adventures grinding

Jeremy Osner

>More grinding tonight. The victims were: a cheapo 1/2" HD chisel made of soft steel, which I had damaged by using to pry something; and a 1/8" mortise chisel, which I bought at a flea market last year despite the huge chip in its blade, figuring I would repair it once I learned how to grind. (I think it is made of cast steel though I am not sure.)

Both ground much faster than the hard steel chisel I did last night. I was trying to avoid a hollow grind in both cases; the HD chisel because the blade is so soft, the mortise chisel because it is a mortise chisel. For the HD chisel, I just ground the chip out and then ground a large secondary bevel and then sharpened it on the oilstone; this took about 3 minutes. The main thing I had to pay attention to was keeping the bevel square to the side of the blade.

For the mortise chisel, I did as follows: first I ground the chip away. Then I adjusted my tool rest so it met the wheel at pretty close to the angle of the existing bevel, which was 35 degrees. I started grinding the bevel, quenching frequently, and when it started getting close to the back of the chisel, I lifted the chisel handle slightly, so the front and back of the bevel were ground at different angles to the wheel. Then I flattened the bevel out on the india stone, and honed it on the oilstone. It came out pretty well!

Re: Further adventures grinding

#2

Re: Mortise chisel -- more info

Jeremy Osner

>BTW -- the only marks I can make out on the 1/8" mortise chisel are, on one side of the blade it says "V-B-M" and looks like there used to be a couple more letters after the M; and on the other side "B.A." in a smaller typeface. If anyone has a clue where this comes from, I'd love to hear. The bevel angle I ended up with is actually a bit steeper than the 35 degrees it was originally -- how will this affect its use?

Re: Further adventures grinding

#3

VBM

Ed Mulligan, Cape Cod

>VBM (very best made) was a trademark of the Sargent tool company.

A slightly higher bevel angle will, in theory, require more effort in the cut but practically speaking I don't think you will be able to detect the difference. Lower angles are ok until the edge starts to chip. Then, go the other way a few degrees.

👍 This page answered my questions

Your vote helps other woodworkers quickly find the answers and techniques that actually work in the shop.