Cambered Bench Chisels!!!
Jay Samuels
>Are these a secret kept for the higher initiates, or have I not been paying attention?
I started in on a relief carving this weekend, but none of my collection of flea market/garage sale gouges was wide enough or flat enough to do a good job of wasting the background, so I decided to grind a chisel with a camber, ala a slick. I had a spare 7/8" Buck Brothers socket chisel, and ground a camber freehand, using mostly the side of the grinding wheel. This was easier than I had anticipated, because there were no corners to burn. Then I honed it on a couple of oilstones. This was also easier than anticipated, because all the things that are difficult about sharpeneing chisels (keeping a consistent bevel angle and equal side to side pressure, and not rounding the bevel) are irrelevant to sharpening the cambered iron. In use - AWESOME. The bevel down gives you a great approach angle to the work, the inherent skew due to the camber makes cutting easy, the absence of sharp corners protects the work when you slip on the cut, and the actual concavity of the cut is very slight, perfect for a smooth background. Plus it was useful for the carving itself, for all the same reasons.
Then I got excited and cambered a 1 1/2" Stanley, and an old 1/4" no-name socket chisel to see if you could make deep grooves with the same method. Have to say the last idea was a no-go, but the extra width on the 1 1/2" was great. All in all, cambered bench chisels seem like a superior tool for lots of applications, plus they are easy to make.