Chipped Chisel

Re: Chipped Chisel

Bill Houghton, sunny today yahoo in Sebastopol, CA

>Depending on how large the chip is, you may find it necessary either to go to power grinding - some people use bench grinders, some use belt sanders, some get spendy and buy Tormeks - or, if you're doing hand sharpening entirely, to go up to a larger grit. Search on "sharpening" on this forum, searching over, say, a month, and you'll find more information than can easily be absorbed on the best way to do this, of which ("the best way") there are about 500.

Marples chisels chip out easily - the steel's not very good, in my opinion.

Re: Chipped Chisel

Denis Ch�nard, Orl�ans, Ont.

>Use sandpaper on a reasonably flat surface (MDF will do) if you don't have a grinder. Go down to 120 or even 80 if the chip is deep.

Then go back to your usual sharpening routine...

DC

and you should use a steeper bevel

Ian Neuhaus

>

What I do

jim reed @ tallahassee

>Marples blue are pretty soft and Ipe is pretty hard. Average bevel is 30 degrees. For this job I would regrind to 35 or steeper. To remove knicks, get a white or pink stone for your grinder. Grind the tip at 90 degrees until the knicks disappear. Touch the chisel to the wheel for a second, dip in water, dry with paper towel and inspect. Repeat until you see a shiny edge. Then set your proper bevel and sharpen away. Shouldn't take you more than 5 min. to fix.

Re: What I do

Thom D

>As soft as these things are you are going to have to do some pretty serious grinding/heating before you do any harm. Blunt it as mentioned, then grind it until you feel it getting hot or you see the edge turn dirty yellow. Then dip it in water. Then grind again until the water evaporates, and re-dip. When grinding apply your force into the middle of the bevel not rocking up onto the edge.

You don't need to steepen the bevel for regular work, I use them at 25-30. Just learn to cut without prying. If you buy 300 dollar /chisel chisels you will have to learn that also, for a different reason, so save yourself the trouble and use the chisel as a cutting tool whenever you can, which is pretty much always.

What I do with blue chip chisels is cut one third to half the blade away. You get (way) back into the better steel and take a lot of the vibe out of the cut. Few modern woodworkers who hand sharpen are ever going to get back into the sweet spot of a Marples chisel.

As mentioned already. sandpaper is probably your best bet for grinding away chips if you don't have power. move the chisel form side to side to avoid cutitng away the grit. If you have a sharpening jig that will improve your effectiveness in grinding, since you will be cutting at the correct angle at all times. Another option is a file. Quite a lot of toolbox chisels are soft enough to be quickly filed. Put your chisel in a vise and plan out your cuts with the file so you won't cut a finger off.

The same goes with Japanese chisels...

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond, CA

>The steel is much better about a third of the way down. Not that I'll be cutting mine down anytime soon...