Unicorned Chisel meets a challenge

Re: Unicorned Chisel meets a challenge

David Weaver

tap tap through the knot or some other kind of remediation is probably best for the chisel.

But it's a good test.

At some point, going with Cliff Stamps language, the failure that would have occurred is now pushed past the initial bevel. But that's part of the design.

And with a less strong bevel, the damage goes there, anyway.

This is a constant problem with overhard japanese chisels (losing corners), but it occurs in regular wood. I bought a super hard set of ouchi 1 (old guy, his son took over since then) chisels from MJD - someone had bought them long ago, and the set of 12 or 14 went for the princely sum of $485 on a straight up auction on MJD. This is actually a pretty low price. They hadn't been used.

They had very thin bevels on them, someone probably just cut the bevel on a wet wheel and may or may not have done some aesthetic work to the bevel to bring out the transition between hard and soft, and then they were lacquered.

Being pleased to have such a nice chisel set at that price, I tried them with a light hand mortising waste from a plane. The bevels crumbled.

I gave them a steeper bevel at the tip, proceeded to mortise without a heavy hand (but steadily) and the corners left the scene on them again. I sold stones on etsy at the time. When a set is that nice, i'm not inclined to take them apart and temper them, but they needed it. Too hard to sharpen at any reasonable pace on a strong cutting suita, and ice on one of my stronger washitas - both indications of excessive hardness.

decision

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

Bash the damn knot and get on with it paying price of a minute on the grinder to recover.

Or, baby the tool and hope it held up.

Screw it. It will grind out easily. And I learned something, actually several things.

most of all I was delighted with the fit. Finished up some mortises. I use the chisel to scrape the bottoms.....same attitude as above. No damage.

either or, nothing...

David Weaver

..nothing of those two potential problems will really hold up a project.

I took a picture of the V11 chisel after I gave it a pretty heavy hand on uni try 1 for the article.

This is a corner.

despite the strange look, it is mostly sharp almost to the edge of the curve and i've noticed no lack of a clean cut at the insides of dovetails when paring through to remove any unmotivated waste.

This is exaggerated a bit on the veritas chisels, too, as they have no arise on the side - they're a knife edge on the sides, as you're maybe aware. The curvature would be a little less on another chisel with a bit of a side arise.