Chisel sharpening

[Square_peg]

For years I've sharpened my chisels freehand. I'm a carpenter by trade though no longer doing that work. I've always just pushed the bevel down against the stone and then tried to maintain the angle throughout the sharpening process. When I built houses I kept a little Norton round stone in my nail bags and frequently touched up my chisels. Occasionally I'd re-bevel them on a belt sander and touch them up with bench stones. I didn't need perfection, I needed function, quick and easy. But this method invariably leads to a convex bevel and I've often wanted to get a little more sophisticated in how I sharpened my chisels.
On a whim I purchased an inexpensive chisel sharpening guide from Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/ATLIN-Honing-Guide-Chisels-Planer/dp/B07C9X3F98

It's simple to use. Just clamp the chisel in the guide. Move it toward or away from the bevel to change the angle. A hardened steel roller on the bottom of the unit contacts the stone and maintains your bevel angle.

It sat in the package for a year. Today I broke it out to sharpen my 1-1/4" Henry Taylor paring chisel. I'm blessed to own a very large whetstone, 8"x12"x1-1/2" thick. It's a medium fine silicon carbide stone. I set it up on my kitchen sink and set the faucet to give it a light steady shower of warm water.

With this medium fine grit it took about 20 minutes to completely regrind the bevel. But it was very straight forward, just roll it back and forth. Move from side to side to use the whole stone. Push it at angle sometimes so I don't carve a channel in the stone. Flip the stone end for end occasionally.

The bevel came out nice, one flat plane. I gave it a few passes on a hard Arkansas stone to remove the burr and put it to work.

Just fine for my purposes. How do you sharpen your chisels?

 

[AriesTheCam]

I do the same with the same type of chisel guide you use. I also use to hand sharpen them and rarely had the convex issue, but have ruined at least 1 doing this.. good thing it was a cheap chisel.

I'm more interested where you got such a massive whetstone.. I need one of these yesterday lol.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

That stone is a BEAST. I'm envious.

Thus far, I've just sharpened my chisels freehand. I don't have a lot of experience with these - I've done it only occasionally as part of my amateur-level woodworking hobby. But I've been able to maintain an edge on them that works for me, using something like an India stone and then polishing on a strop of MDF and green compound, which suits my chisels nicely for finishing. Haven't had to do any major regrinding of those big bevels though, and have considered picking up one of those guides for that type of job.

 

[Square_peg]

I'm more interested where you got such a massive whetstone.. I need one of these yesterday lol.

About 25 years ago I was working as a construction superintendent for a mid-size general contractor. I had a job remodeling part of a factory for a Boeing supplier. On my breaks I'd go out back and have a smoke (I smoked back then, no more). A fella from the factory next door was often out there having a smoke and we struck up conversation. Turns out he worker for an abrasives manufacturer.

They had a huge pile of factory seconds and damaged stone lying out the back door of their factory. Must have been about 3 wheelbarrow loads of whetstones out there.
He said they were scrap. I asked if I could take a few and he said, "sure, help yourself." So I grabbed this big one and stacked a dozen smaller stones on it. I thought that was all the stones I'd ever need in my life. I was young and foolish back then or I'd have went back for another armload.

I kept a bunch of stones and gifted a bunch of stones. I used to use this for sharpening floor scrapers - just lay it on the floor and go hit it when your scraper was getting dull. Big handy stone but I haven't used it as much as I should have.

 

[AriesTheCam]

About 25 years ago I was working as a construction superintendent for a mid-size general contractor. I had a job remodeling part of a factory for a Boeing supplier. On my breaks I'd go out back and have a smoke (I smoked back then, no more). A fella from the factory next door was often out there having a smoke and we struck up conversation. Turns out he worker for an abrasives manufacturer.

They had a huge pile of factory seconds and damaged stone lying out the back door of their factory. Must have been about 3 wheelbarrow loads of whetstones out there.
He said they were scrap. I asked if I could take a few and he said, "sure, help yourself." So I grabbed this big one and stacked a dozen smaller stones on it. I thought that was all the stones I'd ever need in my life. I was young and foolish back then or I'd have went back for another armload.

I kept a bunch of stones and gifted a bunch of stones. I used to use this for sharpening floor scrapers - just lay it on the floor and go hit it when your scraper was getting dull. Big handy stone but I haven't used it as much as I should have.

That's such an awesome run of luck, and an even more awesome story! Thanks for taking the time to type that out.. it was a fun read

P.S. I'd be lying if I said I didn't cross my fingers while copy/pasting those exact dimensions into google hoping I'd find one

 

[Square_peg]

It may have been a cutoff or waste generated by a company that manufacturers large industrial grinding wheels. Think about the blank that a 24" grinding wheel would be made from.

 

[garry3]

Lots of different ways to get there, but I think this is the most in-depth tutorial out there and a pretty good one to emulate.

I do it almost exactly like Maurice does here, I'm generally on more of a 45 deg to the stone though, some of that is determined by the width of the stone and chisel. It's the exact same as process as sharpening a plane iron and being skewed to the stone promotes a bit of a belly in the blade, no edge marks.

 

[catspa]

SP, I’ve always called that jig an “Eclipse guide”, after an old maker of them (I think in Britain). There’s a guy named Lee Laird who has a pretty good write up on tuning them.

I’ve got a big butcher’s stone, I’m more envious of your paring chisel. Mine’s an old 1-1/2” Greenlee.

Cool vid Garry, but I don’t do it that way. I maintain the edge perpendicular to the direction of travel, because I dislike microscopic scratches parallel to the edge. To be fair, his microbevel and stropping got closer to perpendicular or at least 45, maybe that makes up for it. Also, he missed the chance to use the word “swarf” about 3 times.

I agree with your slight edge rocker, always do that.

Parker

 

[garry3]

SP, I’ve always called that jig an “Eclipse guide”, after an old maker of them (I think in Britain). There’s a guy named Lee Laird who has a pretty good write up on tuning them.

I’ve got a big butcher’s stone, I’m more envious of your paring chisel. Mine’s an old 1-1/2” Greenlee.

Cool vid Garry, but I don’t do it that way. I maintain the edge perpendicular to the direction of travel, because I dislike microscopic scratches parallel to the edge. To be fair, his microbevel and stropping got closer to perpendicular or at least 45, maybe that makes up for it. Also, he missed the chance to use the word “swarf” about 3 times.

I agree with your slight edge rocker, always do that.

Parker

Yes, that's why I'm closer to 45, but as you say the micro bevel probably makes up for that. I wish I knew about micro bevels when I first started with old hand tools, the internet, lots of bad information but also access to good information. It was probably all covered in shop class back in the day but I simply wasn't interested.

I think this is a good video on sharpening plane irons that covers the need for cambor in the iron and how to get it.

 

[Natlek]

It may have been a cutoff or waste generated by a company that manufacturers large industrial grinding wheels. Think about the blank that a 24" grinding wheel would be made from.

If you know some Crankshaft repair shop you can get quite cheap grinding wheel , when they reach a certain diameter, they are no longer usable on that machine And they have them in different grits .

 

[Artyh]

I use a secondary bevel and sharpen freehand. The bevel angle is changed depending on the use I anticipate and the type of chisel. A paring chisel gets a finer edge and more acute angle than a mortise or firmer.
I normally sharpen freehand, but may use a guide for a shoulder plane iron.
I generally start with my Norton Lilly White Washita, and use a hard black or translucent Arkansas stone for finishing. If I need an especially fine edge, I may strop with a fine abrasive, like Diamond paste.
If I had to reset the bevel on a tool, I would want to use some sort of powered device. I don’t like to go near my tool blades with diamond stones, but they are fine for knife blades.