Yet another learning curve

[Bob Warfield]

Today I set up my new low speed grinder with the Oneway tool
rest from Woodcraft. The plan is to make it easier to freehand all my chisels
and plane blades.
The question is to you guys currently useing a grinder.
Are there any tricks to keeping blades square or will this just come with more
practice?
Thanks...Bob

[george wilson]

Truly,the most useful thing to learn about grinding,is simply to learn to do it freehand with skill. Practice on something other than your valued chisels or plane irons.

I have suggested putting a small C clamp onto the chisel blade near the handle end. Then,adjust the front edge of the tool rest until your chisel lays against the wheel at the proper angle. That way,you can quench the chisel,and repeatedly put the chisel back exactly the same angle every time,and get a nice,non-faceted bevel ground on the chisel. That is harder to accomplish than just getting the chisel's edge square. My little trick works even on gouges.

[Chris Fournier]

As George points out - practice.

[Jim Neeley]

Bob,

One technique is to use a square and a permanent sharpie to draw a line perpendicular to the side of a (square sided) plane blade near the tip, to use it as a visual reference when grinding to avoid a skew. Acetone will remove any remaining residue.

It still requires freehand, but helps! :)