OK...so I bought this old chisel, but...

[Harold Burrell]

It is BADLY pitted. But only on the "flat" side (of course).

I was thinking, though...What if I ground it down and swapped sides? You know, put the bevel on the opposite side.

Any reasons why I shouldn't???
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Oh...before you say it...yeah, I know...the Yankees aren't doing so well this year. But the coffee was good. :)

[Sean Hughto]

Well the second of your pictures shows why that will not be optimal. But if the chisel is otherwise unusable, hav at it. By the way, pitting doesn't matter unless it is literally at the edge, so if you can work the back to a point where the last 1/8th inch is clear, you should be fine.

[Zach Dillinger]

Sean's right. The chisel might be laminated (hard to tell for sure), meaning that you will not be successful with swapping sides. The soft iron of the "top" will not hold an edge and will make a poor chisel. The pitting is severe, but you can still get some use out of it. Just remove as much as possible and grind past the severe pits when you come to them. It probably won't be a fine paring chisel, but will work fine for all sorts of rough chopping work.

[Sean Hughto]

I can't tell if it's laminated or not. What I can see in the second picture is that the chisel has a bend such that the socket won't get in the way when used in its original orientation for things like paring on a flat surface.

[Zach Dillinger]

Ahh, I see what you are saying. That could also be a problem.

[george wilson]

The top edge is curved hollow. The handle might be bent to allow for clearance. I can't be sure but some are. I can see the swamped top surface,though. I'd not try swapping cutting surfaces even if the chisel is NOT laminated(I can't tell from the pictures. As said,if you can get 1/8" of unpitted metal at the cutting edge,the chisel will last for years with just that much.