chisel steel

[Hasin Haroon]

Thanks Derek, that's helpful, as always.

[brian zawatsky]

Brandon-

I'm no expert but I can share what limited experience I have with this stuff.

I purchased 2 oirenomi and a shinogi-style tsukinomi from Stan. Oirenomi are standard bench chisels, and the tsukinomi is a long paring chisel with a triangular profile. All are single-hollow backs, and in general are well made no-frills chisels. Don't quote me on this, but if I remember correctly the three chisels plus shipping from Japan were around 200 bucks total, and he had all three in stock so I had them in like 4 or 5 days. The paring chisel cost as much as the two bench chisels combined - it is a much larger chisel with a much thinner & more delicate blade.

I also purchased several Masashige dovetail chisels from Hida Tool which I like very much. They were more expensive than Stan's chisels, but the fit and finish were just as good if not sligtly better, and the steel seems to be of identical quality. Both the Masashige and Stan's C&S branded chisels take a laser-sharp edge (much sharper than you can get A2, IMO) and hold it for considerably longer than 01. After chopping a drawer's worth of dovetails with the 9mm oirenomi from Stan, the edge was still sharp enough to take hairs off my arm. YMMV

The thing I like about the Masashige (sold as "Ari nomi") is that they have zero side lands so you can get right into sharp corners on pin sockets and tail sockets without bruising the adjoining surfaces. Other so-called dovetail chisels (more accurately described as "shinogi" nomi) that are out there DO have flat side lands similar to most western bench chisels. Another nice thing about ordering from Hida Tool is that they are in Berkeley, CA and they actually carry inventory (imagine that!!!) so you dont have to wait for weeks just to get an email back saying your order is months out. I ordered, they shipped next day, and I had chisels 2 days later. But I am impatient; that may not matter as much to you.

I do have a wide, multi-hollow (called "mitsu ura" in Japanese) usunomi on order with Stan right now that had to be custom made by his smith, but I am happy to wait for that quality. Stan let me know what the wait time was going in, and it was not extraordinary by any means (approx 1 month), nor was the price. I highly recommend you talk with him, he won't steer you wrong.

[Stewie Simpson]

Both the Masashige andStan's C&S branded chisels take a laser-sharp edge (much sharper than you can get A2, IMO) and hold it for considerably longer than 01. After chopping a drawer's worth of dovetails with the 9mm oirenomi from Stan, the edge was still sharp enough to take hairs off my arm. YMMV

Brian; you have unwittingly exposed my incompetence at sharpening western W1 HCS chisels. The best I can achieve is a sharp edge.

The same can be said about my western saw sharpening abilities. Progress has really stalled on trying to get those saw teeth sharp enough that they will cut through wood like butter.




Open to the prospect of continually improving my sharpening skills I did a quick google search on a Laser Sharp Edge . Nothing popped up on Japanese Chisels but I did come across the following product. http://afn.com.au/product/sharpmaxx-knife-sharpener/

[brian zawatsky]

Stewie, you’re trying too hard.

You know, looking at the picture you posted it seems to me that if you stopped subscribing to Paul Sellers’ convex bevel YouTube channel you may have more luck getting a satisfactorily sharp edge. Just a suggestion, or course.

[John C Cox]

And we never even managed go get talking about chemically sharpening chisels and plane irons.... They do it with fish hooks.. I mean - you can get an edge 1 atom wide. .

That will certainly end all the sharpening discussions!

https://patents.google.com/patent/US20160257006A1/en

[steven c newman]

Doubt it..and..what would I do with all the popcorn in the popper?
aldi's.jpg
Been a "go-to" chisel, lately....