Hey all,

Finally getting a few good old chisels has been an interesting thing.... They behave "Differently" than the new modern alloy steels I am used to...

For example - back prep....

I have taken it as an article of faith that one must lap the backs of your chisels.... And with my modern alloy steel chisels - they don't sharpen right if you don't lap the backs on a plate when you sharpen to release the feather edge... Wiping them on a pants leg or uncharged leather doesn't really do anything useful for me.... And rubbing the backs on a charged strop can mess up the back geometry bad... A couple years ago - I spent a large amount of time and energy undoing chisel back trouble I had caused through my early zeal on strops....

But I noticed that none of these old chisels have lapped backs... Warren also mentioned this - but never went any further about their use practices and HOW they got around backs that aren't lapped... Steven talks about rubbing chisels on a coarse pants leg or uncharged leather to rejuvenate edges.... None of that works on my modern alloy steel chisels...

But... All that stuff works on the old plain, extra high carbon cast steel chisels of old... Even the really hard ones... You can wipe the feather edge right off the edge on coarse denim or uncharged leather....

Is that why we never find old chisels with lapped backs - but new alloy steel chisels basically have to have lapped backs - so they will sharpen right? Because uncharged leather or cloth really isn't effective on the modern alloy steels in use since the 1950's - so workers had to come up with an alternative practice - aka honing the backs as well as the bevels?

Thanks