I picked these up for free. I plan to give them to friend who is just getting into woodworking. They are Chineese made and were very poorly finished, but maybe there is some good material here.
Kens Chisels.jpg
The ROS with coarse and fine paper produced smooth backs. One needed a few taps with a hammer to make it from a spoon into a knife. Some time on the belt sander and grinder gave them decent shape. More ministrations with the ROS resulted in a nice finish overall. Then some time with the diamond plate got the primary bevel looking good and the edge straightened out. The handles were not too secure so I pulled them all off and ground some ugliness off the tangs them epoxied them back together. About 2 hours into it so far.
At this point I am interested in the quality of the steel. When grinding and sanding the front inch threw a lot of yellow sparks and a file would not touch it. The rest threw no sparks but is not real soft. I used one to chop a few times into Hickory and Oak. No chips or damage evident. What do you think, should I spend the effort to sharpen and build a nice box for them?