I've started prepping the new chisels from Stan. I've never found a way to do it that didn't just take pulling up your big boy pants and take iron to stone and do the scut work. I wish there were an easier way, if there is I haven't found it. What this really got me to thinking about is the sharpening process and how to tell if a cutter is sharp.
We have endless posts on sharpening about what stones to use and what grits for grinding, honing, and polishing but not much on how to tell if a cutter is sharp other than what tests the poster uses to check the iron out. Maybe because there is no way to show how to feel sharp and even less to show how to see sharp we end up with sharpening posts that really do not address how to have sharp cutters. I think feeling sharp is easier to show someone than seeing sharp because you can A&B sharp edges vs. dull edges until the light goes on. There are so many factors with seeing that make it hard to show. I wish I could figure out a way to photograph sharp edges vs. ones that are not because even if someone is in your shop and you are trying to show them what to see you or at least I am not sure they are seeing the same thing I'm seeing.
BTW, I guess one of the things that started this line of thought was the first chisel I worked on had a wire edge that refused to go and even thought it felt sharp (the wire was very small) you could see it wasn't sharp.
Anyway just thoughts to go along with my cut and abraded fingers and thumb. You can take a lot of skin off before you know it is happening.
ken