The mortise chisel is IMHO the easiest of the blades to free hand. It's 'more square' than bench chisels, so it's easy to keep it flat through the stroke - if if not hollow ground.
Moderator
The mortise chisel is IMHO the easiest of the blades to free hand. It's 'more square' than bench chisels, so it's easy to keep it flat through the stroke - if if not hollow ground.
Contributor
Have you ever tried to push sharpen with the 'scary sharp' method?Chisels, plane blades etc are all push sharpened.
For what it is worth, my sharpening is mostly push and pull.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Member
For the OP, couldn't he perhaps take a block of wood like Derek has in his picture set for the proper bevel angle, epoxy a strip of hdpe on the bottom of the block of wood, cut out a groove that will just allow the mortise chisel to sit down square, and use that to slide along on his waterstones to be a sharpening aid?
Contributor
One could also make such a block to go along the side of their stone using a side to side motion to sharpen a chisel.Originally Posted by Flamone LaChaud
The first step in learning to sharpen freehand is to accept that it can be learned.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Contributor
Had to Google that Jim; no never used sandpaper to sharpen real tools, removing sharp edges,yes.
You can do a lot with very little! You can do a little more with a lot!
Contributor
Thomas, I started out with honing guides and with a little bit of practice I learned how to freehand sharpen my chisels and plane blades. I figured that it would be absurd, for me, to shell out $1000 for a sharpening tool. I also switched to natural oilstones, I got tired of flattening my waterstones after every use. Coincidentally, just last week I purchased a few vintage mortising chisels, after re-establishing a new bevel using the bench grinder I finished them off on my Washita stone. On a side note, I just got in the mail a gorgeous Welsh slate stone, it's very dense, but not very hard. I'm looking forward to test it in the workshop. Rafael
Member
I have one of those too . . . does an excellent job as a finishing stone imho.
Contributor
Flamone, do you use it with water or oil?
Member
Water, because I use it after my waterstones. It will produce a slurry somewhat easily.
Contributor
What's your final water stone?
~mike
happy in my mud hut
Member
5k Nainwa super stone . . . but please, back to the regularly scheduled programming.
In Memoriam
Derek,
You need the larger wheels for your Kell no 2, check his site or Workshop Heaven..
Better still use the 2 over a slot in 1/4" Perspex. The jig now thinks it has even bigger wheels!
This set up produces sensible blade projection.
On another tack, I place mortice chisels on the bars of the Eclipse or knockoff guide.
The advantage of the 2 is that it has "Training wheels" which are very good at creating squareness.
Best wishes,
David
Contributor
David, as soon as I saw your name, I knew you were going to mention this!
That is an old photo. I do have the large wheels. In fact, I was possibly one of the first to convert ... hoping it would improve matters. Richard makes a beautifully machined product. I just do not think the design is thought through enough.
Regards from Perth
Derek
In Memoriam
Derek,
Sorry to be so predictable ~;-)#
David
Contributor
That's what I meant by "all the way down inside the Eclipse jig". It holds my Ulmia's just fine like that, and they don't have parallel sides either.
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