sharpening a chisel

[Tom Bussey]

Bench grinder set up with a 180 and 600 grit CBN wheel.

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Both sides of a Craftsman 1 inch chisel.

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The chisel was wire brushed to remove all the rust and built up junk from the chisel. Then the chisel was flat ground on the side of the 600 grit wheel. At the end I realized I didn't take the picture of this process so it was taken when the chisel was all done but the process is the same.

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This is the first time I used the side of the wheel and it takes little time to get the loose partials off ( brake in) so they appear a little rough on the grind. First and second pictures of the surface.

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After about 5 minutes on a 300 and 1000 grit diamond stone and then about a minute on each a 3000 and a 8000 grit water stone. Given my age I will never have to redo this flattening steps on this chisel.

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I ground about a 20 degree primary bevel. This took the longest time. Doing with a tormek jig rocks the chisel into the wheel and as it is ground the angle gets steeper to the angle need to be reset. Pressure means heat so this process took about 5-7 minutes. It took some time because the cutting edge was not at 90 to the side and I had to rough grind it all to straighten every thing out. This only happens once. I will have to regrind down the road but it has already been shaped so it will not take much time to regrind. The 180 and 600 grit wheels aren't known for rapid speed in stock removal.

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I will have to continue this in a reply because I can only post so many pictures

[Tom Bussey]

And final results from the grinding wheel. The picture shows the ground surface a lot coarser than it is.

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Picture of secondary angle off from a 1000 grit water stone. The secondary angle is 25 degrees because it have pine project and 25 degrees cut that wood cleaner than say a 30 degree.

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The next pictures shows the method of honing and the results from a 3000 and a 8000 grit water stone.

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And finally after A fast polish with the Tormek leather wheel, it is finished.

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Pictures of the chisels I finished the other day as well as the 12 back in the shop.

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And lastly another reason for going with this set up. CBN likes M2, aluminum oxide wheels do not, and ceramic based wheel do okay on M2.

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[Scott Winners]

Thanks Tom.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Nice.... I failed when I tried to flatten a chisel on the side of my Tormek stone. I did bad things to the chisel, glad I tried it on a cheap chisel. You seem to have the hang of it; however. Nice.