Sharpening Japanese Chisels in 2023

[Cameron Wood]

These days, with nice flat diamond plates available, it's easy to get the stones very flat, and with them, get the chisel backs nice and flat,

so the kanaban is not as needed. If I were starting out, I would skip the kanaban.

IME, when honing, there is a tendency for the softer chisel body to wear faster than the cutting edge, so the bevel angle can get shallower over time. A honing guide is helpful
to correct this, to change bevel angle for other reasons and also for narrow chisels. However, common honing guides don't always hold Japanese chisels well.

I do not put a secondary bevel on Japanese tools, except plane chipbreakers.

[Mike Henderson]

Japanese tools are different than all the other tools out there. Not only the construction but the philosophy.

What is this philosophy of which you speak? Chisels are just tools. I use both western chisels and Japanese chisels and I never even felt a hint of philosophy.

Mike

[And BTW, there were laminated western chisels years ago, when good steel was very expensive.]

[Jim Koepke]

What is this philosophy of which you speak?

Not being an expert in philosophy, neither Japanese nor Western, my only intent is to relay what was told to me. The Japanese and other eastern cultures have a strong influence from Buddhism. Some of the teachings postulate even the tiniest mote of dust has a spirit.

Hence a tree and any piece of wood from a tree has its own spirit. Here is where the story differs depending on who is telling the story.

The Japanese woodworker works with a tool, pulling toward them self to bring any escaping sprit of the wood into them self. In this way it is believed the woodworker becomes one with the wood being worked.

jtk

[Mike Henderson]

It's obvious that a woodworker does not have to subscribe to that philosophy (actually, mysticism, not philosophy) - or even know about it - in order to use the tools. They're just tools.

I don't know why anyone would need to bring mysticism into woodworking.

Mike

[George Nakashima and his "The Soul of a Tree" is something I could never understand. It's just wood. His mysticism was probably a sales tool for gullible clients.]

[Tony Wilkins]

It's obvious that a woodworker does not have to subscribe to that philosophy (actually, mysticism, not philosophy) - or even know about it - in order to use the tools. They're just tools.

I don't know why anyone would need to bring mysticism into woodworking.

Mike

Yea, but it does effect how they designed the tool and envisioned it’s use (including sharpening).

[Kevin Jenness]

Is there any practical reason, putting aside tradition, aesthetics or philosophy, to sharpen Japanese edge tools differently from western ones?

[Richard Coers]

In my shop, I'm very happy to stop at 3,000 with my Japanese chisels. Being able to shave with them is plenty good for working wood.

[chuck van dyck]

I don't know why anyone would need to bring mysticism into woodworking.

Mike

I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t.

[William Fretwell]

Yes, somewhat. The concave backs of Japanese chisels needs extra attention to ensure the area immediately behind the edge is flat. As the area you are flattening is quite small this is not as onerous as it sounds but with multiple hollow backs it can be some work.

The two layers of steel, hard and soft make sharpening the bevel easier, hollow grinding of Western chisel bevels is to make sharpening the bevel easier. You don’t hollow grind Japanese chisels.

As Japanese chisel hard steel edges are shallow and easy to sharpen I don’t need a micro bevel. With Western chisels the sharpening can take a while, the temptation to throw on a microbevel and get back to work can be very strong.

Lots of people on here have more experience than I do with east and west chisels but overall I find them easier to sharpen. They are generally a bit shorter and easier to control. Perhaps I’m philosophically lazy!

[Cameron Wood]

Is there any practical reason, putting aside tradition, aesthetics or philosophy, to sharpen Japanese edge tools differently from western ones?

Maybe easier to burn a cutting edge on a grinder, just not the best fit to oil stones, and if you hollow grind, the thin cutting edge could be more easily damaged.

[Jim Koepke]

Is there any practical reason, putting aside tradition, aesthetics or philosophy, to sharpen Japanese edge tools differently from western ones?

My chisels are all sharpened with a single flat bevel. So no, there is no practical reason for a Japanese chisel to be sharpened differently if there were any in my shop.

jtk

[Derek Cohen]

My chisels are all sharpened with a single flat bevel. So no, there is no practical reason for a Japanese chisel to be sharpened differently if there were any in my shop.

jtk

Jim's comments are particularly appropriate when you understand that one reason for the softer lamination (iron or low carbon steel) is to make sharpening of the bevel face easier. In many ways, one could equate the laminated support as a hollow grind. It abrades easily, unlike the hard steel of the cutting edge. The other reason for the backing is to act as a shock absorber - protection for the brittle, hard steel of the cutting edge.

Working with Japanese tools in general, and chisels in this instance, is not for the impulsive and hasty person. The way one uses a oire nomi (bench chisel) is with a gennou (steel hammer). Tapping the hooped chisel allows for precision. Japanese joinery requires this. Sharpening Japanese blades is as much ritual as it is practical. Japanese waterstones have centuries of history. There is a sacredness to building with old timber (e.g. from temples), and the preparation of tools share this.

I may hollow grind my Western blades, but not my Japanese chisels ...



Regards from Perth

Derek

[Warren Mickley]

Is there any practical reason, putting aside tradition, aesthetics or philosophy, to sharpen Japanese edge tools differently from western ones?

Yes.

Traditional Japanese chisels were designed to sharpened with water stones. Traditional western chisels were designed to be sharpened with rub and rag stones (water stones) but then polished with oil stones. Best results are obtained when using the media they were designed for.

[William Fretwell]

My ‘sacred’ wood is a chestnut beam from an old barn. I saw the farmer taking it down and bought a beam on the spot, he delivered it 5 miles balanced on the bucket of his tractor! Two days earlier the local yacht club had asked me to make a fireplace mantle at the club house. Mantles and surrounds in old English pubs are commonly made of old ship Timbers with the mortices still evident.
Sadly the next day the club found a mantle at the recycle store which they installed very badly with Robertson screws at 45 degrees in the bricks still showing. French cleat was not in their vocabulary.
Still have the beam!

[Keegan Shields]

I've always been fascinated by how a practical choice can become a tradition and take on a life of its own over time.

For instance, Japanese plane iron and chisels are laminated because Japan has extremely limited mineral reserves and steel was extremely expensive to import. That's why they adopted the use of wooden planes as well.

Not for some advantage in sharpening or other secondary benefit. Carpentry was not the most important trade in feudal Japan, so carpenters made do.


And the steel that was imported had many impurities - thus the folded steel in samurai swords, which was an effort by the smith to create a uniform composition in their steel blank. It certainly wasn't for mystical reasons linked to the soul of the sword.

All those complicated, precision Japanese joints? According to "The Art of Japanese Joinery", as the island was deforested and quality timber became harder to find, more intricate joints were needed to piece together the smaller sections of acceptable wood (my summary).


Necessity is the mother of invention - everything else is just marketing