sharpening a chisel

[tablesawtom]

Both sides of a Craftsman 1 inch chisel.

   

   

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

   

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.

   

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

   

   

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 step.

I ground a 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.

   

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

   

Now cutting the secondary bevel at 25 degrees because I have a soft wood project comming up and 25 degrees cuts soft wood better.

   

 To be continued because I can only post 10 pictures

Tom

[tablesawtom]

Pictures of the secondary bevel after the 100 grit stone.

   

Pictures of the bevel after the 3000 and 8000 stone. And finally a few strokes back and forth between bevel and flat back.

   

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

   

And this is a picture of the chisels I have sharpened this week, the other 11 are back over at my shop.

This is how I sharpen and some of the other chisels only needed to be toughed up on the three stones to be read for use in the spring. When the secondary bevel gets to long  and I have to stone a lot of material, I go back and touch up the primary bevel. There is a lot od different ways people sharpen, I posted on how I do it. If you have a different way please include pictures

CBN wheels grind the chisel and plane iron steel just fine. Unless one is overly heavy handed which isn't necessary, there is no build up like people say and scare poeple away from them.  So please don't pass on bad information. And if one has to be heavy handed there is always slick stick.  

Tom





I

[tablesawtom]

I got the wrong picture and somehow my reply got posted. Picture of secondary angle off from a 1000 grit water stone

   

And this is a picture of the chisels I have sharpened this week, the other 11 are back over at my shop, sharpened last week.

   


And other tools that get sharpened periodically.

   

Thanks for reading

Tom

[museumguy]

Very impressive and quite interesting. Thank you

[Scoony]

I got a CBN wheel a few years ago and it has made a huge difference when grinding primary bevels on the thicker irons. Faster and not as much heat. I am using the Wolverine tool rest set-up but have been considering the Tormek style bars and jigs for more consistent grinds. Just not sure if I would be happy with that type of set up.

[tablesawtom]

I got a CBN wheel a few years ago and it has made a huge difference when grinding primary bevels on the thicker irons. Faster and not as much heat.  I am using the Wolverine tool rest set-up but have been considering the Tormek style bars and jigs for more consistent grinds.  Just not sure if I would be happy with that type of set up.

If you go back and check the first picture you will find that I also have a wolverine system on the grinder. That is why the Tormek bars have to be as high as they are. I still have it and still use it because I had it before The CBN and the tormek Bars. I do prefer using the tormek fixtures. I had them when all I had was a tormek machine. And it is about 25-30 years old. I prefer the tormek fixtures 4-1 over the wolverine system when sharpening lathe tools. Trust me you will love them.

Tom

[Scoony]

Tom, Thanks for that insight. I am going to start looking into the jigs.