are there any decent techniques for squaring a chisel blade?

[Reggie]

Hi all, the title didn't have enough chars to let me finish, I appreciate that you can put an edge on a chisel using a grinder but I don't have access to one, I've been given a set of chisels and none of the blade edges are square with the sides, there's about a 10deg slope.

I have at my disposal a single largish file (triangular), a set of crummy needle files that probably cost a quid, 3 grades of wet and dry and an oilstone, what are my options here?

Is it worth me trying to construct a small jig of some description and hoping the wet and dry will do the job or use the files?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

How much life have you left? Don't even think about it - buy a grinder - they're not that expensive.

 

[Jelly]

You can do it by hand on the oilstone (or coarse wet and dry)... it will take a while, but it's not too hard, a jig in principle is great, but in practice could apply undesirably much pressure to the point of the lower side of the edge, scoring into the stone/tearing the paper.

I would start off doing it by hand just checking frequently, and switch to a jig (if you feel it required to be dead-on 90) once the worst of the skewing is gone...

 

[Jacob]

I'd just ignore it but put a bit of bias into your sharpening to correct it until (years later) they are all straight.
If you actually use them, eventually you will chip an edge and need to regrind, in which case you just present it at 90º to the wheel or whatever and true it up, before grinding a new bevel.

 

[AndyT]

I'm with Jacob on this one. There is no necessity to have the edge at exactly 90 degrees. Getting back nearer over time will be fine.

 

[Reggie]

I simply don't have the funds to invest in a real grinder at the moment although I do have a dremel that I'd forgotten about, I didn't think it would be entirely suitable given my skill level or lack of and also the grinding stone attachments iirc are smaller than the smallest chisel blade, I thought I might end up doing more harm than good.

I did think about adjusting my angle but if I'm cutting mortices then it's not really an option as I'd be digging into the side wall of the joint, won't I?

 

[Jacob]

...
I did think about adjusting my angle but if I'm cutting mortices then it's not really an option as I'd be digging into the side wall of the joint, won't I?

No problem as far as I can see. If it was a blind mortice the bottom of the hole might have skewed chisel marks but nobody is going to see them. Just get stuck in and use them and you will see.

 

[G S Haydon]

Hello Reggie,

It's up to you really. Using a dremel or file would not bee the first choice but I suppose you could try. I nice flat file could work I guess, never thought about using one.
From my perspective I would not be too OCD but I would prefer them to appear square. I would most likely freehand grind them square. I found this website to be very good indeed on oil stone use freehand http://www.antiquetools.com/sharp/sharpholdblade.html.
I don't know if this applies to you Reggie and forgive me if it does not, but a more experienced woodworker can work around things easier. If your tools are in reasonable shape you wont fret about the tools letting you down and can then focus on practicing woodworking.

 

[Noggsy]

Reggie, where in the UK are you? I'll happily square up your chisels if you're near enough and it's bothering you. That said, the experts above seem to be saying it doesn't matter. My OCD would kick in though if they were mine

 

[undergroundhunter]

Depending on how bad they are wet and dry will do it but it will take time if you are really obsessive then use a cheap guide (B&Q sell cheap eclipse copies or eBay) I have done it in the past and its quite tedious. If you do it on an oil stone just beware of creating a dip in the stone.

Matt

 

[WoodMangler]

I simply don't have the funds to invest in a real grinder at the moment

I got a 4-sided 'Faithful' diamond sharpening block from the local agricultural engineers, cost about £30 - it has 8"x2" faces of 200, 400, 600 and 1000 grit. Excellent for getting chisels back to smooth and square. I then hone them on an ancient very fine diamond plate I got at a show about 20 years ago

 

[Reggie]

Hi Guys, Noggsy, thank's for the offer but we're nowhere near each other unfortunately

Jacob, with regard to the mortice walls, I was more thinking of the walls on a full mortice getting damaged on the outside edge.

G S Haydon, I am in no way experienced at all, I have no problems putting my hands up to that I'm also not blaming the tools for anything, they were ground prior to being given to me and haven't seen any use from me yet, out of the 7, two are out of square, the others look reasonable enough to live with now that I've seen them in some decent light.

However, all 7 of them have wonky bevels, it's hard to describe them but I'm going to go with multifaceted or perhaps mirror ball. I'm going to at least sort the bevels out and I'll see how I feel about the squareness after that.

The dremel was really an afterthought, the file is the closest other thing to a bench grinder that I have but it did seem a bit drastic. I don't mind putting a bit of effort into getting them to a reasonable standard and then simple maintenance after that.

The oilstone is a used 2 sided stone, it's already got a bit of a dip on the rough side, so I will also need to sort that out I expect. The smooth side is fine, no nicks in it, nice and flat.

 

[Reggie]

I'd also like to say thank you to everyone for taking the time to answer my questions, I'm reading a fair bit and watching videos, googling etc. before I really get going on things, so if any of my questions seem at all odd, that will be why

 

[Jacob]

....Jacob, with regard to the mortice walls, I was more thinking of the walls on a full mortice getting damaged on the outside edge......

You've obviously got something in mind but I still can't see a problem.
By "full" do you mean a through mortice? You work them from both sides to meet in the middle, not in one side and out the other, if that's what you are thinking.

 

[Reggie]

ha, yeah, I probably do mean a through mortice, if I'm using a 1/2" chisel to cut a 1/2" mortice then any deviation from square seems to mean the the mortice will end up wider (something has got to give) which would be the case if I tilt the chisel to compensate for the un-square edge of the blade, I do appreciate that I could be wrong here.

You're also probably right about me needing to just get stuck in, although I did get stuck in with my only (bent) chisel before these arrived and quite frankly it wasn't pretty.

 

[G S Haydon]

"mirror ball" great description . Enjoy the woodworking

 

[Richard T]

Reggie - when morticing, it is important to keep the body of the chisel square to the direction of the mortice and square to your lines. If the edge isn't square, pretend it is. The mortice won't know.

Otherwise it sounds like a good opportunity for some practice. On the rough side of your oil stone, put emphasis on the side that needs to be reduced and at the same time work the high areas of the stone to stop the dip increasing.
Do you have a square? Good to have it handy to check progress.

 

[bugbear]

A nice flat file could work I guess, never thought about using one.

If the chisels can be worked with a file - get better chisels!

BugBear

 

[nanscombe]

I don't know what the quality will be like but ...

B&Q Value 3 Piece wood working chisel set £4.98

They might be enough to get you started without having to worry too much about being square.

Do you have a drill which you could use to get rid of the bulk of the wood and then just concentrate on tidying the mortices up?

 

[Jacob]

Reggie - when morticing, it is important to keep the body of the chisel square to the direction of the mortice and square to your lines. If the edge isn't square, pretend it is. The mortice won't know. ....

:lol:
I see now - Reg imagines the skewed edge will re-direct the chisel. Not at all - Reg does the directing!