Putting bevel (side) edges onto a chisel

[Dokkodo]

Ive just been watching some videos of chiseling as you do and had a thought. Lots of my good chisels are car boot treasure which I have brought back into good working order, good ages and makers, but a lot of them are straight edged, and id like to have a few more bevel edged at my disposal.

You cant really search the words 'bevel' 'edge' and 'chisel' without getting lots of videos of sharpening, so i was wondering whether this has been done, and if so how best to go about it. I have a few duplicate sizes I could experiment on, I definitely have three decent 40mm or so but I one is my favourite so the other two dont get much use.

I guess marking out well, removing waste with a series of files, down to abrasives and polishing should work in theory, sounds simple enough...

So, questions - is there a best angle to aim for? Do you need to go right down the length of the chisel? Could you interfere with lamination or anything? thoughts welcome!

 

[Trevanion]

I guess marking out well, removing waste with a series of files, down to abrasives and polishing should work in theory, sounds simple enough...

I don't think you'd be able to do it with regular files, any steel worth its stuff won't be far off the same hardness as the file and you may as well be rubbing two pieces of wood together. I have ground bevels onto a couple of old Marples Hibernia chisels (sacrilege I know) and I went at it with a bench grinder very slowly making sure that the steel did not get anywhere near hot enough to not be able to touch it bare handed.

There's no real definite answer to the bevel angle, some high-end manufacturers have quite a steep bevel and some others quite a gradual one, I suppose it's down to personal preference.

 

[Ttrees]

These walls on the side bevels are often refereed to as lands, so a chisel with fine lands would be what your trying
to replicate.
There was a thread recently where someone ...here it is
forming-chisel-side-bevels-t112905.html
Alternatively look at what Alan Peters done to his chisels, instead of flat bevels he rounded the chisels
I believe this was for comfort, but I might be mistaken
Tom

 

[johnnyb]

It's a great idea but usually a pain to do as the temper is easily drawn and grinding hard steel is a nuisance. Easiest and best is to knock the blade out of the handle. Anneal. Then use your files or a belt sander. Harden then temper. Annealing is best achieved in a BBQ. Put the chisel in the coals and leave until the morning. Hardening probably the same way with a quench in water or oil. I like to temper in a deep fat fryer. It's a faff but more fun and will give you a better job.

 

[bridger]

I've never ground bevels from a square sided chisel, but i have reground bevels on a bevel edge chisel to make them thinner at the edge. It's fussy work that i wouldn't undertake unless necessary. Decent bevel edge chisels aren't hard to come by.

 

[Dokkodo]

as this has been revived i'll just report back that i succeeded, took a little while but a simple block-o-wood jig and a pot of water for regular cooling, went slowly but was happy with the result, just dug out the photo on my phone

oh and err... yes that is nail polish!