Reshaping & removing nicks from chisels & plane iron

[scooby]

Firstly, hello all

I've been a time served joiner since I was 20 (I'm 30 now). Without meaning to sound big headed I became pretty good at grinding and honing my chisels & plane irons very quickly, mainly due to spending quite a bit of time in the joiner's shop during my apprenticeship. However, in my mid-twenties I went to uni for a few years to do a degree so I was only working part time. Hence I was using my chisel.s etc less and hence, sharpening them less.

Since I finished uni and went back to full time joinery work, I can't sharpen for toffee It's the grinding part that I'm struggling with, I use my dad's old Elu bench grinder and it is an unbelievable struggle to get a square, straight plane iron.

After all the struggle of grinding, honing on the warerstones is no problem.

So, I was considering (as an alternative to the bench grinder) getting a coarse waterstone (220 grit?) and a honing guide for reshaping and getting the primary bevel. Does this sound a feasible idea?

I normally don't agree with honing guides due to them resticting the use of the full stone, however just for coarse sharpening I think it would be preferable to a round bevel. Continue to hone free hand.

Does anyone reshape, removed nicks,etc by hand or should I just stop moaning and get back into the practice of free hand grinding and buy a different grinder.

I did attempt to make a jig for my dad's grinder but ended up giving up due to:

1. The grinder being quite small and the wheels are quite close to the bench (much closer than modern grinders).

2. Some of my chisels are very short.

Thanks
Jon

 

[MikeW]

Hello Jon--Welcome!

Many ways to reshape, none are below me. I use a Tormek if my wife has it out and sharpening her turning tools. Most of the time if I need to just correct the slight error which may creep in from hand honing or maybe a chisel that the edge has folded over or has a small nick, I just hone by hand.

If I deem there is too much work involved, I will gladly use the Veritas/Lee Valley honing jig or another one of several honing jigs I own.

If there is more severe work needed and the wife doesn't have the Tormek set up, I use a stationary belt sander to reshape, followed by the honing guide across a few stones and finish by hand on the finest stone.

As for a coarse stone, the finest I use is a 1000 grit Shapton. It's plenty fast and aggressive enough for me.

Take care, Mike
who doesn't mind using guides...

 

[scooby]

Thanks Mike, some good advice there.

hehe, I don't dislike honing guides at all. I've never used one but I think they are a good idea, the only thing that puts me off them is roller(s) stop the whole of the stone being used (as I'm sure everyone knows) which would make my new waterstone hollow quite quickly.

Just been looking around for at bench grinders, and haven't seen any with decent tool rests.

The veritas tool rest looks too high for my dad's bench grinder. Another option would be to get a cheap bench grinder and try and make a jig for 25 degree bevel grinding, budget is a bit tight at the moment though. :?

Anyone got any recommendations on fairly cheap grinders and home-made jigs?

 

[Chris Knight]

Jon,

I will lay my cards on the table, I am not a fan of waterstones. One of the reasons is that they need flattening all the time if you are to avoid misshapen edges on your tools.

I recommend a good old fashioned oil stone for your initial grinding if you want to use a stone at all. For an initial bevel however, it would be a lot quicker to use a belt sander. I lay mine on its side in a little jig I made and can then offer up a chisel or plane iron at the correct angle very easily.

 

[Anonymous]

Jon

I generally use a course diamond stone for this unless the nick is very bad when I use a cheap water cooled grinder made by Rexon with home-made support.

I then move ot a fine diamond stone (approx. eqaul to 1000 grit waterstone and finally hone on 6000 grit waterstone.

As an aside, I am always surprised when people complain about flattening waterstones (no dig at you intended Chris, but your post triggered the thought) as I run them over a piece of 80 grit sand paper on a piece of MDF for 5-10 seconds before a sharpening session and have no problems at all.
As my stone is 6000 grit, I don't need to soak it either, just spray with water and run a nagura over it.

 

[George_N]

The veritas tool rest looks too high for my dad's bench grinder. Another option would be to get a cheap bench grinder and try and make a jig for 25 degree bevel grinding, budget is a bit tight at the moment though. :?

Anyone got any recommendations on fairly cheap grinders and home-made jigs?

Scooby, I recently bought the Veritas tool rest and grinding jig and it works well with a small 150 mm bench grinder. There is a fair range of height and angle adjustment available so I'd be surprised if it wouldn't work with your grinder. It comes with a little angle setting device which is fairly easy to use but I've been thinking about the Tormek anglemaster thingy to make angle setting more accurate. Does anyone know if it will work with a regular bench grinder?

cheers

George

 

[aldel]

Here is a method I use to resurrect old and damaged "car-boot finds". I find it is good for quickly reforming the bevels on all sorts of blades and is ideal for chipped and pitted chisels.
I make use of an Axminster Perform mini belt sander. Its cheap and cheerful but any of the clones will do. I did have to make some tweaks and adjustments to ensure that the belt backer plate and table were all square and running smoothly. On mine the clear plastic belt shield broke within five minutes but I easily made up an alloy replacement. I also had to true up the plastic belt pulleys to get the belt to run smoothly.

I made up two plywood guides to run on the table. One has a primary bevel angle and one with a secondary bevel. The thicker the ply then then the greater vertical support surface for the blade to be ground. I find that the belt rotates at just the right speed so that the steel does not overheat and lose its temper.
Here I am grinding the primary bevel to be square on an old and damaged chisel. This also works for a thick mortise chisel. All you have to to is move the guide to the left. I move the guide left and right to utilise all of the belt and make regular checks to ensure all remains square. keep the wood guide in close contact with the front of the table or you will not keep a true angle.

I easily reclaimed and old, rusty and very hard woody blade. It takes a little time but I find it is faster than using other methods.

By turning the ply guide on to the other side of the the table I can spruce up the back of a pitted blade.

Here are a plane blade and chisel that were badly rusted and damaged that can now be re-used.

They can be finished off by using your favourite method to polish the backs and put the final honed edge on them.

I use a large cutting disc on a flat surface to give me a wide grinding surface for rough finishing. Duck oil as a lubricant. They can be purchased quite cheaply at any DIY shed

Cheers