Forward progress on the kitchen
2008-09-07 02:53:41.490031+00 by Dan Lyke 2 comments
It has been said that happiness is a warm Uzi, but don't underestimate a sharp chisel and lots and lots of clamps.
2008-09-07 02:53:41.490031+00 by Dan Lyke 2 comments
It has been said that happiness is a warm Uzi, but don't underestimate a sharp chisel and lots and lots of clamps.
[ related topics: Guns Woodworking ]
comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment Re: made: 2008-09-07 19:02:00.195913+00 by: m
I have always wondered why most hand tools in the US come unsharpened. Too many people give up on hand tools because they never know what it is like to use one that is reasonably, never mind well, sharpened. Drill and boring bits at least come sharp.
Chisels in particular would be inexpensive to sharpen. How much more can it cost to flatten and polish the back, grind an edge, put on a microbevel and take off the burr? Fifty cents maybe? It would save an hour a chisel doing it by hand. Worse yet is flattening the sole on a hand plane.
I can't be bothered with a US saw where you not only have to sharpen the teeth, but alternately set the angles on each tooth. Use a Japanese pull saw. It comes sharp and the teeth are set. The blades are thiner, and eat less wood. Because the cutting action is on the pull stroke rather than on the push, it is easier to cut to a straight lay out line.
Even lathe tools aren't sharpened. And that just doesn't seem reasonable when you pay $60 to $100+ for a decent size gouge. Except for some shapes which must be forged, I am switching over to high speed steel tool bits that I grind myself. A buck instead of $30, or $7 instead of $50, and it doesn't take but a couple of minutes to grind to whatever shape I want.
#Comment Re: made: 2008-09-08 17:00:29.335229+00 by: Dan Lyke
I'm not even terribly sophisticated (yet) about sharpening chisels, I just set the two bevels roughly by eye and hand.
And my favorite chisel is a Swan I got without handle in a bundle of rusty stuff at a garage sale. Cut my own handle for it with a rasp, spent quite a while putting an edge back on it, that sucker stays wonderfully sharp with control that lets me pull off curls like a good plane.