Sorry no pictures (yet) as it was already very late last evening and to frustrating to pull out a camera.
I have a set of them laying around as in the picture below but with instead of the box a plastic case.
One of the larger ones I have used a while back to chisel out some hinges. Yesterday I reached for one of the smaller ones to do some pairing but immediately noticed it was not really sharp at all.
After a stroke of 3 or so at my 1000 grit norton water stone a rather huge wire edge or rather burr had already formed. Removed the wire edge at the back only to notice an almost as large wire edge had formed at the bevel again.
Even alternating honing the bevel and the back on my 8000 grit only formed wire edges on the opposite side.
Time to inspect the chisel. The back was about 1.5mm convex. That is a bit much to flatten. Forging the back flat will be a better idea. However bending the chisel to about any shape was fairly easy. Just holding the chisel end to end in both hands and pushing thumbs down on the middle of the length was enough to bent it a centimeter concave.
With some very gentle hand bending and finish flattening with a few strokes on stones the back was now flat. So back at trying to establish a good bevel. But still a large wire edge is easily honed at the opposite side.
So apparently the steel is very soft. Both indicated the wire edge, the easy bendability of the chisel and the lack of a polish on bevel and back or a detectable area of hardened steel.
As a final try (was already nearing 1 pm) pulled out the gas burner and gradually heated the steel red and quenched in water. The chisel is a bit less bendable but still not very good sharpenable. Going to give it another try this afternoon.
I have a set of them laying around as in the picture below but with instead of the box a plastic case.
One of the larger ones I have used a while back to chisel out some hinges. Yesterday I reached for one of the smaller ones to do some pairing but immediately noticed it was not really sharp at all.
After a stroke of 3 or so at my 1000 grit norton water stone a rather huge wire edge or rather burr had already formed. Removed the wire edge at the back only to notice an almost as large wire edge had formed at the bevel again.
Even alternating honing the bevel and the back on my 8000 grit only formed wire edges on the opposite side.
Time to inspect the chisel. The back was about 1.5mm convex. That is a bit much to flatten. Forging the back flat will be a better idea. However bending the chisel to about any shape was fairly easy. Just holding the chisel end to end in both hands and pushing thumbs down on the middle of the length was enough to bent it a centimeter concave.
With some very gentle hand bending and finish flattening with a few strokes on stones the back was now flat. So back at trying to establish a good bevel. But still a large wire edge is easily honed at the opposite side.
So apparently the steel is very soft. Both indicated the wire edge, the easy bendability of the chisel and the lack of a polish on bevel and back or a detectable area of hardened steel.
As a final try (was already nearing 1 pm) pulled out the gas burner and gradually heated the steel red and quenched in water. The chisel is a bit less bendable but still not very good sharpenable. Going to give it another try this afternoon.
