How a chisel is supposed to behave

[Corneel]

Today I chopped the mortise for a try plane. At the end I was curious how the edge had held up, in light of several discussions last week.

This was the mortise.




This is the edge under a 10x looking glass. Still very smooth, no chipping at all. It also still feels very smooth on a thumbnail.




And it can still pair our local fir/spruce/pine/whatever endgrain, reasonably well. This stuff needs an ultrasharp blade to cut cleanly. I've seen worse results from a freshly sharpened blade.




It is the right one in this picture. Nooitgedagt, probably prewar, laminated blade, grind at 30 degrees, honed a little steeper.

 

[Trafalgar]

I'd sleep with those chisels under my pillow at night. Don't let them out of your sight.

 

[Corneel]

I'll tell my wife that we have new company tonight...

 

[bugbear]

Interesting cross section - basically just a rectangle, but with softened arrises on the upper face.

Not seen that in the UK or USA.

BugBear

 

[Corneel]

They look like they heared about beveled edge chisels but had never see one. But of course they also made normal bench chisels with beveled edge. I don't know the exact purpose of these.

 

[AndyT]

Nice work!
I imagine the softening of the edges is to make it more comfortable when guiding the blade with your hand, while keeping maximum strength.

 

[Corneel]

Yes, maybe indeed! Especially when paring you hold on to that end.