Narrow chisels

UKworkshop.co.uk

Help Support UKworkshop.co.uk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
It's a good way to restore a narrow blade to a right angle without restoring to grinding.
Some of Seller's ideas are sound and the basic jigs like this are quite effective.

Since I've been using Diamond plates - about 20-odd years or so - preserving the right angle at the tip and sharpening narrower blades and is usually done by me using a single backward stroke, drawing it backwards, along the plate, instead of a push-stroke. I find that it is easier to control the thing vertically and keep the bevel angle.

It's a personal thing...... wider chisels are stroked as normal and and plane blades get the figure-of-eight treatment.

You never know...... this could be the start of another sharpening epic!
 
Last edited:
Interesting note about using a single backward stroke there Argus.
I've been using the really cheap ebay diamond plates for a while now, which have a grid pattern
and noticed some chipping going on, but never can be sure of the cause, as I do as much metalwork in the workshop as woodwork, so could be some issue there,
I do clean them off before use obviously, so have an idea its the grid pattern which is causing this.
Must try an see how I get on trying this out before moving onto the good diamond hone, as
even very light pressure has proved to be problematic for me on these hones.

Cheers
Tom
 
Interesting note about using a single backward stroke there Argus.

Cheers
Tom

Tom, it's only a matter of holding the blade and keeping control on the draw stroke. I should also say that for short plough-plane blades and the like which don't have much metal to grab, I use a basic hand-vice to hold it, for the simple reason that my grip is not as keen as it once was.
I'm not a metalurgist, but I also find that the wire filament is better formed and buffs off better when it is under tension..... but that might be me imagining it!

I bit the expense-bullet on Diamond plates and got some Eze-Lap plates after I had exhausted the less expensive options when they first came out, probably in the 90's. I could never get on with the ones with holes mounted on a lump of plastic because I used a lot of carving gouges in those days and they wore them out tout vite!
 
Last edited:

Latest posts

Back
Top