I've discovered chisels

[smorris]

Let me start by saying I've never really used chisels in the past, well, maybe for opening cans or hogging our some wood using brute force.

I've been working on a rocking chair and it is an exercise in mortises and tenons. I cut my tenons over size then sand to fit. I had recently rediscovered a box of my dads chisels (Buck Brothers and Winsted) from when he was a pattern maker back in the 50's at a steel plant, so I decided to have a go at sharpening them and seeing if I could use them on the tenons as I've read about.

I dug out a 1/2" sheet of glass and purchased a variety of wet/dry sandpaper up to 1000. I started out flattening the backs and was amazed at the mirror finish (it took a while, this is some hard steel). Bought a honing guide and worked them all to 25 degrees until they would shave hair off my arm.

Yesterday I took one out and tried it on some scrap, nice thin shavings once I got the feel for it. The corners wanted to grab until I figured out how to hold it. At that point I decided to try it on a real tenon, SWEET! It just shaved off thin layers of that white oak and took 1-2 passes on each side to get a perfect fit.

These are going to find a permanent home in my tools. I thought about getting new handles but they really don't need them and it feels kind of comforting to be using the same tool my father did if that makes any sense.


I submit this for this weekends stupid WW trick...I fit together a M/T and it slid in sweet as could be, then I couldn't get it back out. Pulled and pulled, tapped with a mallet and it finally budged. I grabbed it again and started pulling while looking to see if it was moving...at this point it leaped out of the joint, my arm continued upward and smacked me in the center of the forehead with the other end. My wife pointed out a very nice 1/2" square bruise on my forehead last night.

[pelligrini]

Yep, my two favourite chisels are a Crown LH and RH skew. Sometimes chisels and planes are a whole lot quicker than powered options. Using them also gives me a lot of satisfaction. Sharp edges make a world of difference.

A low angle block plane would make short work of your tenons too.

[Uncle Cracker]

Some things have not improved much in hundreds of years, because they don't need to. In the hands of a craftsman, a sharp chisel is an instrument of artistry. It is definitely a "feel" thing, but the sharper it is, the better. That way, you are only guiding the tool under light pressure, rather than jamming it into the work. Like planes, shaves or other edged "weapons", it's all about practice, practice, practice...

[cabinetman]

As long as you're on a chisel hunt, two of my favorites you may not be aware of are a corner chisels, called a bruzz. I posted a thread a while back, see it here. They do a great job with mortises.

The other is called a crank neck paring chisel, which is great for cleaning out grooves and dadoes. They have a very workable offset to the handle and come in many types. You could likely find a good set for less than the link I cited. I picked up most of mine at garage sales and flea markets.
.

[pelligrini]

I've got a corner chisel and they are nice to have, honing them isn't easy. Another one I've really been wanting is a swan neck.

[BrazosJake]

If flattening is taking a while, you may want to start with something more coarse than 1000 grit. You also don't need to flatten the entire back, just a bit next to the edge.

[Garasaki]

I don't think he was JUST using 1000 grit.

I also recently discovered chisels for tweaking the fit of joinery.

I just have (huh well actually HAD, thank you ebay...) a set of HF chisels. But after I learned a bit about sharpening, I was just amazed at how they pull off such thin shavings, and the amount of control I had over just exactly how much and where the wood came off. The level of control and precision is just so much better then power tools I couldn't believe it.

I haven't really had a chance to do much since I made that discovery, but my new approach to joinery is get close with power tools then tweak em with chisels or planes.

BTW, for your own good, don't bother looking on ebay for old chisels and ESPECIALLY handplanes (now THERE is a slippery slope) or you'll end up with stuff like this:







I could go on ...but I wont...

[smorris]

I was perhaps unclear, I was starting with 220, then 320, then 600, then 1000. That seemed to work well but it took a while to get the back flattened and the bevel to a consistent 25 degrees. I expect it will be a lot less work in the future when I'm just sharpening the edge.

[phi1l]

If flattening is taking a while, you may want to start with something more coarse than 1000 grit. You also don't need to flatten the entire back, just a bit next to the edge.

I have just started using the "scary sharp" sand paper on glass method. I have found it very, very, satisfying. There is just something about seeing your reflection in the bevel of a nicely sharpened & honed chisel.

I use 6 grits starting out with 60 or 80 & ending up with 2000, & a sharpening guide from WoodCraft.

The coarsest grit does all the work, really, the finer grits really just remove teh scratches produced by the next coarser grit. So you spend most of the time working with the coarsest grit you have & really relatively little time with each of the successively finer grits