goddess girl
Joined: 17 Jun 2006
Posts: 29
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 Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2006 9:44 pm Post subject: Use Sandpaper to Sharpen a Chisel |
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If your chisel has any chips or marring, then you need to put a new edge on it, or if its really bad, reestablish the angle on the blade. You can accomplish this with any bench-top grinder, or take them in to get retooled. There is bound to be a place in your hometown that provides this service, if you don't have access to a grinder. If using a grinder be very careful not to overheat the blade, overheating the metal changes its properties. The end result of overheating a chisel blade is that you wont be able to maintain a sharp chisel for very long.
After you have a new edge on your chisel, or if you didn't need one in the first place, you can sharpen the chisel. There are several products you can use to accomplish this, such as various grades of natural and ceramic sharpening stones, or diamond stones. If you have several chisels and do a lot of woodworking, you should invest in a good set of sharpening stones. However, if you only have a couple of chisels for occasional woodworking then you can use sand or emory paper to sharpen them. Either way, you use the same techniques.
You want to have 100, 220, 400, and 600 grit coated (silicon carbide) sandpaper or emory paper, because it's waterproof and doesn't build up. Take a hard flat object, such as a piece of glass, and tape a 3"x6" piece of each grit of sandpaper to it. Starting with the 100 grit sandpaper patch and working on up to 600, and using water or honing oil, accomplish the following steps:
- Flatten the face (flat side) of the chisel by guiding the blade across the sandpaper using oval strokes until you have a uniform surface and finish.
- Flip the chisel over on the bevel.
- While holding your wrists rigid to maintain the angle of the bevel, move the blade forward and aft down the length of the sandpaper, applying pressure only in the forward motion, until you have a uniform surface and finish.
- Remove any wire edge from honing the bevel by lightly stroking the chisel face flat against the sandpaper, against the cutting edge of the chisel.
Accomplish all of these steps then move to the next finer grit sandpaper, and repeat. After completion of these steps on 600 grit paper, you should have a very sharp wood chisel. For a razor sharp edge, you can buff the chisel face and bevel on a buffing wheel using the appropriate buffing compound/rouge. |
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