With all this talk of chisels, it occurred to me that I had some tool steel in a drawer in the shop that has been intended for future chisels or lathe tools for years. So I grabbed one that says 1/4 X 1/2 X 6, M0-Max, from Cleveland Steel. This is, I think, good old M2 tungsten-molybdenum high speed steel. The stuff they make taps and such out of. I spent a half hour or so at the bench grinder, establishing a bevel, shaped a tang with an angle grinder, and drove it into a fairly funky handle that had also been in a drawer for some years. I did make a ferrel for the handle from a plated brass towel bar, which de-funked the handle a point or two. I then dug out a recently acquired paring chisel that I hadn't yet tuned up, and got out the stones. I wanted to compare how they worked on the stones. I coarse flattened both backs quickly on the (steel) back of one of my old worn out diamond stones, with a pinch of 80 grit silicon carbide and water. The sound and feel were considerably different between the two blades. The M2 was noisier grinding, and cut slower. Finished up the backs on a coarse diamond stone. Sharpened with coarse, then fine, then a razor stone, then stropped. Both cut my laminated bridge cap well, but I expect the shop made will be more durable. Anyway, I have one to play with now, and got a couple of hours' entertainment out of a slow Sunday afternoon. Ron N -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: M2 chisel.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 53018 bytes Desc: not available URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20101011/42616276/attachment-0001.jpg>
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