[pianotech] Of Chisels

[Terry Farrell]

Will - What type of stones are you using? FWIW I have a nice set of  
Shapton ceramic waterstones that I would consider parting with........

Terry Farrell

On Oct 9, 2010, at 11:54 AM, William Truitt wrote:

> Terry, I think you should put that picture on your website with the  
> caption – “A well sharpened chisel will give a much cleaner cut”.   
> J  (that’s coming from someone who has sliced and diced himself too!)
>
> I have a couple of Japanese paring chisels very much like yours.   
> Sharpened on a good set of Japanese waterstones, they take a  
> fearsome, mirror edge and will cut so cleanly that they will leave a  
> burnished surface in the maple.
>
> The blade portion of the laminated chisel is made of very hard steel  
> – on a really good Japanese chisel, it will be 64 to 66 on the  
> Rockwell C scale, which is about as hard a steel as we can get for  
> edge tools.  Steel this hard is also quite brittle, which means it  
> is prone to chipping and or even breakage.  Which is why it is  
> laminated to much softer steels for the shank of the chisel.  These  
> steels are more flexible and less prone to breakage.  Thus the  
> combination of the two steels in a lamination gives the best of both  
> worlds.  So these quality chisels will never be a “bung” chisel and  
> using it as such will tantamount to “tool abuse”.  I have my “s..t  
> chisels” to be used with reckless abandon.
>
> Sharpening a chisel well means sharpening BOTH sides of the chisel,  
> always keeping the edge at a consistent angle as you sharpen, and  
> using a progression of stones with ever finer grits.  If you were to  
> look at a chisel edge under sufficient magnification, you would see  
> that the edge would not be a single straight line, but rather look  
> like a rough series of large serrations.  Moving the chisel over the  
> stone, reduces the size of the serrations as you progress up in  
> grits.  Even that mirror edge will have serrations, but they will be  
> very small.  My stones go from 600 grit to 8000 grit.  There are  
> some ceramic stones that go up to 30,000 grit.  You learn to sharpen  
> by understanding proper technique and practice, practice, practice –  
> it is an acquired skill
>
> Will
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