<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.3059" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY style="FONT-SIZE: x-small; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV>Something that has been troubling me ever since I bought my Japanese chisel: Starting just a few millimeters back from the sharpened edge, the entire backside has a hollow ground out. Why? Is that to make flattening the backside easier? After many sharpenings, the edge of my chisel is getting very close to the beginning of that hollow. Of course, as soon as the edge gets right up to the hollow, the chisel dies. Is this just a feature to sell more chisels?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Terry Farrell</DIV></BODY></HTML>