SDS chisels - sharpening

Prefer a bench grinder myself, but I am sure the angle grinder does the job nicely... Try not to overheat the end (of you or the chisel! ;-))

I usually copy the original angle - about 45 degrees each side (i.e. the point being about 90 degrees).

Perhaps buying a SDS wood cutting chisel would be a better starting point - I would guess they will tend to have more temper than the normal masonry ones.

(a green wood blade in a reciprocating saw works a treat on roots)

Not my area of expertise...

they're already hardened & tempered. Take care not to get it too hot when grinding and no need to do anything.

NT

Decent SDS chisels should be correctly hardened and tempered from new. Take care when sharpening not to get them too hot as this will draw the temper and soften them a bit. Don't sharpen them to too much of an acute angle. This will give a weak edge that will blunt quickly. You DO want an acute angle and a razor sharp edge for tree roots but this is not really the right tool for that job. If you must SDS a tree root then buy and adapt a chisel for that job alone.

hth

Bob

The screwfix SDS wood chisel goes through roots like a knive through butter, also for extracting old oak lintels. I had a chisel shank fail in fatigue during one particularly brutal job (but they are cheap considering the time they save).

They're not strictly chisels, as they don't form a cut chip. What they do instead is to concentrate the force into a small area so that the stone "crumbles" You need a narrow edge, you don't need anything remotely sharp. Unless they've started to turn back into a burr, you don't need to even try sharpening them.

Buy some SDS wood chisels (Bosch do a set) Different shape, different temper.