The most recent outbreak of the never ending, herpes like in that it goes away for a little while only to return seemingly without having been resolved to any satisfactory degree, discussion about board feet has, in fact bored not only my feet but also all the area north of my neck and it is times like this that make me glad that the live rounds are locked away.
Then again, if it wasn't board feet it would surely be 'what blurfl should I buy?', 'should I poly my blurfl or simply dip it in whale shit?', 'I hear HD isn't going to sell blurfls anymore, the pricks.', 'will blurfls r us be opening a store in my neighborhood soon, even though I live in the middle of a six thousand square mile cow pasture?'
I think I'll stick this freshly sharpened chisel in my eye now.
Regards, Tom Thomas J. Watson-Cabinetmaker Gulph Mills, Pennsylvania
On 13 Oct 2003, Tom Watson spake unto rec.woodworking:
Tom, how much did you pay for that chisel? Bench or mortise chisel? Is it scary sharp? Is it the same kind Norm uses? What angle did you sharpen it to? Hollow ground? Did you put a microbevel on it? How are you going to keep it from rusting after you get aqueous humor all over it? Would a Harbor Freight chisel work as well? Does your chisel drawer have a bottom in it? If yes, which way does the grain run? Are you going to get a glass replacement eye, or a plastic one? What color? How are you going to match the color?
Like, I saw this bill board, and like it had like an odometer on it and like it counted up to like 7,844,982. And like it was also asked, like how many times has your teenage daughter like said "like" today? And like it also indicated that "like" barely edged out "what ever".
and--whats the proper technique? Can I just jab away, or should I spend 80 hours making a proper jig with MDF so I can use my table saw to do the job (that can be done in less time with a hand tool)? Will using silicone lubricants on the chisle result in "Fisheyes"?
I love finding one of those "you know" types. At every utterance of a "you know" I interrupt with: "No, I don't know. You're telling the story.". Drives 'em right up the wall.
Speaking of which, I finally got the nerve to sharpen my new chisels... Marples Blue Chip. I could just hone the micro-bevel as suggested on the package, but I want to hone the entire thing and make it purty, just because I do.
So dammit, I'm screwing it up. It's hitting more on one side than the other, and starting to round just a smidge. I quit with the rough grit and went ahead through the motions of 100 150 220 320 400 600 800 1000 1200
1500 2000 real quick, with just 20 strokes on each. 3/4 of the edge has a mirror shine, while the remaining corner looks like it's still at about
100.
This suggests to me that I'm not sharpening it with the bevel perfectly perpendicular to the guide, and I'm skewing the tip. I'm using the Veritas guide, set with the setter thingie, and by eyeball it sure looks parallel to a groove on either side. Even cranking down on that brass thing hard, I can still skew it a little if I'm not careful. However, I'm *being* careful, and checking it frequently, and it's remaining in the same orientation.
Should I just go back to 60 grit and keep scratching at it until the tip goes straight across? Is this crowning at the tip part of an eventual process of slightly changing the angle? If I keep going until it evens up, will it come out OK in the end, or am I just ruining yet another chisel?
Should I go lower than 60 grit? I used up three sheets on one chisel. The abrasive is mostly gone, and it's not cutting worth a damn.
What if I say piss on the mirror shine for the entire bevel, and just start a new micro-bevel? I guess that's pointless now that the blade has started to crown.
Dammit.
So much for the Veritas flummy being the magical answer to my prayers. It's no good if I'm too stupid to use it.
From the sound of it, the chisel edge wasn't square to its sides out of the package. Unfortunately, that's not uncommon. You might want to verify that by taking a small combo or try-square, holding it against either side and sliding it up until you almost reach the edge. It should be obvious if the edge is off. If that's the case, then just keep going until you get all the way across the edge. You'll know when you feel a burr all the way across the back.
What kind of abrasive are you using? If you can get your hands on the stuff the Norton "blue belts" are made from (alumina zirconium or some such), I think you'll find that it outperforms standard wet-dry for re-doing an edge.
You might also want to consider contacting the folks at Precision Surfaces:
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They have a wide variety of PSA-backed lapping and microfinishing films, and are very helpful in getting you set up. (They also are aware of the SS system, so if you mention what you're using it for, they should be able to help.)
Finally, are you brushing the abrasive sheets off every so often?
You could still do that, but I'd recommend you just go ahead and get the whole bevel done. Once you've done it once, you can concentrate on giving the blade a slight microbevel and it will only take a couple of minutes to sharpen/hone unless you really ding up the edge.
It's not necessarily your fault. You'll find quite a few folks on the wreck who feel that there is no single sharpening jig currently being made that is the answer to all of our prayers. The Veritas has the nice wide wheel and the micro-bevel setting feature, but the clamping system can be a pain (as you fond out) as it's prone to slipping and it can be tough to register the blade for squareness. The side-clamping ones (Eclipse) are great for getting an iron square, but they have narrow rollers and don't handle narrow chisels well. There is a newer, pricey English model that was shown in the Garrett Wade catalog (?) that looks like it would be great for chisels, but won't handle wider blades.
So some of us are hoping that some enterprising company will combine the various good features into one (affordable) "ultimate" sharpening jig. (And of course, some folks make their own.)
Until then, I just use the Eclipse when possible for squaring an iron or blade, use the Veritas only when I have to, and after getting an edge square, I freehand to hone. It's a skill worth learning anyhow.
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