I figure most folks here have seen how them thar' high-falootinJapanese chisels have a concave bottom so that, when lapping thebottom, the only material you have to remove is on the perimeter... notin the middle. (If not, here's a pic: that I wanted to have this nice feature on my existing,non-stratospherically-priced chisels, does anybody know any relativelyeasy way to achieve this? Perhaps with a conical grinding stone mountedin a drill-press?Alternatively, does anybody have any tricks for automating the lapingprocess? I've lapped a few of my chisels but, with the larger ones likethe 1.25"... that's a lot of material to remove. It sure would be niceif there was some contraption that I could clamp my chisel and stone toand it would just grind them against each other for an hour while Iwent to get a sandwich. Anybody seen something like this, or shall Idesign one myself?- Joe

this.for a joiner's chisel you want the face flat, no? - otherwise it would bereally tricky to use sometimes; and when you remove the bur you don'tactually take off any steel from the flat side, you just bend the burr oneway and then the other until it breaks off.tim w

Putting a "cove" in the bottom of my chisels. How?

Aug 31, 2006 21 Replies

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J T 19 years ago

Mon, Sep 4, 2006, 5:36am (EDT-3) snipped-for-privacy@codesmiths.com doth ponder: I _might_ try this on a 2" wide slick I use for cleaning up mortices in larch timber framing. I do sometimes get trouble with resin stickiness on fresh green larch.

Hmm, at first thought I would think maybe dipping the slick in mineral oil, kerosene, recycled cooking oil, alcohol (hopefully not the drinking kind), or something might do the trick.

On the other hand, I also wonder if cutting a slot clear thru the slick would work - at the risk of ruining the slick, of course - but it is your slick, so it's not my risk. LOL

Might want to consider making one, or a few, for test purposes. I betcha the old timey shipbuilders had the same problem, wonder how they dealt with it.

JOAT My shop, my rules.

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RM MS 19 years ago

Don;t do it. A typical Marples or Greenlee paring chisel can last decades, even with daily, severe professional use, which means frequent and possibly non-optimal sharpenings. Grinding the back out of a perfectly decent chisel will stop its useful life at the business end wherever you locate this folly

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