That person was either or maybe both a carver and "old school". The backs have never been flattened. You can see a very slight bevel on the back of each chisel. Carvers are known to sharpen that way as are old school wood workers. I've heard Richard, The English Woodworker, talk about his father lifting the chisel a few degrees when working the back of his chisels. He usually says something like "I can't stop the old man from doing it".
I've a decision to make. Either I waste maybe a mm of steel to rid the back of the slight bevel or I just continue the practice. At this time I'm pretty agnostic. I will say I've plenty of flat backed chisels to use.
A photo of the ten:
Because I was out of chisel rack room I had to find someplace to store 'em. After a bit of butt scratching I figured if I moved the long chisel rack down a bit and the short chisel rack up just a little there would be room for another rack between. Because the racks were going to be so close I put a floor and guard on the two short chisel racks.
Photo:
A photo of the bench wall with the tool chest. I know it doesn't look like it but I've cleaned up the storage and moved almost all the tools that are not in daily or frequent use somewhere else.
As always click 'em to big 'em.
ken
Ken
ReplyDeleteare the chisels imperial or metric? Either way it is a nice looking lot.
Ralph,
ReplyDeleteThanks, it is getting very hard to find clean chisels from the pre-war era.
I don't think metric was even a dream in the UK when these were made :-).
ken
You are correct Ken, imperial, not metric...back in the days :-)
ReplyDeleteLook like you are catching up nicely with my own, Ahem, assortments of chisels :-)
Bob, travelling
Bob,
DeleteBob,
I hope I never catch up :-). These are the last chisels I'm buying....BTW, I heard you were looking for a bridge in NYC.
Btw since these chisels never had the back done, i would flatten them first before touching up the edge. That may take care of the back bevel. Whatever us legt i would then square the tip and sharpen the usual way.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, carvers often uses back bevel, it helps steer the blade in and out of the wood.
Bob, taking a break before our next rounds of visits
Bob,
DeleteFrom looking at the chisels my bet is they were used by a carver. Not only the back bevels but most of the chisels were slightly rounded. My plan is to work the backs with each sharpening but not worry about getting it flat to the edge. That will happen over time. After working the back and the bevel I'm giving the back a good workout on a leather strop to remove the wire edge. The chisels are wickedly sharp after the stropping and I expect after a dozen or so sharpening the backs will be flat. Should save iron and time.
ken soon to join the ranks of traveling Gramps.