The Good, Fast, Cheap, pick any two, Venn diagram applies to sharpening with the minor change of Sharp, Fast, Durable for Good, Fast, Cheap.
I wish there were some magic where you could get a sharp, durable cutter quickly. The closest I've seen is the Unicorn profile folks are posting about on Wood Central. I've had mixed results using it, maybe I need more practice or it could be as I've seen posted the most noticeable results come from improving cheaper chisels, making them act more like a premium chisel.
The shavehorse build is coming along, the day job (guess I should call it the night job 
)
went into the backside of the clock last night and will for the rest of
the week and MsBubba's B-Day is next week so progress will be slow.
I'm working on fitting the dumbhead and swing arm.
Once
the swing arm and dumbhead are fitted I'll need to shape a treadle,
chop a few mortises and made matching wedges to finish it up.
ken
You can turbocharge a VW to be as fast as a Porsche, unless the Porsche gets a turbo too.
ReplyDeleteWhy not unicorn a good chisel, then it will still be better than a crappy one?
Steve,
DeleteYes you can but it is still a VW :-) and no where near as cool nor does it make a statement about your having more money than sense.
There seems to be a diminishing return as the chisel goes up in quality, at least some posters have talked about it. From my experience I think that may be the case as well as also less difference between a unicorn edge and one on a good Japanese chisel polished with a good JNAT finishing stone. The biggest difference is time, if someone does not enjoy sharpening then the unicorn procedure could be best for them.
ken
Souping up a VW still indicates more money than sense.
ReplyDeleteSwiss Made carving tools have shipped with a buffed edge and shallow bevel since at least the 70's, probably forever. I had a buffing wheel on a washing machine motor but no grinder and I would use that to touch up the carving tools. It is fast and makes a fine edge. The difference with carving tools is they don't require the back side of the bevel to be flat like a chisel and aren't particularly fussy with the clearance angle as a plane iron can be.
Also, Swiss Mades are good chisels and use a buffed edge. Crappy chisels can't match their performance by having their edges buffed.
These are good benefits to using the buffer. I don't understand the attraction to using cheesy tools that typically have more wrong with them than just poor edge retention.
I saw this article referenced somewhere recently. https://brentbeach.ca/Sharpen/jig%20faq%2002.html#thebest
It suggests that the size of the abrasive used can influence the steel below the surface. Consider that taking cheap chisels and plane irons out of the package where they were machine ground with maybe a medium grit at best then treating them with fine abrasives may be partly responsible for the increase in performance.
Found on the Narex web site:
ReplyDelete"Narex chisels are ground before being hardened, so you may find that edge retention improves significantly after the first couple of honings, this is completely normal and once the first couple of millimetres have been sharpened away you will begin to experience what a pleasure Cr-Mn steel is to use."
I own 4 Narex chisels, 2 mortise and 2 skewed, and I must admit that once they are sharpened and honed they are a joy to use. When I got them I was less than convinced and it was nothing more than a "let's try". The one I use the most is the 1/4" mortise chisel and even if I am really very far from Ken expertise in sharpening, it is razor sharp. I use the strop before each usage just to keep it clean.
DeleteSylvain,
DeleteI have a couple of sets of Narex chisels mostly because they come in metric, some have Hornbeam handles, and they come in "firmer" style. I've found they are good chisels, and are very good at their price point.
ken
Lionel,
DeleteYou are correct, Narex are pretty good chisels, I mostly use mine to chop mortises when a pig stickers isn't the best for the job. Because of the Hornbeam handles they stand up to heavy work and steel hammers.
ken
ken
off topic:
ReplyDeleteinteresting videos here:
https://www.youtube.com/user/standupmaths/videos
some about the elections claims.
Sylvain,
DeleteThanks, the link is a hoot. The sad thing is this is who close to half the U.S. is. Dumb as a brick.
ken
Ken,
DeleteDon't be so negative.
Half (almost) the country is as smart as a brick.
Thanks Sylvain.
ReplyDeleteJust what I needed - another youtube channel to distract me.