so one of the questions that we get
asked most of all uh when it comes to
chisels is how can I sharpen them how
can I get that Optimum cutting angle on
a chisel now if you're um a Craftsman
you've Tri as a joiny you might TR as a
carpenter I dare say you can do it by
eye um but for a novice or for somebody
like me who's not that particularly uh
competent when it comes to sharpening
chisels uh we have to cheat so one of
the best tools for cheating is a honing
guid um and a honing guard is a
contraption that effectively holds the
Chisel in place um and guarante keys
that while you're sharpening it you're
sharpening it to the optimum cutting
angle so ordinarily when a chisel comes
out of the factory um for us they're
angled at 25° and to get the optimal
Cutting Edge we need to sharpen it to 30
so we use the honing goid the honing
goid um holds the Chisel in place and
you can see just on the edge there we
have a marker and the marker is
graduated 25 30 and 35 so if you needed
a slightly different cutting angle or if
you're using the honing guide to sharpen
plain irons which you can do um then you
can set it for a number of different
angles for this chisel I want to get a
30° bevel on the end so I'm going to
hold the Chisel in place or I TIY using
these two little adjusted screws at the
back which will hold it firmly in place
I need to make sure at all times that
it's perfectly
parallel and straight cuz if it's not
straight you won't have a straight bevel
on the end of the Chisel and you'll
start to lead away at one side so when
I'm confident that it's in place uh
level with the 30° marker and I'm fixed
in place and it's all nice and secure I
fold away the marking gauge you can see
on the underside you've got two little
Rolling Wheels which you'll see why in a
second then I will use my oil Stone this
is a two-sided oil Stone so we have a
fine grit and a heavy grit first of all
we'll use the heavy
grit and we'll use a little bit of light
machine oil just to lubricate it to get
rid of any of the Dead ring and then
with the two little Rolling Wheels on
the unide I place the Chisel firmly onto
the oil Stone and applying pressure with
my left hand moov it backwards and
forwards across the full length of the
stone and all the time you can see that
the honing guide is keeping it in
place I'm not over rotating so I'm not
dulling the edge of the
Chisel then when I'm happy with that
side I'm going to turn over the stone to
the fine
grit repeat the
process so with the f side of the stone
what's actually doing is giving really
really lovely crisp clean
Edge and it can work at it for as long
as you like until you're confident that
it's uh honed to the point that it's
going to be super sharp and when you're
happy you can take it out we remove the
bur using a piece of scrap wood and they
have a nice clean sharp chisel bevel
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