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what's going on guys today I want to
show you how to get razor-sharp chisels
in the field these are nothing more than
a piece of 150 grit sandpaper a 2x4 and
some black stuff so stay tuned okay guys
so as I just mentioned here the things
you're gonna need this is 150 grit
sandpaper this isn't even the wet dry
stuff just regular old sandpaper you're
gonna need a piece of wood this is a 2x4
that's been ripped down it doesn't have
to be ripped down it can be pretty much
any piece of wood and the black stuff
this is actually buffing compound you
can get this at Home Depot
that's where I got this piece if you
don't have this at your local Home Depot
I'll put a link in the description where
you can buy this one other thing you're
gonna need is a flat surface this is a
piece of sandy plywood it doesn't have
to be a piece of sandy plywood you could
honestly even use the top of a 2x4 as
long as the surface is relatively flat
okay so the first thing I'd like to do
is clamp my sandpaper in place if you
don't have a clamp you can use tape or
just set something heavy on it so I like
to start sharpening on the back of the
chisel first this is your constant this
doesn't change this needs to be as flat
as possible and that's where I'm gonna
start a lot of times I found if I start
on the front bevel this face here I'll
sharpen that until I get a nice square
edge all the way across you can check
this with a square and then what happens
is when I flip the chisel over and start
to flatten the back side my front bevels
ends up no longer being square then I
have to go back and resharpen this front
bevel again anyway so I might as well
start on the back get this nice and flat
first then go back and square everything
up using this front bevel if you can see
our scratch pattern how we've got
scratches going lengthwise along the
chisel those are the scratches that we
just made on the sandpaper we also have
some scratches that are going kind of
diagonally those are the old scratches
that we want to remove we want to
flatten the back of this chisel or we
want to work this chisel on the
sandpaper until all of the
scratches are going in the same
direction that we know the back of this
chisel is 100% flat okay so we've been
working on this for about five minutes
and you can see all of our scratches are
now in the same direction and you can
even see our temper line here so now
what we're going to do is I don't know
if you can see the where apex is how
kind of uneven and nasty that looks
we're going to want to square that with
the rest of our chisel so now we're just
going to work this edge on the sandpaper
until everything is completely square
and hopefully you can see this but we
are pretty much exactly square so now
what we're gonna do is work on this
front bevel and we're just gonna work
this on the paper we're just going to
find our angle we're going to do that by
simply placing our chisel right on the
sandpaper and kind of feel where it
where that angle sits and that's our
angle now we're just gonna work this on
the sandpaper as consistently as
possible I find that it's best for me if
I only work in one direction and I
maintain an angle best going forward
into the papers you may maintain an
angle best going backwards but I'm just
gonna work this in the forward direction
because that's the direction that I
maintain my angle the best at so I'd
find our angle we're gonna want to check
this often make sure that we're not way
off of our angle and it's looking like
we're okay so we're working this flat
spot the spot that we just created in
order to get this nice and square we can
still see a flat spot on there and we're
just going to keep working this until
that flat spot disappears and we've
completely Apex at that point one thing
that I like to do is check the square
every once in a while and make sure
we're not getting too far off especially
with wider chisels you can vary the
amount of pressure that you put on one
side of the chisel or the other to help
you re square an edge and it looks like
that
I would probably apply a little bit more
pressure to this side as I'm working it
so now we are at a point where we have
formed a burr along the apex of the edge
so that burrs centrally folded over
itself and I can feel that by running my
finger up this side now what we need to
do is remove that bird and the best way
that I found to do it is with buffing
compound this is black this is usually
the coarsest or most aggressive compound
that you can buy this is Ryobi brand
this works great on leather if you don't
have leather handy something else that
works is simply rubbing it into a piece
of wood so now we're just going to work
our chisel on this piece of wood as if
it was a straw and again I like to start
with the back side first and then move
my way to the front side now this
doesn't work you know going like this
because our handle gets in the way so
you have to kind of hold the chisel with
an angle like so and keep it as flat as
you can and just move the chisel
backwards along the straw with a piece
of wood don't underestimate the power or
the cutting power of this buffing
compound I don't know if you can see how
it's actually putting in scratch
patterns into the back of our chisel
remember all of our scratch pattern was
going in the lengthwise direction and
simply stopping it at an angle is
putting a new scratch pattern in this
chisel it's kind of amazing how well
this stuff cuts now we can simply go to
the other side and strop the other side
again we're going to strap the other
side by simply lining up our sharpening
angle or the same angle that we use to
for sharpening I don't put a ton of
pressure on here but I do put a little
bit of pressure and we're just going to
strop at that same angle when you're
strapping on wood like this you can use
a little bit more pressure than you
would if you were strapping on leather
mainly because the wood doesn't wrap
around and over the edge and won't round
off your edges easily
now a chisel that's been properly
maintained won't need to go through this
whole process every single time a chisel
that's been maintained you can a lot of
times skip the sandpaper process
completely and go right to using
compound on a piece of wood or compound
on a piece of leather or some other way
of carrying the compound you can't just
drop when the compound you need
something you need something that will
carry the compound and hold it in place
okay so this is what our edge is looking
like after a quick strapping on our
two-by-four it's not a super refined
edge but it is stupid sharp let me show
you so we're not even really touching
the skin and the hairs are just kind of
jumping away it's probably not going to
show up on camera but that's basically
what it's doing we'll do the old fishing
line test
Whittle a piece of fishing line and how
does it cut wood
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alright guys so that is how I sharpen my
chisels when I'm out in the field and I
don't have access to my giant wet stones
I actually flatten these the other day
because I was going to do a chisel
sharpening video basically this one but
I ended up thinking about it and
realizing that I've never been in a
situation where I've needed a sharp or
needed to sharpen my chisel and had
access to my wet stones I've always been
out in the field and didn't have access
to anything so basically sandpaper 150
grit nothing special this is just
regular sandpaper it's isn't even the
white or dry stuff and the reason I
think this works so well is that this
grid on here doesn't stay 150 grit
forever it breaks down into smaller and
smaller pieces I don't know what the
ending grit would be probably like 300 I
honestly don't even know but the grit
breaks down on the sandpaper and it
gives you a finer and finer grit and it
really does give you good results
strapping on a piece of wood with
compound buffing compound it works just
fine basically all you're looking for is
something to carry the compound you
can't you can't strop on just a plain
block of compounds this doesn't work you
need something to hold that compound in
place and keep it from moving piece of
wood works fine a piece of sandy plywood
works fine leather works the best at
least in my experience so if you're
looking for a way to sharpen your
chisels in the field sandpaper
piece of 2x4 you can even make yourself
a DIY strop like this this is just a
belt piece of leather leather belt glued
to a piece of one by three with compound
it's that simple
I have a video on how I made this I'll
link it in the description or at the end
of this video one of the two so that's
how I sharpened my chisels in the field
hopefully this video helps don't forget
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