I'm gonna give you an overview of what
you do with a brand new chisel and what
sharpening gear I would recommend that
you get so if you're using an IBC the
easiest thing to do is to remove the
handle before you start that allowed the
chisel to lay flat you can also keep
getting water on the wood handle I'm
gonna start this process with my 1000
grit trend diamond plate and what we
have to do is get rid of the factory
scratches that would otherwise otherwise
leave a summit of a serrated edge and
I've got a 3/8 inch chisel so when
you're working with a narrow chisel what
you want to do is start I always have
the chisel on an angle like so so as I
move it forward and back it doesn't have
a tendency to roll the narrower the
chisels they tend to be taller than they
are wide and if you hold your chisel
like this and try to move it forward and
back has a tendency to tip so I hold it
at about a 45 degree angle
most of the pressures right here on that
crest and then it eases off with each
successive finger as I move it forward
and back and what I'm doing is replacing
factory grinding scratches with 1000
grit scratches coming off of the diamond
stone as I move it forward and back I
slowly migrate to my left and then I
move back to the center now the reason
we do that is if you stay in one spot
you'd end up with a ridge right here so
by moving from the center to the left
back to the center you provide a
blending area in here you only need the
first three quarters of an inch to be
nicely polished now I never go from the
center to the right because if you do
there just isn't enough reference
surface left in order to stabilize the
chisel so I would do this and depending
on the size of the chisel and the
condition of the chisel it could take
anywhere from 15 minutes to half an hour
45 minutes hence the reason I have a
seat I'm not going to go through the
whole process now but what you would do
is continue to do this on the 1000 grit
until the back of the chisel is a one
solid it tends to be a matte gray color
once it's nice and uniform then you can
move from to your next grit now if
you're purchasing a sharpening kit
that's where you're going to have to
come in and get a third stone my routine
sharpening even on chisels is one
than 16-thousand and you're done but in
the initial preparation of the back you
can't remove 1000 grit scratches with a
16 thousand grit stone not in the amount
of time that it's you'd want to spend so
we introduced a 6,000 grit stone simply
replace the 16 with the 6000 in the same
heavy holder now all of these ceramic
stones need to be kept flat they wear
with use so I used a three hundred grit
side of my trend diamond plate to go in
there and if you do it frequently it's
usually 3 to 5 seconds is all that it's
going to take to bring that stone back
to being flat and you can tell when it's
all white lubricated with some hone
right I use that same product and the
sharpening it inhibits water from
rusting metal so it's safe on both and
then I would repeat the process starting
with the tip of the chisel in the middle
and now I'm working on a stone that
wears unlike this diamond plate so it's
even more important that you cover the
entire stone in fact about 30 seconds
into it I actually turn the stone around
so that I'm evening out to where the
right side is always being used the left
side is being used somewhat
intermittently this way it balances out
this the where and about a minute minute
and 15 seconds into it I'd stop and
rieflin and then start again until I've
replaced all of the 1000 grit scratches
with 6000 grit and the only way you can
really tell that is it will be a nice
uniform matte gray color once I've done
that then I put my 16000 in the heavy
holder same preparation process using
the three thought they have three
hundred grit side of the trend plate go
in there and spend three to five seconds
bringing that 16,000 stones back to
being flat lubricate it how much time
will it take depending on the condition
of your chisel when you start and
depending obviously on how wide it is
but on a 3/8 inch chisel I would spend
expect to spend about 45 minutes start
to finish
once I'm done this I never touched the
back of that chisel again with anything
but my final stone in this case a 16
thousand now that's the process for
preparing the chisel everybody has to do
that when you get a chisel new if you
want to improve the performance but it's
only a one time procedure so hopefully
you'll never have to do it again I say
hopefully as long as you never touch the
back with anything but that extremely
fine stone you're good to go
now for the actual sharpening process
I'll put that chisel back on together
assuming I had already finished this all
of my future sharpening are really
simple I started on the 1,000 grit
making sure my 16 thousand is flat find
the primary bevel I like to keep the two
hands tied together find the primary
bevel elevate slightly on narrow chisels
I just do a little short forward and
back strokes if you try to do circular
process with a narrow chisel you'll end
up skewing or it's quite easy to end up
skewing the end of the blade and you
would want to keep it relatively square
so anywhere from 5 to 8 seconds on this
until you can detect a slight burr on
the backside of the blade at which time
you slip over here to the 16,000
register or find the primary bevel come
up just a little bit higher than you did
in that previous stone same short
strokes forward and back doesn't take
any more than five to seven seconds then
flip the blade over I always set it down
over here first and then tip it down on
to the front just a couple of seconds to
remove the bar wipe off the moisture and
you're good to go
the second that that starts to break
down you're back over here another 10 to
20 seconds is all it takes
learn to do this freehand and sharpening
won't be a pain you'll do it as soon as
you need it and that's only going to
make your work better because the
sharper the tool the less efforts
required to push it through the wood the
less effort required means you have more
control and of course the more control
you have the better is going to be the
result good luck