okay so at some point you are going to
need to sharpen your chisel probably a
lot sooner than you think
it's always good to have sharp tools as
everyone probably says because it makes
you work easier it's safer you've got
less the chance of pushing too hard and
stabbing through your hand for example
so keep your scissors
keep your shizzles keep your chisels
shut so what I've done with this chisel
is put lots of different bevels on it
I've made it an absolute state so again
this is similar to some of the stuff
that I see people bring into store it's
got a few different bevels on it and
also I've dropped it a few times like
that and that has started denting the
edge and also stabbed it on the tormek
brick a few times this chisel is well
and truly there yeah well and truly gone
how do you get rid of that to start with
we're going to begin with the tormek
okay
the tormek is going to be used to grind
the main primary bevel on these chisels
I'm not going to use it to do the final
polishing or anything like that it's
just going to be to grind the primary
bevel if you're not sure what primary
bevel means I'll show you that now okay
so if you look at this blade you may see
that there is actually two bevels on it
so we've got this main large one here
which is the primary bevel this is
usually ground at 25 degrees which is
what I'll be doing on the tormek and
then on the very end here you'll see
there's a very small bevel and that is
called the secondary bevel and that is
usually ground of 30 degrees the reason
we have two bevels on these is primarily
to make sharpening easier 30 degrees
this secondary bevel on the end is our
cutting edge so you might be asking why
put this 25 on there why not just grind
the whole thing at 30 degrees well the
reason is because there is obviously
going to be a lot more metal there if
it's all ground at 30 degrees so that
means when you take it to your stone
it's going to take a lot more effort to
polish that entire edge whereas if you
have a 25 degree primary
and then you're only polishing 30
degrees on the very edge you're removing
a lot less metal and as a result it's
just much quicker
the reason it's 25 degrees and 30
degrees is just because that standard
practice I've been taught and I haven't
personally seen the need to change that
yet there are some other makers David
Charles worth off the top of my head who
endorses sharpening I think it's 32
degrees on the end he's obviously done
his own experiments that's obviously
what works for him but as a general rule
you'll probably be taught to sharpen 25
degrees as a primary bevel and 30
degrees on the very end and that gives
you a good balance between the longevity
of that edge and the sharpness of it as
well okay so before we do anything let's
look at this edge so you can see that on
the corners here they have been taken
off from where I've just dropped it on
the floor you can see that there's a
bevel there there's a bevel there
there's like a round over bit here there
is some remnants of a secondary bevel on
there but overall it's all over the
place there is no consistency to any
sharpening on there and as a result that
is going to be very difficult to sharpen
so the Keith's sharpening is consistency
and giving yourself a good grounding to
start with is essential so for that
reason I'm going to begin with the
tormek so before I start anything I can
hear a lot of you saying but Matt I
don't have at all make you're just
assuming that we own equipment at this
size now I don't actually own this this
was just lent to me for years I was
actually using my 400 and 1,000 great
combination stone so 400 grit on that
side that's my rough grinding 1,000 to
do the secondary bevel on the end that
worked fine for me yes it was a lot of
effort but that is what you pay for a
toilet for you pay for the convenience
so that in mind the first thing I need
to do with this is make sure the stone
is actually true now this is not at all
Mac demonstration by any means but I do
want to stress that if you are using any
sort of powered equipment this stone
does need to be true in there so I'm
just going to ping this across the stone
get it all nice and true and I will see
you on the other side
okay so that's all sorted I'm just gonna
get my chisel in the square-edged jig
now lock it all down top down the bar so
the bar is now perfectly parallel to the
top of the stone set the stone diameter
which I know to be around that set the
angles 25 and just adjust it until I get
the right angle so that is now at 25
degrees to the stone and I'm going to
start grinding the main primary bevel so
this is actually almost already done
it's taken about 10 seconds so far
I'll see that bevel was quite close to
25 degrees before despite having lots of
different facets on it but let's get
that finished off get rid of all of
those remaining marks and get that to a
completely flat 25 degree primary bevel
okay so that has taken about 30 seconds
so far and most the bevel is there there
is just one corner probably from where I
dropped it on the floor just now that is
slightly dipped off from the edge and
that's important I still get rid of that
because when I polish the secondary
bevel on the end that Nick's off corner
can still affect that so let's carry on
get rid of that completely
and there we go right so that Nick is
all completely gone off the corner we
have a perfectly uniform primary bevel
on here at 25 degrees now what a lot of
people were led to believe when they
bite or Max is that they should do
everything on it including secondary
bevels sharpen the edge and just ready
to use from here I don't really agree
with that I think that it's very easy to
waste too much metal on these machines
and it should be used sparingly and what
I mean by that is using it only to grind
for the primary bevel so what you'll see
some people do is no grind their primary
bevel on it they'll get this stone
grater onto it take that to a 1,000 grit
nail because this has two different
grips on it get that all nice and shiny
take it to the wheel on here and give
yourself a nice polished edge and call
it sharp which it is but you're just
grinding away so much metal you have
paid for this why why turn it into
slurry that's going to end up in here
use this sparingly is what I would
advise so what I'm going to do now
instead of taking this to the 1,000 grit
on here I'm actually going to turn this
machine off and I'm going to take it to
the 1,000 grit on my water stone okay so
my water stone has been soaking and what
I'm going to do is flatten the 6000 grit
the finer side on this diamond plate if
you want to know why I'm using water
stones for this watch my previous video
on sharpening stones and that will also
tell you why I'm happy to use water
stones on my lovely workbench so that
slurry is all on there and it's gonna
wash that off of here and then the 1,000
grit side on this stone as well the
reason I did it in this order is because
if I did the 1,000 grit first got all
the stone covered in slurry and then
flipped it to the six thousand grit side
it's going to contaminate this fine side
with the coarse grits on the opposite
side get that all nice and flat
there we go so wash that off now if you
have watched my previous video you can
see why it's good to have a designated
sharpening station for this because this
has already made a bit of a mess
so now chisel is in the honing guide if
you don't know why I'm using this honing
guide watch my first video on honing
guides
why I've chosen it over the Veritas worm
why I've chosen it over a standard
Eclipse pattern there is reason for I
use this
other than the fact it's low Nielsen and
very shiny so we have ground 25° is our
primary bevel we're now going to sharpen
30 degrees what 30 degrees for our
secondary bevel so that is up against my
third-degree stop locked in place right
so start with 1,000 grit yeah water on
there and all I'm going to do here just
keep this nice and even pressure on here
and just drag back okay use the whole
stain and that's all it really needs
just a few strokes to get that secondary
bevel started and then what we'll do
we'll flip it over and it's good
practice here especially with water
stones because the whole grit
contamination thing this wheel on the
bottom can pick up coarse grit from the
1000 grit stone and then contaminate it
onto this 6,000 so wipe the wheel first
or wipe the bevel and there we go we're
ready to go so again let's go drag back
a few times
using the entire stay there we go we've
got a nice even secondary bevel along
the end there so that's at 30 degrees
now our main primary bevels at 25 but
you see our minimal effort that was I
think I did three strokes on there and
then I did maybe five or six on this
6,000 grit and that has given us a sharp
edge if I was grinding this at 25 that
is going to take far more effort because
there was a lot more metal to remove so
secondary bevel established and we just
get this undone and so what that has
done is it's folded a bit of metal up
over the edge here so it's created a
small burr and you can actually feel
that when you do this so it's called a
burr and you need to get rid of that so
the way to do that instead of dropping
it onto the stone like this it's usually
best to bring it on like this with very
light pressure and then just rub it back
and forth a few times and this is the
importance with keeping your stones flat
if your stones are concave you can see
that I'm going to start rounding that
chisel back up and it's not going to be
a good reference surface to work from so
it's going to do this a little bit more
that's pretty much all it needs if that
so go that's a nice even finish across
the back of the blade I could give it a
little bit more but I can see that the
edge is perfectly polished next what I
will do is get my strop and put some of
this superfine paste on it I'm pretty
sure this is too fine to even use on
chisels but I like it so a few dabs of
that get it off your finger right what
I'm going to do here put the chisel on
it and then just lift it up until I see
the small shadow in the end disappear
and then just drag it back a bit this is
the only time you'll see me freehand
anything to do a sharpening
that's just dragging it back so when I
flatten the back of the chisel that
would have folded little bits of bur
back over onto this edge and that's what
this strop is doing its removing those
but very gently if you snap off that
burr it just gives you a blunt edge
again and yes back to square one so
you've got to remove that very gently
one thing I will say here I know the
height of this drops okay but if you're
working on stones that are very low just
remember that some handles poke out
below that chisel so when you put them
on a stone like this that handle could
accidentally be cranking up somewhat
like to say this drops fine but on some
diamond stones it can be an issue so
there we go back and forth a few times
get rid of all that rubbish that's left
on the end there and there we go that
chisel is let's call it stupidly sharp
that is just easily taking hairs off the
back of my hand
easily shave half my body with that
should I wish but that is how you
sharpen a chisel 25-degree primary bevel
30-degrees secondary bevel just try that
out to start with maybe you'll end up
changing the angles somewhat but that's
the general rule and that's how easy it
is there's nothing complicated few
strokes on your sharpening stone whether
that's a diamond stone water stone a
couple of strokes on the strop and
you're ready to go so after using that
channel for a while obviously that edges
get a blunt again what you do not want
to be doing now is taking that back to
the tormek and grinding the 25° on again
and then the 30-degree secondary bevel
because that is just a complete waste of
time
this is where a secondary bevel is handy
because you can just put it back in the
honing guide lock it up at 30 degrees
and then just go you don't even need to
go to the 1,000 grit stone here after
time just go back to your 6,000 - a few
more strokes
get a nice fresh edge on that take it
out polish the back of that take it on
your strop there we go nice fresh edge
again so overtime obviously that
secondary bevel is going to get bigger
and it's going to work its way further
up the blade now there is no written
rule to this but by the time it gets to
around a third or half of the way up
that primary bevel that's where I feel I
need to regrind the primary bevel and
get it starting fresh again otherwise
the only reason to take it back to the
tall mech before the secondary bevel
works its way halfway up to the primary
bevel is if you drop it on the floor and
you take a massive Knick out the corner
for example that's when you want to
start regrinding it and get it back to a
uniform position but most the time
that's why sharpening a secondary bevel
is so quick you're removing a lot less
material which is also less effort and
less metal wasted which is always good
so there we go that is how you get a
sharp edge on a chisel now like I said
tormek not everyone has access to one of
these I would advise either getting a
400 grit diamond stone or a 400 to 240
grit water stone those will grind away
the material very quickly but bear in
mind with the water stone you need to
keep it flat as well if you haven't
watched my previous video on sharpening
stones be sure to watch that before you
go ahead and buy anything to do that and
also if you do need to grind the primary
bevel by hand make sure you use a honing
guide again you cannot get that 25
degrees accurate without one of these
especially if you're a beginner
alternatives to the tormek would be
using a high speed grinder but with a
high speed grinder you've got to be very
careful about heating the steel on high
carbon blades so think chisels and plane
blades for example if you heat them up
too much
it ruins the metal makes it really soft
and you'll basically have to throw that
blade away it will be no use to you from
there if you're going to do it on a high
speed grinder take a little bit off dip
it in water a little bit off dip it in
water and just keep doing that until you
get your primary bevel established
otherwise find a friend who owns a topic
or lots of tool shops actually do
regrinding of bevels so you can specify
what angle you want they can take it
away
get it reground to a nice flat 25
degrees and you're ready to go again
just keep doing your 30 degrees
secondary bevels until you need to
regrind it in which case to do exactly
what you did before so hopefully that is
demystified sharpening chisels for you
it's really not a difficult process
plane blades in the next video will be a
little bit more difficult but overall
really not much to worry about these
just make sure you keep everything nice
and square nice and controlled
you'll be fine if you want more
information on sharpening to make sure
you get the correct setup from the
get-go watch my previous videos and
watch it right through to the end
because i'll be sharing lots of
information on tips I've learned
outright cut wood on things that I've
seen and learn to Axminster there's a
lot to be learnt so hopefully I can help
you out with it and happy sharpening
happy sharpening yeah