Sharpen Those Chisels

Disclaimer: Woodworking carries innate dangers including loss of limb and life. Articles in the blog are meant to aid people already familiar with the field and not to replace books or formal advising. If you choose to use any information found here, you are responsible for your own safety. By continuing to read you release anyone affiliated with this blog including myself of liability. If you aren’t sure what you are doing, don’t do it!

So something that has been bothering me lately is watching people use wood chisels. There seem be two extremes of people and neither know what they are doing. When you first buy wood chisels they are not sharp. They might look like it, they might cut your finger, but they are not ready to cut wood. I see people constantly hammering the back of them to make a cut while I am just sliding it through the wood with my hands.

            The other extreme are the people who know they aren’t sharp so they take them to a grind wheel. In fact this is the way many books might tell you to do it but it is the wrong way. It is much more dangerous, you take off more metal than you need to, you can ruin the temper of the metal, and its not as nice a finish.

            What you should do is buy a few different grit sharpening stone and a little bit of machining oil. The stones are pretty inexpensive and if you care for them properly one set will last you for the rest of you life. Put a little oil on the lowest grit stone and put the flat of the chisel on the stone. Rub it on a circular motion covering the entire surface of the stone. Work you way up to a higher grit and buff the blade when you are done. The cutting edge should cut through the wood now with ease. BE CAREFUL! The chisel is very sharp at this point and if you hit your hand it won’t stop until it hits bone. Keep the blade covered to protect yourself and the cutting edge you just created. If you need to re-sharpen your chisel, you only need to spend a few minutes on the highest grit and then rebuff it. If you follow these instructions you will be able to use your chisels to their full potential and create better projects in less time.