Evidently, I screwed up in a first attempt at sharpening a chisel. The 3/4"
chisel had a good 1/16" missing from the corner. I switched to an much more
agressive grit after 10+ minutes of not-much-progress at 220.

The nick is gone, but now I've got and put a radius over the width of the
tip. It drops off by about a 1/32".

I don't have a grinder (maybe this is why the Lord invented Harbor
Freight?) - and have two questions:
a) How did I put the radius on there? Was I inadvertently applying to much
pressure to one side? A sort of roll effect as I was sharpening?
b) How do I get it out?

Thank you!

"patrick conroy"

How did I put the radius on there? Was I inadvertently applying to much
pressure to one side? A sort of roll effect as I was sharpening?

Yes.

b) How do I get it out?

Light, firm pressure of the fingers on the middle of the chisel's iron.
I sharpen mostly with a stone, not paper, but take, say, twenty oval strokes
counter clockwise (oval circles of a few inches in diameter), then look to see
the effect on the iron (what's the new, bright section that your 20 strokes
just made), that will tell you where you're sharpening. Do it again to see if
you can match the first result...and again, until you are sharpening where you
want. Now sharpen so that the new, bright section comes in the center of the
iron, at the same angle, again, and again.
If you can't see the new section sharpened, then magic marker the flat you are
sharpening, hit the 20 strokes, and see where the marker's removed.

Do some counter cw, some clockwise; do 40 strokes; do 60.... But always keep
checking at intervals.

Hand sharpening is tedious, usually beyond my patience to get a really good
result.

If you must use a bench grinder, go at it a bit at a time, use a white wheel
(not grey) to reduce heating.
IMO, the old, three-foot diam. hand or foot cranked grinding wheel produced a
superior result because of the much greater radius vs. the bench grinder, and
because there was no heat produced to destroy the temper of the carbon steel
iron.

Frank Morrison

I think this might be your technological answer in a stable, precision honing guide:

http://www.garrettwade.com/jump.jsp?...oductID=105910

Just look at those wheels!

Alex