I figure most folks here have seen how them thar' high-falootin
Japanese chisels have a concave bottom so that, when lapping the
bottom, the only material you have to remove is on the perimeter... not
in the middle. (If not, here's a pic:
http://www.benchworks.com.au/images/...isel%20Set.JPG)

Supposing that I wanted to have this nice feature on my existing,
non-stratospherically-priced chisels, does anybody know any relatively
easy way to achieve this? Perhaps with a conical grinding stone mounted
in a drill-press?

Alternatively, does anybody have any tricks for automating the laping
process? I've lapped a few of my chisels but, with the larger ones like
the 1.25"... that's a lot of material to remove. It sure would be nice
if there was some contraption that I could clamp my chisel and stone to
and it would just grind them against each other for an hour while I
went to get a sandwich. Anybody seen something like this, or shall I
design one myself?

- Joe