wrote in message
ups.com...

I'm trying to resurrect a couple of chisels that I wrecked
early on in my woodworking days. I had some craftsman chisels and
needed to get the milling-machine marks off of the face to get it nice
and flat. "Hey, my belt-sander platen is flat! I'll just hold them
against the sander while it's going!". So, I used my belt sander to
sand the tool marks out. What I discovered too late was that the
sanding belt wanted to ride a little above the platen (on a little
cushion of air), so I was depressing the sanding belt just slightly
when I'd press the chisel face against it (imagine placing your chisel
against a mattress or pillow). This caused there to be more sanding
force against the corners of the chisel and now the chisels have little
"chamfers" or slight round-overs on the corners of the face.

OK now you are closer than you were when you started. Now all you need to
do is to grind the center of the chisel to meet back with the corners. Use
the fine wheel on your bench grinder. The closer you get to a sharp edge
the greater the risk of getting too hot, have a can of water close by and
quench often. When you get close to your desired geometry cheat a little
and side wheel the chisel. This wil bting you flat. Now you have
reestablished the proper geometry of the chisel and it is almost sharp now
use your stone or diamond lap. Start with the rough and finish with the
fine. In less than 10 minutes you will have a razor sharp chisel.

There is nothing wrong with a Craftsman wood chisel, if it is sharp it will
do the job.

--

__
Roger Shoaf

Important factors in selecting a mate:
1] Depth of gene pool
2] Position on the food chain.







Now, you're probably thinking: "You're trying to salvage a 'crapsman'
chisel? C'mon! Just toss 'em and go buy another set... or go buy some
*real* chisels!". Well, I *did* buy another set and I sharpened them
properly the next time. But I still want to see if I can recover
these... just in case I, someday, come across some *nice* chisels with
the same problem at a yard-sale... or if I someday cause this problem
to some of my nice chisels.

Think of it this way... this month's issue of FWW has an article about
how to recover from joinery goofs. Think of my project as trying to
discover how to easily recover from sharpening goofs.

- Joe