According to JohnM :
DoN. Nichols wrote:
O.K. My turn to ask a question instead of answering them.

I just picked up an air hammer with a set of five chisels.

Looking at them, I see things which don't look right to me, but
since I've never used these, I don't know whether the problem is in my
expectations or in the actual chisel set that I got.

[ ... ]

So -- Is there a good web site or book which will explain the
uses of these chisels, and how they should be sharpened? The extent of
the "manual" which came with the set was:

[ ... ]

You'll find the air chisel to be a quite useful tool, and if you get the
chance to pick up a quality version you'll be impressed at how much more
pleasing of a tool it is than a cheap one. Sharper impacts, harder
impact for any particular speed and less liable to stall at slow speed.
An air chisel that stalls is annoying as heck..

O.K. In playing with this (at 90 PSI) I have not observed it to
stall.

And at least the finish on it (a nicely polished anodized
aluminum housing) is a few notches up from the really cheap ones.

I've always seen the chisels as pretty disposable but good ones will,
naturally, last much longer than cheap. You'll find that you change the
angle on the chisel for each job (well, I often do) so perhaps there's
little sense in buying too good of quality if you're only going to have
one set.

I expect to pick up others (probably starting which a cheap set
or two at the tool table of one of the local hamfests, which is probably
HF grade), since I expect to grind a lot for custom use. Not sure
whether I can make them with the lathe however, since I don't have a way
to spread them out to make blades, (though I might be able to make rivet
setting ones at least). Probably 4140 steel, and some experimentation
as to how hard to make them.

As far as what each chisel is for, dunno. I just use the one that looks
most likely to do the job at hand.

The big problem is that I have no experience (yet) with what the
tool can do for me, and what a particular shape is likely to be good
for. Following posted links to vendors of chisels, I find very few
which look like what I have, which makes guessing what a given one is
for more difficult.

And the links generally have photos which are both too small and
from the wrong angle to see the detail which I would like to see to
compare them to what I have.

Thanks,
DoN.
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