Sharpening, eventually

Notes from getting a box of second-hand chisels back into use. Mostly a record of what I stopped doing.

The box

Eight chisels, bought together for very little. Two had been used as screwdrivers, one had a handle split along the grain, and all of them had a rounded bevel from years of freehand work by somebody in a hurry.

What actually took the time

Flattening the backs. Not the bevels — the backs, and on two of them it took an hour each on a coarse stone before the scratch pattern reached the edge evenly. Everything after that was quick.

A bevel you can fix in ten minutes. A back that was never flat will fight you for the life of the tool.

The order I settled on

1. Back flat on the coarse stone until the scratches run right to the edge.
2. Bevel ground square, with a guide. Freehand came much later and I am still worse at it.
3. Medium stone, both faces, until the coarse scratches are gone.
4. Fine stone, a dozen passes, then strop.

The whole set took a weekend. Six of the eight are in regular use; the split handle is still waiting and the one that was a screwdriver is now a scraper and quite good at it.