Now, I know there's a lot of companies
out there that make some really
high-end, precision, fancy, super duper
chisels and plane blades out there, but
I, like so many other people, just have
a cheap $10 set of chisels. These four
chisels were purchased a few years ago
off Amazon for about 10 bucks. Recently,
in one of my vlog videos, I mentioned
that I was going to show how I sharpen
my chisels and how I have been
sharpening them for quite a while now
with decent results. And someone's
response was to check out Paul's sellers
and see how he sharpens his. I checked
out the video and lo and behold, it's
pretty much the same process. I just
freehand it with these three stones and
I get some really good results. I guess
technically speaking, these aren't
stones. They are plates. And these are
just cheap Harbor Freight diamond
plates. This blue one is coarse, yellow
one is medium, and the red is the fine.
Now, the finest one here, this red one,
I believe only is equivalent to about
320 grit sandpaper. So, this isn't crazy
insanely sharp, but it is sharp enough
for everything that I do here in the
shop. So, this is the widest chisel that
I have. And as you can see, I don't have
a micro bevel on it. And the reason
being is I'm freehanding this, so I
don't want to get too crazy technical
with it. As long as I have a nice
consistently sharp edge, it's really all
that matters. The oil that I have on
here is just regular mineral oil. And to
establish the angle that I need, you can
kind of just hold it in place and figure
out where the angle is by this face
right here referencing flat against the
plate. What I like to do is to just look
at the shadow instead. And once the
shadow just disappears, that's the angle
that I need. Kind of lock my arms into
place and go from there. I'll do about a
dozen strokes on each plate going from
coarse to fine and sliding in between.
And at that point, the edge is really
sharp, but it's got a burr on the flat
side of the of the chisel. So to remove
that burr, just one or
two passes back and forth in the flat
side and that will either pull the burr
off or it'll push it to the top side,
which normally just pushes it to the top
side. So to remove it from there, I just
drag it along a piece of wood one time
in either direction and the burr is
completely gone. So very quickly, I've
got a nice clean sharp edge that I can
work with here in the shop. Now, this
will do everything that I ask it to do
here in the shop. There's no need for me
and what I do to purchase anything more
expensive than this cheap set. And
there's no need for me to purchase any
type of rolling guide system that you
typically see with chisels or take the
time to set it up every single time that
I need to use it. This took all of 20 or
30 seconds and it works. Now, I
completely understand that this method
isn't for everybody. If you do have a
nice expensive set of chisels, don't
ruin them on a cheap setup like this.
Then at that point, if you do have a
substantial investment in that
particular tool, then it would make
sense to go out and buy something to
keep that investment intact. I like to
test how sharp the chisel is by pairing
away at the end grain of a piece of
wood. And if I can get some nice clean
shavings, then in my opinion, that's
sharp enough.
Earlier today, I was messing around here
in the shop and it dawned on me that
maybe I can create some type of jig that
is completely free due to the use of
scraps and requires zero setup time. You
just set it in place and go to town on
it. And what I came up with is this. And
I'm somewhat impressed by it. This is
nothing more than three pieces of scrap
wood, two pieces of plywood, and one
piece of dimensional lumber. Now, the
center piece of this dimensional lumber
has a angle cut in here that is about 25
to 30°. I didn't measure it exactly. I
just kind of lined up the chisel and
said that's good enough. And all three
of these bottom faces are on the same
plane. And what that allows is this
whole sled to run
freehand over my plates referencing on
the hold down blocks that I have in
place. Now, my thinking behind this is I
can put my chisel on the inclined plane,
reference up against one side, and slide
it down until it m makes contact with
the stone. And from there, I can just
use one finger to push down, one finger
to push over into the
side and make some make some passes over
the stone.
[Music]
I only took a couple passes to figure
out what this thing was actually going
to do. And because the angle is slightly
different from here than what I have
been cutting on this, uh, I seem to be
getting a slight micro bevel. So, I'm
actually going to, uh, pursue this for a
couple more minutes and see what I come
up with. So after just a couple minutes,
I've created a micro bevel basically.
Now if I continue to use this, then
eventually this micro bevel will just
continue to creep up because it's no
longer being adjusted and this
particular plane will be continued uh
all the way up to the this top edge of
the chisel. So this little free scrap
wood experiment did everything that I
wanted it to do, but will I continue to
use it? Probably not. This is just
something else for me to keep up with,
and I'm probably going to lose it. and
the freehand method seems to be doing
the job just fine for me. It's a quick
15 or 20 pass, boom, boom, boom, and
then you get on with what you're trying
to do. So, uh, while this is definitely
a viable option, I don't see myself
using it. I hope you found this video
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