Official Luthiers Forum!

The longevity of that edge also depends on the technique used to achieve it. A friend tried to convince me of hollow grinding and of all its advantages. He did my chisel for me(no idea what he used), and it was sharp, but not sharper than my edge, and did NOT last as long, for sure.

Find a system that works, and stay with it until you get good at it. Likely the worst we can do is try this, and try that, and this guy says that, so I'll buy that.... Just find something that seems t work for others, and then stay with it until it works for you, too.

-

I've got a set of set of 4 nice Japanese chisels that were given to me. I use 2 of them for guitar work. 3/4" and 1/4".

One thing I've found is that for narrower chisels, the steel is less important. I made a crook shaft 3/16" chisel out of a dang screwdriver and it works fine for the rare occasion that I need it. I hit it with the propane torch till it was red then dunked it in water to harden it a bit. One of my favorites though is a .020" chisel I ground from a needle file. I made it to extract and repair some damaged purfling. I use that for other stuff a lot more than I would have thought.

_________________
http://www.chassonguitars.com

-

I think Grumpy needs to change his name to Feisty.

Good chisels...yes, check the Japan Woodworker site. Also that LMI bent "glue cleaning" chisel is a winner for a lot of stuff.

I second vintage Buck Bros. My very best 1/4" chisel is a vintage Buck.   Takes an edge quickly and holds if for a long time. Beats me... Just the right balance of characteristics for my hand...and a beautiful and delicate handle. I'd pay a lot of "bucks" for more of the same...

I have a bit of a mix of chisels; a selection of Kirschen (Two Cherries) chisels, which work well, sharpen up nicely, do the trick, a number of vintage chisels (a 1/4" no-namer, a pair of large socket paring chisels, Green-something and another I forget the brand of, also work great, but limited usefulness for guitar work), and I recently splurged and got a set of long-bladed Blue Spruce paring chisels and their pair of skews, which I like for heel carving (gorgeous, gorgeous tools, and the few test cuts I've done are already making them favourites. The fit and finish are great, balance is perfect, handles supremely comfortable and very pretty).

Good quality steel makes all the difference; I had a set of cheap hardware store chisels once (now relegated to paint scraping work), and they sharpened perfectly, but went dull after about 10 minutes of use. Worthless.

These days I level with ScarySharp, and do the final sharpen with some water stones.

-

[QUOTE=TonyFrancis]

I find it strange that european woodworkers dont demmand the same quality as found in the US. You'd think there would be some european hand maker like blue spruce... but no![/QUOTE]

Actually there are quite a bit of high-end European makers: Pfeil, Two Cherries, Crown are Swiss, German and British. Sheffield steel is also found on Marples chisels and others if I'm not mistaken. I'm sure there are other makers I can't remember now.
You can get a nice collection of 3 or 4 vintage (meaning turn of the 20th century) Buck Bros, Greenlee and Stanley chisels for a song on eBay. Spend some time on each one to flatten the back and work an edge, those tools will last a few lifetimes. IMHO they're of an equal or higher quality than anything money can buy now. They keep and edge and the balance is usually perfect (at least for my hand).

_________________
Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

Is Grumpy who I think it is? I hope so- I have missed the sage from the Great White North. His site, Hoffman's and Matsushita's webs taught me much. Great!mt

Laurent: At the risk of sounding like a chisel snob, the European brands you mention are hardly 'high end' in my opinion. They are however very common, at least over here, as are Sandvik/Bacho, Ironside, Sorby and my modern favorite, H. Taylor. Alas, none of them have the steel quality of the old, standard carbon steel ones I mentioned previously. I find it utterly puzzling that none of these modern makers of standard chisels are able to match them with their modern technology and quality control systems.

_________________
Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Arnt, not to argue, but Pfeil chisels and gouges look pretty good to me. No worse than Lie-Nielsen, or my old Buck chisels… Sheffield blades keep an edge as good as anything, from what I noticed. But hey, what do I know?

_________________
Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

[QUOTE=ToddStock] Woodcraft has a lock in the States on the Pfeils, but KMS and Feathermation in Canada are much cheaper.
[/QUOTE]

Todd (or anybody)- Do you have a link for Feathermation? I had a quick look around and couldn't turn them up.

FWIW, Woodcraft is a bit cheaper than KMS on the Pfeils I checked, but would still be a better bet for folks in Canada:
KMS:Woodworking, then Carving to Pfeil

Cheers
John

-

I forget exactly what it is, but there was something in the old iron(pre WWII) that we can't do any longer, for environmental reasons or something. Perhaps it was large quantities of cyanide or similar. It's also just one reason why a metallurgist should be consulted before attempting to weld onto an old riveted steel structure. Anyhow..., some of the old iron formulations can't be replicated today, and it seems some were ideal for holding an edge..

-

first class high carbon steel.

They had carbon before, also, but there was something else to the formulation that made for finer grain or something. Been a while since school, but there was something to it.

Steel also relaxes for years, and it does indeed change slightly wit seasoning. But you're right that top notch steels today are very good, anyhow. My favorite chisel came from Lee Valley, so it's not antique steel, for sure. Unfortunately, the line was discontinued, and I don't even know who made this one, but it wasn't their most expensive, either.

 

My daughter (at my request) bought me this sharpening DVD from Lee Valley.  It is almost 2 hours of one-on-one detailed instruction/information and I highly recommend it.  For 20 bucks it may be your best tool investment.

Prior to this I took a 2 hour sharpening course at Lee Valley and learned very little.  This was because the students brought in tools that were so dull the instructor spent most his time preparing their beat up tool for use on waterstones.

Back to the DVD.  It is great!.  After watching it I spent 125 on 2 waterstones and an chisel/plane blade angle holding jig and misc supplies.

_________________
Rick Hubka
Chemainus BC Canada