Thread: Best way to polish chisels?

Dengy

I think any bench grinder with a "soft" wheel will have a tendency to round over so if that is an issue I would avoid that technique all together. This would include any of the buffing wheels with a compound and some of the other wheels that are not hard grinding stones.

I expect there are a number of ways, but if it was me I would use wet and dry paper starting with coarse grades and working up to about 2000g. You can use the paper with or without water. if used dry, keep brushing the paper down to remove the metal and if wet do not leave the chisels with water on them any longer than it takes to change to another sheet of paper. At the end of the process dry them off and either leave in the hot sun or place in your oven at 50 degs.

I would start with 120g or 240g depending on the condition of your chisels and then work though 400g, 800g, 1200g, 1500g and finally 2000g. these last two grades you may only be able to get from automotive stores. The others will be available though your hardware store.

Regards
Paul

I would put the paper on glass as it is much easier to take the chisel to the paper than the other way around. At 2000g you should be able to see your face in the steel well enough to shave .

What Paul said.
But don't skip grades.
Again don't skip grades.
If doing it wet let the paper soak for ten mins or so.
Also it's a slow process so sit back turn the radio up and rub away.
If you need to complain do cars with 2500 twice in a week then complain lol.


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Can anyone please recommend a way of doing this that will not round over the edge between the back of the chisel and the sides? Eg buffing wheel with green polishing compound? Wire wheel on the bench grinder?

Joe, avoid buffing with wheels of any type (e.g. deburring or wire wheels) if you wish to avoid rounding over edges. Use wet&dry sandpaper only, and work along the length of the blade, and not across its width.

Ensure that the W&D does not move: contact glue it to glass.

Personally, I would only polish 1" behind the bevel, and if I wanted to remove rust I would use a deburring wheel on the face - but I do not care that much about keeping all face edges crisp.

That said, these Stanley 750s look crisp because I ground the sides after polishing the faces with a deburring wheel. All were rehandled from rusty orphan chisels ...



Regards from Perth

Derek

Hi Dengue, Over the years i have polished quite a few chisels and once I have finished with the initial process of using abrasive paper ( I do not always use wet and dry) and going through the grades and getting rid of milling marks etc i then proceed to polish the chisel. I have an off-cut roughly 50mm x 150mm x 150mm to which i have attached a bit of 16 mm mdf as a base ( you can just put it in the vice) and i put some Metal Polish on the top and just polish away. If you polish on the end grain you will not get a dish in the timber as apposed to using the long grain. By using this method and putting your fingers on the top of the chisel and keeping it flat you will not round the edges over. It is very time consuming but the end result is worth the effort. The chisels also seem to work better and there is no drag during use.

Regards

Router