Thread: Secondhand tools on eBay

Nice -- thanks for linking me there. I'd just blown past it when I went to his site.

The Frank book is fascinating -- and (though I've now revealed it here) my secret weapon. There's generally an answer to a problem I'm having hidden somewhere in Frank's arcane techniques. He worked in the days long before pre-mixed stains and finishes, and he's done all the chemistry research for us. Some of his materials aren't so easy to obtain, and many would probably be ruled out now for being toxic. But there's plenty there to play around with. Which I plan to do... as soon as I have some... time? What's that? ;-)

I think a lot of the old finish recipes work just fine (maybe better), but came to be long before the days of MSDS, so today its hard for someone to recommend unflinchingly if they contain anything even slightly toxic (a question of liability). Its not that modern finishes aren't without their hazards, but generally they have been plumbed to some standard wrt safety.
With a little common sense (), I think that most of the old concoctions can be used safely enough (after all, if everyone quickly keeled over or suffered some sort of serious medical condition, which could be definitely be attributed to the use of said concoction and not to something else like drinking to excess, those types of recipes wouldn't have survived long in use or in literature).

There are some of us who detest having to buy something that can be gotten free or DIY. Finishes can be one of those things. I find it fun and interesting (but also time consuming and more often frustrating) playing around with old or alternate methods of colouring wood vice just buying something in a can at the hardware store. I don't do it that often as I just put on oil and wax usually, but sometimes something different is warranted.

Back to the chisels. They seem pretty cheap.

I've read that when you have worn them to the hollow section they have to be hammered to fill it. Sounds a bit gruesome. Anyone done it?

Originally Posted by rsser

Back to the chisels. They seem pretty cheap.

I've read that when you have worn them to the hollow section they have to be hammered to fill it. Sounds a bit gruesome. Anyone done it?

Ern, others will have more to say on this. My take is that the real challenge is to stop the hollow retreating from the cutting edge too far (ideally kept within a few mil) from successive back polishings which gradually shrinks the diameter of the hollow (ura). Haven't had a bevel meet a hollow, well not yet.

The only type of blades I hammer are kanna blades to flatten them before grinding the ura for the first time. They warp while cooling after the forging process due to the difference in the two metals. As the cupping is usually towards the ura I only have to hammer on the soft iron side, which is fortunate as the metal on the high carbon side of the blade is quite brittle. Always amazes me that the hard steel will bend a bit without breaking, due to the lamination with the soft iron.

Haven't had to hammer any chisels. They are not so wide and any warp can be more readily ground out. There is also a higher risk with chisels as the high carbon steel wraps around the sides and one misdirected blow could shatter it.

.....

Have done uradashi only on very wide chisels -- so more like a plane blade, in scale. But it does work nicely to keep the ura intact. Especially if, as Neil says, you've avoided flattening the ura with over polishing. I only run the very edge of the back of the blade over the stone when I'm sharpening -- just enough to remove the bur... and only maybe 1/4" of it.

Someone, maybe Nakaoka-san, has a video out there giving instructions on uradashi. Or... maybe I dreamed that part. ;-)