Freehand Sharpening Damage Repair

**Robson Valley** · 4th November 2013, 04:03 AM

One of these days, you might hit an "inclusion" in wood to damage the edge of a chisel, skew, carving gouge or knife. Maybe you notice that the tool leaves a visible scratch behind in the wood.

Hold the edge up to a very bright light. The damaged part of the edge will be crumpled so badly that it will reflect a "spark" of light. In theory, the rest of the edge is sharp enough not to reflect any light.

I've had to learn not to ever try to carve dirty wood again.
I've had to learn not to ever try to carve previously sanded wood.

Not having a banged up gouge to show off, here's a chisel used in a kitchen rennovation.
Project: Complete kitchen makeover.
My Job: Empty the room. Everything. Leave NOTHING but the paint on the walls.
The chiel was used to knock off about 8m of ceramic tile backsplash and several rows of ceramic tile countertop to find the lower cupboard cabinet seams.

To repair an edge like this,
1. Square off the end of the bevel to just beyond the damage. The result is a straight band that you can see easily in reflected light.
2. By whatever means, re-establish the bevel angle. I decided on 30 degrees. Owner #1 was none too careful about sharpening in the first place.
3. Now, go through the entire freehand sharpening process, as far as you think is necessary. I went to 1500, could have quit at 600-800, given that this chisel won't be uised for finish work but getting there won't be hard to add.

Confession: this was so bad, I did all the basic work with chalked up files. Then I went to my coarse (80?) and finer (220?) oil stones, then on to sandpapers on a flat surface, my waterstones are too badly worn.

Hindsight: If there ever was a reason to go to power sharpening, this was it. I don't have the money, the space or the need to do this maybe once every few years.

**Ben Dono** · 4th November 2013, 06:03 PM

I do my best to take care of my chisels now days to avoid power grinding the bevels, but I do love that I can jump on a grinder to get the job done fast if need be. I cheat and reset the bevel on coarse W&D paper and a jig if it's not too bad. I then free hand the rest of the way. It's just so much faster.
I did try and set up my sharpening station so it was fast to set up the jig...but it's not quick enough.

My first chisel power grinder was a carpenters little belt grinder upside down in a box with a angle plate as a guide. The new sharp belts generate less heat but it's pretty easy to burn an edge. One swipe and dunk, one swipe and dunk....

**Robson Valley** · 5th November 2013, 01:47 AM

I know, I know = we all 'try' to take care of our wood working & carving edges!
These days, I don't know where the grit comes from but the damage always looks the same.

After I got the end jointed, cutting down the bevel with files was tedious.
Those two steps are the core of fixing a badly damaged edge of any sort.
Without my angle card as a guide, I would have wrecked it for certain.
As in some stupid angle like 40+ degrees.

Agreed, power sharpening takes the grunt work out of the task but the risk of cooking the edge
turns me off. I made a 1/12 carver's stop chisel (20 degrees) from a 25 degree Narex skew.
Used a grinder at 3750rpm and just went really slowly = touch, touch, touch.

**rsser** · 10th November 2013, 06:22 PM

As a woodturner who's had a fair share of trailer loads of 'found' wood I've learned to pass a metal detector over all of it.

The worst unwelcome find was a nail punch embedded deep into some Euro Ash.

By 'found' wood I mean nature strip dumps, urban park felled trees before the chippper has arrived, and calls from friends about the tree they're going to have dropped.

RV, you need to make friends with a woodturner. One with a bit of experience with HCS tools. S/he could effect a quick repair.

**Ben Dono** · 10th November 2013, 06:47 PM

I like that! Trades always help each other out!

**rsser** · 10th November 2013, 06:59 PM

Yeah, a turner faced with a specialised task needs a mate who's a fitter and turner or toolmaker too.

Hat's off to GJ who saved me a small fortune at one stage.

**Robson Valley** · 11th November 2013, 03:31 AM

HA! I know one guy with a lathe, he doesn't use it very much at all.
So, he leaves his tool sharpening to me, he likes the results.
Just paying it forward to the time I might want to try turning.
At present, I'm having difficulty finding carving time.

0C and snowing steadily = could be the end of the upland bird season
which closes Nov. 15 anyway. Went 3/7 yesterday (Ruffed Grouse.)

I wanted to repair that chisel as an illustration of the first steps
in repairing a carving gouge that's bumped noses with a big sand grain.

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