Thread: How long between sharpening

What brand of chisel?

Narex

Put a 30° bevel on it. I found that the Narex lasted a lot longer between sharpenings compared to a 25° bevel. Even on some lesser quality chisels the 30° bevel helped. Especially on hard timbers.

Originally Posted by jimfish

Whilst installing door handles and strikers yesterday my newly honed chisel showed burring on the back after about 5 handles.
The timber was meranti on the doors and tas oak on the jambs.
Chisel was sharpened at 25 degree and up to 6000 on a combination of diamond plates and king water stones.
My chisels get used on site for both cutting hinge and striker mortises as well as paring architrave mitres.
Should I be looking at increasing the angle to 30 degree or is this an acceptable timeframe for a chisel before re sharpening.

Jim

Any chisel that you strike with a mallet requires a bevel of 30 degrees minimum. 25 degrees will fold.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Thanks gents , they hold a great edge shaving hardwood mitres but I've been disappointed in their ability to hold an edge fitting doors. I'll keep one at 25 for mitres and get another for hanging doors sharpened to 30 . Thanks again Jim

Originally Posted by derekcohen

Jim

Any chisel that you strike with a mallet requires a bevel of 30 degrees minimum. 25 degrees will fold.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Derek, what about a chisel with a primary bevel of 25 degrees and a micro bevel of 30 degrees, is that considered ok do you need a primary bevel of 30 degrees plus?

Call it a secondary bevel rather than a micro bevel. And that's perfectly ok. It's all about the intersection of the two surfaces. To be honest, whatever works for you is perfectly acceptable. Putting a secondary bevel on only takes a few minutes. The advantage is that when it comes time to rehone you only have to remove a small amount of steel, the area of the secondary bevel, rather than the entire main bevel area. When you have resharpened enough times that the secondary bevel is getting too big for a speedy rehone just touch up the main bevel on the grinder and apply and hone the secondary again.

Originally Posted by Tiger

Derek, what about a chisel with a primary bevel of 25 degrees and a micro bevel of 30 degrees, is that considered ok do you need a primary bevel of 30 degrees plus?

As NCArcher suggested, you can use a secondary (on the 25 degree primary) to achieve the 30 degrees.

Regards from Perth

Derek