Thread: Sharpening Pig sticker mortise chisels

You shouldn't need to go near the grinder if it is only sharpening.
I do my mortise chisels by hand on the waterstones. 25° main bevel with a 30° secondary bevel.
The width of the bevel makes them fairly easy to control on the waterstones.

Cheers NC,
I had another look at the tools for working wood site (which I should have done before posting!)
These chisels are ground to 20deg with a very small secondary bevel. Ray Iles made these using D2 steel & thought they would never need sharpening, (great thought!!) but suggests to just continue sharpening on the secondary bevel. He left them flat ground so we had a choice to leave them as is or hollow grind. I suppose for the amount of work I'll do I could just nick up the secondary bevel from time to time & address the rehab when the bevel gets a bit to big.
Still interested I suppose if other members have this style of chisel & what your preferred sharpening method is. There is a lot of hard steel in these little fellows and I don't want to go attacking a grinder if there might be a better way. Having said that...I'll never wear them out and a few shots on the grinder might not be so bad. I really prefer hollow grinding as an easy way to keep things in order.
thanks all

Most of my wood carving gouges are 20 degrees. Unless they hit something and actually need "repair", I never start with a grit rougher than 800 W&D paper. The gouges might need 1K then 4K (water stones) in regular tune-ups, 4K is enough under most circumstances.

I have 11 crooked knives, #12 needs to be hafted. They all get no more than 800, then 1500 W&D paper. There is no need to do any more than attach the papers to a flat surface with masking tape. Glue really is overkill for the purpose intended.

In every case, the finish is honing on some sort of strop with chrome green honing compound.

I suggest that you paint the bevels with stripes of black felt marker. That way, you can observe the immediate action of the edge management process.

Yep, I would steer clear of the hollow grinding these. They are designed for heavy work and suit a flat primary bevel.

Hollow grinding does have its place though!.

On a side note, I have made a lot of knives in the past out of D2. It's tough as nails as a tool steel but I tried every method of sharpening to get them wickedly sharp and I always fell short. Don't get me wrong, they take a very good edge. I just could not get them as sharp as 1095 or 01. I have found as a knife steel, they work wonders if you stop your sharpening process at about 600/800grit if you using them as slicers.

I think D2 would be an ideal steel choice for heavy mortise chisels! I would sharpen them with the same stones you do you other chisels with and strop them like RV suggested.

Honing with something like chromium oxide (green) honing compound will certainly brighten up the appearance of the metal surfaces.
Do you need toÉ. Correct me if Ièm wrong, the cut parts of a mortise & tennon joint sort of disappear in the assembly.
(Looks like the font fairy is back. Dang.)

I have a couple of the Ray Iles mortice chisels plus a bunch of vintage English ones as well. All have a 20 degree primary bevel and end in a 35 degree rounded bevel.

This is the one time I whole heartedly agree with and use the sharpening method of Paul Sellers. It is tailor made for morticing chisels.

Paul Sellers - How to sharpen chisels with diamond stones - YouTube

Regards from Perth

Derek

Cheers Derek,
I purchased these chisels a good while ago and they sat in the chisel drawer for a while. I'd forgotten they were D2 steel and really I think I just need to nick up the 35deg secondary bevel. It will take me a long time to get to a point where I need to re grind back to 20deg.
Re-reading the info & with previous experience with D2, I recon they don't feel as sharp as more common steel...but wow, you can give these chisels a real belting. I highly recommend them if anyone it thinking of brute force mortise chisels with some real style and real tool value!!!
On a side note, I have been looking (lusting after!) a good mortise machine. But after knocking out mortises with these chisels, I'm re thinking that option.
Thanks everyone for your replies