Thread: "Sharpening" - the rest of the chisel

Hi All,

I'm throwing this one out to the sharpening fraternity as it's a pretty similar concept and I suspect you guys will have the most to offer.

Obviously when sharpening chisels, you will end up with a mirror finish on the back of the blade along the whole length, and probably also on both the primary and secondary bevels.

However, what about the rest of the top of the chisel? Is there a way (assuming they are abused to begin with and you have inherited them as rust buckets) to clean up and generally rejuvinate the rest of the chisel to be in an as new condition? My main concern here is maintaining the nice crisp angles on the side bevels on the chisels - there are a number of things I could think of but I am concerned that they would degrade these angles to be smoothed over too much.

Your thoughts and input are welcome.