Thread: Lapping backside of chisel

Originally Posted by mic-d

Is Ura dashi carried out on chisels as well as plane blades? I only see examples doing it on plane blades, I don't know why. And I see lots of (mostly western) people lapping the backs of chisels to keep the hollow at bay.

I'm with Des, with decent tools taken care of properly, it's not at all necessary. The flat at the edge just creeps it way up the blade as it's used and with a little judicious sharpening, you'll keep the little flat just the right size without too much trouble.

If it gets to small, start working the back more. If it grows, work the bevel more and the back less.

The general feeling I get here is that tapping out a chisel is only for problematic tools or problematic users. Pretty much an 'uncouth' way of maintaining one's tools. But at the same time, you gotta do what you gotta do sometimes.

I've done it twice, both times I had less than $10 in either chisel. One I generally worked the soft side over to stretch it somewhat and take a convexity out. It worked, but it was ugly and not really worth the effort on such a bad chisel. Another time, yet another bad chisel and it chipped badly. I could have just as easily worked the back over, but decided to tap it out and see what happened. Made a more square edged hollow in the back, but worked well enough. Again, a really poor chisel so it was worth practising on.

It's an odd thing. There's a heap of different ways to prepare and maintain one's tools. Most might be mocked, but there's the underlying though of "if it works, it's fine". It's when you need to resort to the 'uncouth' stuff that eyebrows are raised and questions asked.

Stu.