Thread: rehab a Swan chisel

A few years ago I bought a tool chest packed with old beat-up tools and have been gradually fixing them up as I need something. I think a US postwar Stanley #7 is about the last thing still to do. Amongst the beat up chisels was a James Swan chisel which Luban White (Slow6) said would become my favourite chisel. A while ago Weisyboy turned some handles for the socket chisels that came in the box, but the Swan chisel (top one in the pic in the link)languished due to a problem with the back. There was a bit of fine pitting and a couple of waves and a dubbed edge about 2thou" deep, even after bringing it down quite a bit on a beltsander. I put it in the too hard basket.
Then I remembered there was some Klingspor aluminazirconia 120 and 180 grit left over from the days when I lapped plane soles. This is tough stuff. So I put some 120 on a piece of flat granite with some kero under and on it. I started lapping the back along the axis of the handle. I checked the wear pattern often primarily to see that the edge was not being dubbed. When I was sure the flat spots were big enough to make it stable, I mixed in lapping it sideways with the last 2-3mm off the edge of the paper so there was no chance of dubbing off more material. After an hour on the 120 the dubbing had virtually disappeared and I moved onto the 180 paper, holding the chisel diagonally to get a fair amount of the back on the paper, and pulling the chisel, no pushing at all and watching carefully for dubbing. working both diagonals to get a cross hatch pattern of scratches which helps checking the wear. After 10mins or so I thought I had removed all the 120g scratches so after a check with a straight edge (which showed one little area of dubbing still present - hmmmmph!) I moved to the waterstones. I keep my waterstones flat with a diamond plate and confirm with a straight edge. I place the last 50mm or so diagonally on the 1200 stone and work it along the handle axis again while slowly moving it up and back on the stone to keep even wear. I do this four times from one side, turn the stone around and come from the other side on the opposite diagonal. Then do 20 sideways strokes on one side, turn the stone and repeat. Then flatten the stone again which takes only 10-15 secs. And repeat, and repeat. Initially there remained a shiny border around the edge which indicated the paper had very slightly dubbed it, but also confirms that the stone is flat. Once the back (last 50mm or so) was uniform (except for that one corner) I moved onto the 6000 grit. It took only a couple of min to bring it too an even polish. Total time on the stone was 35 min and total time for the back was just under 2 hours. I reground the primary bevel to about 22º and honed a second bevel at 25º. It pares end grain real nice. In the second photo you can see the little bit of dubbing on the right corner which will disappear in a few sharpenings. It's a big chisel, that's a 6" diamond stone next to it.
So in summary, alumina zirconia cuts very fast even on hardened steel and waterstones are just fine if you work them evenly and flatten regularly before they get out too far. Should be fine if you are doing up a set of chisels for yourself, may not be for someone rehabbing and selling tools.