Chisel Sharpening - Help!

[Newton Hunt]

Ron is right, again, as to sharpening "stones".  THere are a
couple of points I would like to make.  I do not know the
specific tools to which you refer, haven't seen 'em yet, but
for chisels, plane irons, scrapers to begin with and such
the back side has to be as flat as you can make it, even to
a mirror finish.  

Lots of people back sharpen chisels, put a small bevel on
the back side, but this is verboten, absolutely forbidden. 
Doing so will cause a chisel to follow an upward cut, not a
straight cut.

Japanese water stone are wondrous tools but you really need
to know how to use them before investing that kind of money
in them.  The best sharpening guide I have seen is from
Japan and the last time I looked Garrett Wade sold them; it
has a full width support roller and micro adjustable finish
angles.  They also sell a tool for setting the desired angle
of cut.  These tools will help you get started.  Later you
can go to hand sharpening.

The thing to remember is that you have to have a wire edge
on the opposite side of the tool all across the tool before
you can go to a finer grit.  The wire edge has to be moved
to the other side from the back side by holding the tool
flat on the grit and back sharpening is not permitted.  That
wire edge is what Ron was referring to.  
-- 
		Newton Hunt
		Highland Park, NJ
		mailto:nhunt@jagat.com