[pianotech] Of Chisels

[William Truitt]

Hi Terry:

 

Mine are King Japanese water stones that I bought about 15 years ago.  600,
800, 1200, 1500, 6000, and 8,000 grit.  What grit on the Shaptons?  What is
your experience with them?  How much?

 

Will

 

From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Terry Farrell
Sent: Wednesday, October 13, 2010 11:29 AM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Of Chisels

 

Will - What type of stones are you using? FWIW I have a nice set of Shapton
ceramic waterstones that I would consider parting with........

 

Terry Farrell

 

On Oct 9, 2010, at 11:54 AM, William Truitt wrote:





Terry, I think you should put that picture on your website with the caption
- "A well sharpened chisel will give a much cleaner cut".  J  (that's coming
from someone who has sliced and diced himself too!)

 

I have a couple of Japanese paring chisels very much like yours.  Sharpened
on a good set of Japanese waterstones, they take a fearsome, mirror edge and
will cut so cleanly that they will leave a burnished surface in the maple.

 

The blade portion of the laminated chisel is made of very hard steel - on a
really good Japanese chisel, it will be 64 to 66 on the Rockwell C scale,
which is about as hard a steel as we can get for edge tools.  Steel this
hard is also quite brittle, which means it is prone to chipping and or even
breakage.  Which is why it is laminated to much softer steels for the shank
of the chisel.  These steels are more flexible and less prone to breakage.
Thus the combination of the two steels in a lamination gives the best of
both worlds.  So these quality chisels will never be a "bung" chisel and
using it as such will tantamount to "tool abuse".  I have my "s..t chisels"
to be used with reckless abandon.

 

Sharpening a chisel well means sharpening BOTH sides of the chisel, always
keeping the edge at a consistent angle as you sharpen, and using a
progression of stones with ever finer grits.  If you were to look at a
chisel edge under sufficient magnification, you would see that the edge
would not be a single straight line, but rather look like a rough series of
large serrations.  Moving the chisel over the stone, reduces the size of the
serrations as you progress up in grits.  Even that mirror edge will have
serrations, but they will be very small.  My stones go from 600 grit to 8000
grit.  There are some ceramic stones that go up to 30,000 grit.  You learn
to sharpen by understanding proper technique and practice, practice,
practice - it is an acquired skill

 

Will

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