Sharpening rusty old chisels

[Cherryville Chuck]

I've collected a fair number of old Sheffield chisels, some of which are probably older than a century. Some are fairly pitted. The tops are no issue but the backs can't be pitted. To get the pitting out I've started using my belt sander turned upside down on my bench with a 240 grit belt. It can take up to about 5 minutes on the worst ones to get them flat enough to lap smooth using diamond hones. After that it takes about a half hour to get most dead flat and smooth to 600 grit and sharpen the bevels to 600 too. From there they go to a felt wheel charged with green honing compound which is 8000 grit. Some can take longer but you only have to go through all this once. It only takes a few minutes after getting them back into shape.

I bought one of the cheap honing guides that run about $15 give or take. They are only meant to grip bevel edge chisels and most of the old Sheffield ones are square edged. I solved the problem by using the top part for honing plane blades and adding a shim on either side of the blade to take up the slack. The shims are 7/16" wide. These held the chisels very firmly and I haven't had one come loose so far.

The last picture shows a sharpened chisel test cut.

[Stick486]

sweet...

[HandyDan]

Nice work. I often wonder what steel composition they are. High carbon steel?

[Cherryville Chuck]

Nice work. I often wonder what steel composition they are. High carbon steel?

I think so Dan. I was reading up on them and cast steel was invented in the 1750s. Before that I think the article said that chisel;s were made by bonding strip steel. I don't think metallurgy made great advances until after 1900. One bit of info I read about the Titanic was that the steel used tended to be brittle which may have compounded the problem of striking the iceberg. So the process was pretty basic I imagine. Still, they hold an edge about as well as most of my modern chisels.

[HandyDan]

Still, they hold an edge about as well as most of my modern chisels.

I have collected some old chisels of various brands myself. Most of those I bought were made in the USA with sockets for the handle and seem to hold an edge quite well. I've always thought they were high carbon steel too.

[Cherryville Chuck]

There were some very good edge tool makers in the US starting around 1800 or so when Samuel Addis started making them. Buck brothers came a little bit later. I'm not sure if I have an Addis but I have quite a few Buck Bros. I think the socket chisels are better for striking. The tang chisels need a bolster and a ferrule if you intend to strike them. Apparently the 8 sided bolster is an indication that they are probably fairly old. Both the older Bucks and the Addis chisels are collectible but the Addis chisels command more money according to the ebay sales I've seen. The first Buck Bros chisels were made in the 1850s and looked the same as Sheffield chisels of that age since that is where they trained and emigrated from.

[HandyDan]

I get most of mine from garage sales and flea markets. Ebay seems to be pricey. I guess when someone wants to sell what they have they peruse other adds to price their wares.

[Cherryville Chuck]

I've gotten most of mine off ebay but I wait for deals and a few times I bought a bulk lot, twice from ebay UK. The last time was 20 chisels. Again, if you are prepared to put some effort in the the ones that don't look so great, they are cheaper. Missing handles are usually good deals too and those give you an opportunity to make a custom handle. Small short chisels which you might use for detail work I find work better with bulb shaped or round knob shaped handles and long chisels that need to be used 2 handed I like long handles on. One batch I bought so that I could heat them up and bend them just in front of the tangs which effectively turned them into offset paring chisels. Those work for cleaning up grooves or rabbets where the handles get in the way and you rub your knuckles.

I've also gotten a few in boxes of odds and ends at the local auction which is where I've gotten most of my planes too. That and ebay.

[HandyDan]

A couple pictures of those I played with.

007-5.jpg

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[Cherryville Chuck]

Those are nice. The pig sticker mortise chisels like 2nd from the left in the top picture tend to get pretty good prices on ebay. Buck Bros put leather caps on quite a few of their chisels to help absorb mallet impacts. Did you turn the 4 handles and hoop the ends in the bottom picture?

[Nickp]

Nice stuff you guys collect...!