My new 2" Narex Chisel

I wanted a 2" chisel for something that I want to do. I purchased a standard Narex Chisel. Nothing special.


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If I remember correctly, these things have some kind of mystery coating (lacquer perhaps) that I should remove...

My intention is to start with Mineral Spirits. I understand that many things that remove the lacquer will also remove the printing on the blade. I could also try a brass brush (since I have them).

I can also try acetone if that fails. Then again, I won't be doing fine joinery mostly with this chisel. Will still flatten the back for the sake of sharpness and I do not want to gum-up my stones.

I have a project in mind, hope it works out.

Good luck in retaining the lettering on the blade. It has been a while since I unpacked my Narex paring chisels. I thought the packing slip suggests removing the finish with mineral spirits, but I don’t remember. I know the lettering does not hold up well, but fortunately spotting the 2” chisel should be pretty easy!

I cleaned mine with Acetone - no other solvent worked.

The screen printed letters and numbers vanished.

Yeah mineral spirits didn't touch it...I might try a few more chemicals I got sitting around that generally will take care of such things or maybe I'll just pull out some 600 grit sandpaper or something...

I had to go to acetone on mine.

I will give that a try but will be careful so I don't lose the lettering.

I decided to make sure that the back was flat. I have mostly been dealing with chisels and blades from places such as Lee Valley lately and they show up very flat on the back. The result is that the backs polish very quickly.

Well, these are the standard Narex Chisels. I did not even bother with the Richter chisels mostly because they do not make a 2" richter. While I was at it, I grabbed a 1/8" narex as well (I guess I did not mention that before).

First, I tried to remove the coating. Mineral Spirits did not touch it. Acetone did not touch it. So I grabbed some sand paper, and I figured I would flatten the back while I was at it.

The 1/8" chisel I grabbed some 600 grit sand paper and polished the pack. Pretty quick, just a couple of minutes.

With the 2" chisel, I started with the 600 grit, then 400, then 320, then 220. More than an hour later, this is what I had on the back.

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Right near the edge there is a low spot that is roughly 1" long. An hour later, it was still about 1/2" long. I finally grabbed a Medium Norton Crystolon stone. That made pretty quick work of it. Next,

1. Fine India stone
2. Shapton 2K glass stone
3. Shapton 5K Pro rather than the 4K Glass.
4. Shapton 6K Glass (because it was out)
5. Shapton 8K Pro
6. Shapton 16K Glass

Normally I do NOT run that progression. I usually touch up on the 5K then right to the 16K, but my stones were out and 2" is a lot of area for a first time out. The back could still be better, but my shoulders are tired and I am hungry so I stopped.

While I was working, I also sharpened the blade proper. Normally I would throw it on the Tormek for a hollow grind but I did not bother. I might have the Tormek out tomorrow. A friend is stopping by and he usually brings stuff to sharpen. This usually means that I pull out the Tormek.

I free handed both chisels. Both were very easy to handle free hand. If you look carefully, you can see that there are two sections in the middle that were untouched when I sharpened. Almost like a hollow grind there.

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These are now really sharp.

I already own two 1/8" chisels, but I wanted a third set with a 1/8 that will not see much use so I opted for a Narex to put with it. My others are a Stanley Sweet heart and a Lee Valley bench chisel in PM-V11

I just borrowed the exact chisel from a friend for an upcoming project. He had never used it so I sharpened it for him (and me). It looked exactly the same as yours at the 1 hour mark. I started with a 400 grit diamond stone but switched to coarser paper to get it flat quicker. It took some effort to get it flat and polished on the back but it did sharpen up nicely at the end. I haven’t used it yet so I have no opinion of the chisel beyond it needing some time to tune up.

Paired some tenons yesterday. Couple of comments.

My first use immediately destroyed the edge. Common problem where the immediate edge is fragile when new. So expected. Normally I would grind this back a bit but did not want to pull out my tormek. I did frequent touchups on my shapton glass stones. I was in a hurry but I will eventually do something to get past the fragile edge, but I am clearly already getting past the initial fragile edge ; but I need to be a bit brutal to find out I think.

I did not get a lot of usage myself because a friend of mine was monopolizing the chisel and kept saying things like "this is a great chisel".

Even without my usual hollow grind it was very fast to bring this trying back to very sharp. Might just be that I still need to get past a softer front surface, but my friend and I are very happy with this chisel.

I don't know if this is helpful,

but have you considered a label maker to mark the blades near the handle? you can get a thin clear tape to mark the numbers (I know it isn't ideal)

Having used this Chisel, it is wonderful.

Had a good evening with Andrew doing some M and T work...

Thinking I will take the edge from 25 degrees to 30 degrees

A couple of years ago I purchased some British made Stanley chisels that came with a "terrible" varnish. Paint remover followed by a baking soda bath solved my problem.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Osvaldo Cristo

A couple of years ago I purchased some British made Stanley chisels that came with a "terrible" varnish. Paint remover followed by a baking soda bath solved my problem.

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Paint brush clear removes it. It also removes the printing. It is almost as if the printing is on top of the coating because it comes off immediately and the coating requires a bit more work.