Hello all,
I have recently acquired a very nice 10 piece set of vintage Stanley 750 chisels. These chisels have seen very little use and some of them appear to have never been hit with a mallet and some have never been sharpened. The original milling marks remain on the surface of the chisels.
Until now, I have used inexpensive chisels from the big box stores and hand sharpened those cheap chisels by hand as needed.
Knowing that the Stanley chisels deserved better sharpening than the freehand method I have used on the cheap things, I purchased a Worksharp 3000 and have learned to to use it by practicing on the cheap chisels. The WS3000 does a literally "brilliant" job in flatting the backs and setting the bevel on the chisels. I am amazed that I can easily get a mirror finish on the backs and bevels of the chisels with the WS3000.
I am concerned though, that when I move to the Stanley 750 chisels, with their old milling marks still present, will I be committing a major boo-boo if I polish the backs of those chisels as a part of flattening their backs? It is sad that I am almost scared to use the new-to-me vintage 750's because I don't want to damage them by doing something stupid in my ignorance and inexperience.
Anyway, any advice on how I should proceed with handling these old chisels would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Randy