freehanding narrow chisels

[Andrew Fleck]

I'm having issues freehanding my narrow chisels on my waterstones. I have the process down well for anything larger than 1/4". 1/4" and below is where my problems start. I moved to hollow grinding so I could freehand easier. I'm getting a nice hollow grind on my small chisels, but once I move to the 1000grit stone to start honing the flats I'm getting uneven results. I have large fingers that make it difficult for me to feel if my pressure is even.

Basically I'm honing unevenly on these small chisels. I'm thinking it's my pressure, but I don't know how to correct it effectively. Anybody else have problems like this or know of ways to mitigate them? I would like to continue to freehand the narrow ones too.

[David Weaver]

You don't need to use the "flats". Just lift the handle a degree or two and pull a couple of strokes and you're done.

Chisels narrower than 1/4" are harder to hone if you try to hone them like a 1" chisel, but the edge can usually be made fine on them with a lot less work so you just hone them a little differently. They will like an extra few degrees, anyway, because of how little edge there is to absorb the pressure you put on them.

[Derek Cohen]

Hi Andrew

I hollow grind all my chisels - small ones in the 1/8" range included. These are then free handed on waterstones, on the hollow.

It is easier if you take long strokes, pulling towards oneself. Until you learn to "feel" for vertical, hone at the side of a stone and use part of your hand to aid in guiding the chisel along its path. The extra stability will give you confidence, and in time you will no longer need to do this.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Andrew Fleck]

Thanks for the suggestions. I will try them both a whirl and see what is working for me. I'm going to try lightening the pressure up a bit and see if that helps too.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

On the tiniest chisels, I sometimes just deal with an uneven sharpening - one of my 1/8th" chisels is no longer perfectly square, it doesn't really effect it's use. I only hone the smaller tools on the pull stroke, and like Dave says, lift it a bit and just focus on the tip.

to keep from mucking up my stones I often sharpen tiny things on the sides of my stones.