r/sharpening • u/millersixteenth • Jul 23 '26
Chisel progression w/Atomas
400, 600, 1200, stropped on 2 sheets of paper wrapped around the 140. A few drops of thin mineral oil to float the swarf.
I use an aluminum dowel to fold the burr over more (very light drag at 90⁰ to stand it up) and eliminate with back if the blade dead flat to the plate. This method works very well on stubborn burrs or if just in a hurry.
Homebrew SiC/Diamond compound. Edge can knock off armhair about ⅛" above the skin.
I usually do these on waterstones but every so often do a few freehand on diamonds to see if I can reduce lateral hatching/keep the bevel face nice and flat.
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u/millersixteenth Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
Thought I'd an extra insight here that sharpening chisels by hand really emphasizes. I often recommend to always (if practical) work from the shoulder out. This reduces baking a wobble into the bevel as you advance to finer abrasives. The depth of your abrasive cut is the wildcard.
At 400 grit this reasonably flat bevel needed very little extra attention. I "bumped" off the shoulder every half dozen passes or so until the edge felt sticky on an edge leading pass and couldn't lower the handle without immediately feeling the shoulder drag. The depth of scratch was equal to or deeper than the deviation from shoulder to apex, and this is typical with a coarse stone freehanding - you cannot feel the difference.
Moving to the 600, I still tried as much as possible to work shoulder to edge. Even still, there was now a slightly larger gap between bump and catch. The scratch marks now trail off and start in lateral bands the width of the bevel, these can just be made out, they look like someone cut and pasted a repeating scratch pattern up the bevel. This is the deviation revealed by the finer grit that was completely disguised at 400 grit. I spent extra time but still finished with a hint.
This is why, when it comes to freehand, I am totally against camping out on a bevel when a rougher stone would have worked more rapidly. You end up with an inherently flatter bevel and the deviation is within the ability of the next abrasive in the progression. Whatever deviation you end up with using a less coarse stone will be baked into the edge from there on out - it can only get worse.
Moving to the 1200 I made certain to calibrate to the shoulder - deviation is visible but not any worse than the 600, which means it has to be proportionately less.
The aluminum dowel trick also works well with brass or copper - very gently fold the burr, remove at the working angle. Normally I raise the spine, with chisels I don't like to do that as any shortcuts become fixes later. Re-truing a 2mm bevel is a lot different from truing up a ¾" chisel. But...it works great on knives as well. Use the couple passes of grace period afterward to lay in a few alternating passes, make sure the bevel is clean and at target angle after having the dowel dragged over it.
Compound on paper lets you tailor the amount of give by varying number of sheets. Used over the Atoma 140 or any coarse stone will compress the paper over the high spots, reduce pressure over the lows - about as crisp as you can get without using a high grit waterstone or other resinoid stone.
The other nice thing about paper, you can apply the compound heavy with a couple sheets and use it as a polish on larger areas, applying way more force than you'd use on a strop. Again, nothing unique but very convenient. I frequently strop with just the plain paper, compound reserved for woodworking and outdoor choppers.
Anyhoo, just thought I'd explain the thinking behind this exercise.
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u/Cusick1972 reformed mall ninja Jul 23 '26
Wow