Left to Right
bull nose chisel, straight chisel, and our converted bull nose chisel
Step 1:
Any wood carver’s tool kit should include basic sharpening tools. This set includes a 800 grit brown stone, 8000 grit white stone, emery cloth, two strops, red oxide rouge, and aluminum oxide rouge
Step 2:
The tool that I will be converting is a 3/8″ Ramelson Straight Chisel.
Note how square the sides and cutting profile is for this tool.
Step 3:
I started with my 600 grit coarse brown ceramic sharpening stone. This stone is used dry – without oil or water.
Step 4:
I have placed the cutting face down against the stone surface with a slight angle so that the edge will be worked on the stone surface.
Step 5:
I am working the right side point by pushing that edge with a curved stroke across the stone. I am working just the point of the edge at this time.
Step 6:
In the last four photos you can see the curve of the push. Once I have completed the push stroke I reserve the sharpening by pulling the edge back to the original starting point.
Step 7:
That push-pull movement will begin to reduce the point while blending that area into the un-worked profile area. I have worked the tool on the stone for about five minutes.
Step 8:
You can see that the points on both sides are being worked away and that the tool profile is beginning to take on a gentle curve on each corner.
Step 9:
Once I could clearly see that the points had been removed I flipped the tool to the back and pulled it down from the edge to remove the rough tin edge that had developed.
Step 10:
I wanted to blend the worked points into a gentle curve with the center area of my chisel so I repeated the sharpening pulling deeper towards the center of the tool with each stroke.
Step 11:
Being left handed I noted that one point, the left, of my chisel was more defined than the right so I hit the right side a few more licks.
Step 12:
The coarse stone had ground the points away and created a gentle blended curve into the center cutting area. So I was ready to move onto my fine 8000 grit white stone.
Step 13:
I repeated the all of the previous steps done with the brown stone on my white stone. I have worked on this tool for about ten minutes by now.
Step 14:
Again, once I had worked the points I wanted to remove the tin edge that was developing. To do that I pulled the tool, cutting face against the stone, in a downward direction.
Step 15:
I have flipped the tool over to work the back. I usually will do these last two steps about five times before I move onto my emery cloth.
Step 16:
My chisel now has nicely rounded corners instead of sharp points. You can see the gently curve that the entire cutting profile has now.
Step 17:
Emery cloth is extremely fine cloth (sandpaper) made for working metal. It is available in much finer grits then regular sandpaper. Once again I am repeating all of my sharpening steps on the emery cloth.
Step 18:
I have two strops that I use consistently. The first strop that I use is a leather strop with red oxide rouge. I work first the rough side then roll the strop over to use the smooth. The second strop I use aluminum oxide. This is my finishing strop.
OK … It’s about fifteen minutes after I began working and my straight chisel is now a bull nose! It’s ready for my next relief carving. Each time that I sharpen this tool the smoother the curved edges and gentle round to the cutting face will become …