Lie Nielsen Plane Blades and Chisels

[Segovia123]

I have a few Lie Nielsen Plane Blades and Chisels, factory ground to 400grit (I believe)

They have been okay up to now, would you try to improve on 400 and polish the backs more before working on the bevel edge?

I have read I can use the side of the Tormek wheel, or is the ruler trick and Waterstones a better option? 

[Ken S]

Good question. I'm sure it could be done with the Tormek; however, being cautious, I prefer to use well flattened waterstones or glass with abrasives for chisel backs. Definitely the ruler trick for plane blade backs.

Ken

[Segovia123]

I ran my Lei Neilson 1/2" perpendicular to the honing wheel and it fully polished the backside to a mirror finish.

I agree stones are probably the best approach; however, the Lie Neilson are nice and flat from the factory. I din't expect to go from 400 to polish with just the honing wheel.

J 

 

[Ken S]

Segovia,

We need to avoid two marketing traps in marketing:

1) Customers like shiny things. Beware of shiny chisels with nicely rounded corners on the backs. These look nice in the store; however, in order to be sharp, the back needs to be dead flat from side to side as well as along the length.
Flattening the back during manufacturing requires the added expense of extra machining steps. To be truly sharp, these extra steps need to be done, either at the factory or by hand by the user. Sharpening the bevel is the easy part.
Flattening the back can be the labor intensive part.

2) "Tons of toys" Customers like compleat sets of lots of chisels. I confess that I fell victim to this. I bought a complete set of Marples (now Irwin) Blue Chip Chisels years ago. I had every size from 1/8" to 2". They were the highly recommended inexpensive chisels at the time. I spent hours preparing the backs. (The subsequent hand pain was what made me decide to purchase my first Tormek.) Many years later, when I gave the set to my nephew, I noticed that I have never gotten around to flattening the back on some of the larger sizes.

My father had one chisel for years, a 1/2". There is wisdom in having fewer chisels and keeping them sharp. There is also wisdom in having these few be premium tools, like Lie-Nielsen or Veritas. The match between Veritas PVM-11 steel and the Tormek SG-200 or SG-250 grinding wheels seems to have been made in Heaven.

Ken