I just ordered a set of 6 Two Cherries bench chisels from
www.craftsmanstudio.com . A great deal, by the way, at $80+shipping (with a
15% automatic discount and a coupon I had).
These are a special set and differ from the "normal" chisels in that they
aren't mirror polished and the handles are different slightly. So, my
question is, does the mirror polish have any impact on performance or is it
just an aesthetic detail? (I admit the polished chisels look great)
Second, is it easy to polish the chisels myself? I have a Beall buffing set
and a 1725 rpm buffer.
At any rate, I think that the $80 difference for this set vs. the polished
chisels made these a much better deal, I'm just curious about these points.
TIA,
Mike
Mike in Mystic wrote:
>
> I just ordered a set of 6 Two Cherries bench chisels from
> www.craftsmanstudio.com . A great deal, by the way, at $80+shipping (with a
> 15% automatic discount and a coupon I had).
>
> These are a special set and differ from the "normal" chisels in that they
> aren't mirror polished and the handles are different slightly. So, my
> question is, does the mirror polish have any impact on performance or is it
> just an aesthetic detail? (I admit the polished chisels look great)
> Second, is it easy to polish the chisels myself? I have a Beall buffing set
> and a 1725 rpm buffer.
>
> At any rate, I think that the $80 difference for this set vs. the polished
> chisels made these a much better deal, I'm just curious about these points.
>
> TIA,
>
This may come at a shock to some. I picked out 6 Two Cherries chisels
- the
shiny ones - at the German equivalent of the Borg in Messen, near
Munich.
They were hung up by sizes on a peg rack. The total came to about $89
US
two years ago. Couldn't find Stanley or Buck chisels but Two Cherries
were
relatively cheap and readily available - though not as inexpensive as
Marples
Blue Handle.
As for buffing your chisels to a mirror finish - DON'T buff the back
anywhere
near your cutting edge and try a hard felt wheel rather than a
stitched or
unstitched cloth wheel if you really feel shiny is important to you.
BTW - if shiny made chisels work better I'm pretty sure good Japanese
chisels
would be shiny. The fact that they're not tells me the answer to your
question.
charlie b
On Thu, 06 Nov 2003 04:08:56 GMT, "Mike in Mystic" <[email protected]> wrote:
>These are a special set and differ from the "normal" chisels in that they
>aren't mirror polished and the handles are different slightly. So, my
>question is, does the mirror polish have any impact on performance or is it
>just an aesthetic detail? (I admit the polished chisels look great)
>Second, is it easy to polish the chisels myself? I have a Beall buffing set
>and a 1725 rpm buffer.
>
Even the polished ones I bought (and love) needed some flattening. They were shiny, but
with small corrugations on the back.
You may find it useful to run some acetone over the chisels before starting: Two Cherries
coat the blades with some sort of varnish that is difficult to remove with abrasion and
seems to me to clog my waterstones. May not be true of the non-polished chisels, of
course.
Only one P in my real address/ Un seul P dans ma véritable adresse
Does all this have anything to do with the cutting performance of the tool? I
just
set the bevel so its reasonably at a low
angle to the shaving on an electric
grinding wheel using a dish of ice cubes
to keep the edge cool, going by feel not
using a tool rest, until there's an even
burr on the backside. Then I remove the
burr using a medium India stone and
mineral spirits, then hone the top till
the hollow grind along the edge is flattened
and the burr tips over again, then
another swipe on the backside with the
stone to loosen the honing burr, then just
work the edge a few times on a piece of
soft wood. Just seems like any more
work will give maybe a little better edge
but it will only last for two or three mallet
blows! Sometimes I do wish I still had
surgical black Arkansas stone, though.
BUB 209 wrote:
> Does all this have anything to do with the cutting performance of the tool?
Yes. If you have imperfections on the back of the chisel, near the edge
anyway, grinding the bevel down only places the imperfections into the
cutting edge. If you look at the edge with a magnifying glass, or just
visualize it, the imperfections keep the edge from being smooth. They
show up as grooves and ragged pits. That scores the wood and makes the
edge grab so that it doesn't last as well. I hope that makes sense, if
it doesn't contact me.
Dave in Fairfax
--
reply-to doesn't work
use:
daveldr at att dot net
>Yes. If you have imperfections on the back of the chisel, near the edge
>anyway, grinding the bevel down only places the imperfections into the
>cutting edge.
Yes. Thats....why I wish I still had that
surgical black Arkansas. I wonder where
you can get a nice big one like the one
I had in the '70s. About 3/8"X1 3/4"X
4 1/2".
http://www.hallsproedge.com/bench.htm for one, Woodcraft for another...
"BUB 209" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> >Yes. If you have imperfections on the back of the chisel, near the edge
> >anyway, grinding the bevel down only places the imperfections into the
> >cutting edge.
>
> Yes. Thats....why I wish I still had that
> surgical black Arkansas. I wonder where
> you can get a nice big one like the one
> I had in the '70s. About 3/8"X1 3/4"X
> 4 1/2".
On 07 Nov 2003 02:59:09 GMT, you wrote:
>>Yes. If you have imperfections on the back of the chisel, near the edge
>>anyway, grinding the bevel down only places the imperfections into the
>>cutting edge.
>
>Yes. Thats....why I wish I still had that
>surgical black Arkansas. I wonder where
>you can get a nice big one like the one
>I had in the '70s. About 3/8"X1 3/4"X
>4 1/2".
http://www.google.com/search?q=black+arkansas+sharpening+stone&sourceid=opera&num=50&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
--Shiva--
On Thu, 06 Nov 2003 14:55:56 GMT, [email protected] wrote:
>BUB 209 wrote:
>> Does all this have anything to do with the cutting performance of the tool?
>
>Yes. If you have imperfections on the back of the chisel, near the edge
>anyway, grinding the bevel down only places the imperfections into the
>cutting edge.
Which is why you flatten the back. This has nothing to do with
polishing the tool.
Barry
Hi Charlie,
That doesn't surprise me one bit, considering you bought them in the country
of manufacture and didn't deal with whatever get's added to the top for
shipping, currency conversion, etc. etc. I looked around for awhile and
couldn't find a better price than this for the Two Cherries chisels as of
yesterday. At craftsmanstudio the polished ones were $165 for the 6 set. I
think antiquetools.com might have them for a better price, but probably
still $50-60 more than the non-mirrored ones I bought. Inflation is a
beautiful thing, no? The way the German economy has gone down the crapper,
I'm surprised they haven't more than doubled the price since you bought
yours.
At any rate, it looks like I will want to polish them to some extent,
although I would always flatten the backs of the chisels (near the edge
mainly) anyway. That does get me to a mirrored finish. I guess I'll try
out a few things with the buffing wheel, maybe just on the top and side
bevels. I don't want to screw up the factory cutting bevel (as well as have
a chisel thrown into my foot by the buffer!).
Mike
"charlie b" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Mike in Mystic wrote:
> >
> > I just ordered a set of 6 Two Cherries bench chisels from
> > www.craftsmanstudio.com . A great deal, by the way, at $80+shipping
(with a
> > 15% automatic discount and a coupon I had).
> >
> > These are a special set and differ from the "normal" chisels in that
they
> > aren't mirror polished and the handles are different slightly. So, my
> > question is, does the mirror polish have any impact on performance or is
it
> > just an aesthetic detail? (I admit the polished chisels look great)
> > Second, is it easy to polish the chisels myself? I have a Beall buffing
set
> > and a 1725 rpm buffer.
> >
> > At any rate, I think that the $80 difference for this set vs. the
polished
> > chisels made these a much better deal, I'm just curious about these
points.
> >
> > TIA,
> >
>
> This may come at a shock to some. I picked out 6 Two Cherries chisels
> - the
> shiny ones - at the German equivalent of the Borg in Messen, near
> Munich.
> They were hung up by sizes on a peg rack. The total came to about $89
> US
> two years ago. Couldn't find Stanley or Buck chisels but Two Cherries
> were
> relatively cheap and readily available - though not as inexpensive as
> Marples
> Blue Handle.
>
> As for buffing your chisels to a mirror finish - DON'T buff the back
> anywhere
> near your cutting edge and try a hard felt wheel rather than a
> stitched or
> unstitched cloth wheel if you really feel shiny is important to you.
>
> BTW - if shiny made chisels work better I'm pretty sure good Japanese
> chisels
> would be shiny. The fact that they're not tells me the answer to your
> question.
>
> charlie b
In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] says...
> As for buffing your chisels to a mirror finish - DON'T buff the back
> anywhere
> near your cutting edge and try a hard felt wheel rather than a
> stitched or
> unstitched cloth wheel if you really feel shiny is important to you.
>
> BTW - if shiny made chisels work better I'm pretty sure good Japanese
> chisels
> would be shiny. The fact that they're not tells me the answer to your
> question.
>
Bzzzzzt! Wrong answer!
You can't sharpen an edge properly if there are still milling marks on
the back. That's why the "normal" chisels he referenced are shiny. The
"special" set apparently leaves the polishing up to the user.
Every chisel I've ever bought had to be polished. Apparently the
expensive Two Cherries have it done for you.
--
Where ARE those Iraqi WMDs?
Mike in Mystic wrote:
> just an aesthetic detail? (I admit the polished chisels look great)
> Second, is it easy to polish the chisels myself? I have a Beall buffing
> set and a 1725 rpm buffer.
>
> At any rate, I think that the $80 difference for this set vs. the polished
> chisels made these a much better deal, I'm just curious about these
> points.
You and I live in different realms, Mike... $80 _difference_ for shiny vs.
non-shiny. Sheesh. Oh well, your job and/or locale probably suck(s) worse
than mine. :)
My fancy $20 chisels are almost mirrors all over. Getting them the rest of
the way to being mirrors with a buffer would be pretty easy. I'd say you
have little to worry about.
--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan <[email protected]>
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/
Polish the backs. do it by hand. The rest does not matter. Power buffing
(with the usual materials) is for amateurs. I can see it a mile off and it
says "hack" all over it.
"Mike in Mystic" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I just ordered a set of 6 Two Cherries bench chisels from
> www.craftsmanstudio.com . A great deal, by the way, at $80+shipping (with
a
> 15% automatic discount and a coupon I had).
>
> These are a special set and differ from the "normal" chisels in that they
> aren't mirror polished and the handles are different slightly. So, my
> question is, does the mirror polish have any impact on performance or is
it
> just an aesthetic detail? (I admit the polished chisels look great)
> Second, is it easy to polish the chisels myself? I have a Beall buffing
set
> and a 1725 rpm buffer.
>
> At any rate, I think that the $80 difference for this set vs. the polished
> chisels made these a much better deal, I'm just curious about these
points.
>
> TIA,
>
> Mike
>
>
"Mike in Mystic" <[email protected]> writes:
[...]
> yesterday. At craftsmanstudio the polished ones were $165 for the 6 set. I
Wow. In Germany you get them for 74.5 EUR (87.91$), or 79.9 in a wooden Box.
> think antiquetools.com might have them for a better price, but probably
> still $50-60 more than the non-mirrored ones I bought. Inflation is a
Readinge the Two Cherries catalog there is no mention of an unpolished
version at all, only different sets of handles, wich make some
difference in price, starting at 9.9EUR for unhandled over 15EUR for
round beech handle to 20EUR for "Vulkanfiber" handle foen one chisel.
[...]
> At any rate, it looks like I will want to polish them to some extent,
> although I would always flatten the backs of the chisels (near the edge
> mainly) anyway. That does get me to a mirrored finish. I guess I'll try
I also get the mirror finish on back and bevel on my fine (400Grit)
waterstone, even on old rusted ones.
--
Dr. Juergen Hannappel http://lisa2.physik.uni-bonn.de/~hannappe
mailto:[email protected] Phone: +49 228 73 2447 FAX ... 7869
Physikalisches Institut der Uni Bonn Nussallee 12, D-53115 Bonn, Germany
CERN: Phone: +412276 76461 Fax: ..77930 Bat. 892-R-A13 CH-1211 Geneve 23