Chisel sharpening and Edge Pro

L

longsword

Joined
Sep 3, 2015
Messages
6
I've just bought a small set of decent chisels for occasional woodwork. I don't need chisels often, by when I do I like them to cut properly. I have an Edge Pro Apex which I love but it doesn't do chisels. I can hardly justify upgrading to the professional version just to sharpen my chisels now and then. Another option would be a chisel guide and a set of decent stones but that would probably cost more than the chisels, so it doesn't make much sense to invest in a guide + stones in order to sharpen my chisels once a year or so.

I was wondering if someone has come up with some sort of jig that allows to use the Apex to sharpen chisels? I've searched the net but I haven't found anything. If no jig is available, can someone please give me some suggestions on how to sharpen my chisels without spending too much money? Thanks.
 
Couldn't you take the EP clamp right off, fix the or hold the chisel right on the existing platten, or won't the mast go high enough?
 
@bucketstove
Thank you for the links. I had already seen that jig on the web but what I was looking for was a jig that allowed the use of the Edge Pro's guide system.

@Heavyhanded
I'm not sure I follow you. What part of the Edge Pro do you refer to as the "platten"? The big problem is fixing the chisel to the Edge Pro's base. As far as the mast's eight goes, that is fairly easy to solve. All you have to do is buy a metal rod with the same diameter.
 
I agree with Martin. Take the guide off and clamp the chisel to the blade table.
 
Sadden said:
I agree with Martin. Take the guide off and clamp the chisel to the blade table.
Click to expand...

That's what I was picturing. You could sandwich a blob of quick set epoxy - the kind that comes in a tube - between shrink wrap or similar, and press the chisel handle in to it for a custom mount. This assumes all the chisels in the set have the same handle. You could also cut a ramp from hardwood at a set angle and use that in place of the blade table.

Realistically, chisels are not difficult to hand sharpen using an India stone and maybe a hard Arkansas stone. Would be a good intro to hand sharpening and cost you about 35-40 bucks total. Could also do your plane irons if you have any.
 
Thanks for all the advice. I am now thinking of adapting the Edge Pro's scissor attachment to the Apex. From what I've read and seen, what is keeping the Apex from using the scissor attachment is the lack of a guide for the scissor attachment's rod underneath the Apex's table. I am designing a jig to attach underneath the Apex to allow the use of the scissor attachment. It is not the cheapest solution but I believe the scissor attachment is very well build and will probably last me a lifetime. It will also allow me to sharpen scissors and other stuff without any additional jigs. It think it is worth the investment. I will report back if it works out.
 
Working out a similar set-up to regrind irons for hollows and rounds. The same should work ok for sharpening, as long as the tool is ground square, you could use a marked edge to gauge progress across the secondary bevel, taking care not to round the corners...it's this tendency that makes it near impossible to squarely "grind" a new primary bevel with an EP. I rough grind the primary, then bring it to square using a guide (for chisels I can't recommend the guides from Richard Kell highly enough), then increase the angle slightly for polishing/sharpening. Once set, I note the distance from the guide to edge and can quickly revisit the setup for future sharpening...much more accurate and faster than anything you could do on an EP.
 
I've checked those Richard Kell guides and they do seem very well made. Correct me if I'm wrong, but in your opinion the EP is not the way to go to sharpen chisels, even with the scissor attachment?
 
Not wrong, and I'm certainly not one to correct...in my experience, sharpening should be accurate and repeatable. Accurate means the tool will cut at its best, and repeatable means you can get the tool back to optimum quickly. Using the EP to tune up a dull edge with an accurate primary bevel would be fairly accurate, just take a few light swipes to get hew back up and running, but the set up would limey be a bit tedious/time consuming. My approach is to chuck the chisel in the Kell guide, index it against pre-measured block, and give it a few swipes on 1000g stone until I get a burr, then move the tool back in the guide 1/16th or so to increase the final angel, hit the 8000g stone,remove the burr and your set, easy in just a couple of minutes...with no getting out the EP, setting up the attachments, running a few strokes and putting everything away. Don't get me wrong, love my EP, bought it in the late 80s and have used it to sharpen nearly everything...that said, I use the above procedure to take care of chisels and plane irons.
 
Thanks a lot dufus53 for your input. I guess I'm gonna go with the Richard Kell guide and sandpaper on a glass base. That will save me some money. I really can't justify to spend a lot of money to grind or sharpen chisels I use once or twice a year.
 
Sandpaper is the way I started, I used whatever was cheap/available, used contact cement to glue it to my bench top, and got after it. Grind with50/60 grit, clean that same primary bevel with 120 or so, then set the secondary bevel with a few light strokes on 600, progressing to the finest you have. Make sure the back is flat and polished. Just do an Internet search for scary sharp. All that said, I wouldn't get the Kell for a one ce a year session...I'd go with a homemade jig as in the earier post for the primary and free hand the secondary...not as hard as you might think.
 
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