My Whizbang Belt-Sander Chisel-Sharpening Jig

welcome to this video my name is haricot Kimball and I am going to show you today how to put a super sharp edge on a super dull chisel in no time flat without a lot of fuss and without buying a lot of expensive equipment this is an idea this idea I'm going to show you is an idea I came up with 25 years ago when I was a remodeling contractor and I abused my chisels back in those days I still do and but it's okay if you know how to get a super sharp edge on a super dull chisel in no time flat like I'm going to show you here it's no big deal if you put a nick in your chisel or it gets dull if you hit a nail whatever this is the chisel then we're going to use too or I'm going to use to demonstrate how this idea works I bought this for 75 cents at a yard sale it is dull it is nicked it is caked with tar or caulk or some substance and it's going to be a factory sharp here in a matter of a minute or two using this technique I'm going to show you the technique involves a belt sander and this little jig that you see right here this is the jig I made 25 years ago and I've used it for 25 years I've used it hundreds of times to not only put a sharp edge on chisels but on my block plane blades - let's let me just show you this how this works you're gonna like this especially if you work in the trades and you you're hard on your chisels you're gonna like this you're gonna like it before I begin with a demonstration I want to take a moment and show you the jig that I developed this on the left here this dirty worn that you see is the original it is very simple just a block of wood as wood skis on the bottom as a metal plate here that with a couple of wing nuts the sizzle goes in here as I'll show you and the wing nuts tightened down and holds it it holds it in place and this original jig has a 32 degree angle which is good adequate for chisels and block plane blades but I came to the determination that a 25 or 26 degree angle which you can see here is better so this is the new improved chisel sharpening jig and this is made out of oak obviously got oak skis same same principle as far as the fold down clean up here and this is an example of the chisel sharpening jig that I sell if you want one already made you can buy one if you want to make your own I sell specifications a PDF download that give you the specifications and some tips and how-to some photos on making this little chick or if you're confident with your abilities to just look at something and make it a lot of people are that's fine go ahead make one of these based on what I'm showing you here and you'll be all set alright so what I've done first of all and what you would want to do is make sure you scrape off and I've actually already done it here with a utility knife all that dried on caked on stuff if you have any like that and then very simply and quickly you want to lay the flat here flat of your chisel on a piece of fine grit paper this is 180 and just do that just flatten it like I have just done okay that is before you put it in the jig okay so here I'm showing the chisel in the jig the chisel you want to put it in the jig so that when you tighten it down and it is tightened down here the chisel is laying flat as you can see here and the front of the jig is up see how the Front's not touching it's the front of the jig is not touching down the chisel is touching first and there's a Penny's worth of space under there yeah that's how you adjust that thing you want this thing the jig in the back is down setting flat back here but in the front it rides up ever so slightly yeah the thickness of a penny or so you can see that pretty simple this is not a real precise thing it's not like you got to have it exactly the thickness of a penny it's not not real precise it's gonna work out great okay the belt sander right here this is my old belt sander this is what I use for sharpening the chisels this is all I use it for I no longer use this for wood I have a new belt sander and this is just for sharpening chisels the bag is off the old wood residue that was in here from years past is out of there this belt sander is now safe to use for grinding metal I did use this belt sander back when I used it for wood I used it also to sharpen chisels but I took the bag off when I sharpen the chisels I did it outside so that and I left the sander outside after sharpening and I also had a spray bottle that if I saw some smoke start to smolder in there I would pull the trigger and spray into the mechanism and that's solved any fire problems but it's best far best far better to have a dedicated old junk sander for the purpose of only doing this you're safer that way that's what I recommend and that's very important very important this is the belt that goes on this belt sander to sharpen that chisel this belt is a this is a three by twenty one belt sander three inch by twenty one belt this was a three inch by twenty one I laid a straight edge on it and I cut it right down the center okay that makes an inch and a half by twenty one which fits perfectly on this belt sander and being only an inch and a half wide it I have to take a hammer and actually hit this right here for that to tighten up there we go see you don't you don't need a good sander for this you just you just need one that'll spin let's give it a spin here oh yeah now so you've probably got the concept by now these skis on the jig straddle that belt that inch and a half wide belt like so and and I'll just be able to move this over that and get that sharpened now I want to say that an aluminum oxide belt which is what this was this was a 150 grit aluminum oxide these can be used to sharpen chisels but and I've used them for years but they wear down pretty quick these blue belts right here this is a 120 grit Norton they call it a blue fire these I think are made for metal and although I've used this particular belt for wood I have you this one here is a brand new one that I'm going to use for this chisel and these do last a lot longer for sharpening so I have this 120 grit belt in here now 120 grit is good for your initial sharpening shaping and sharpening and then I'll show you where we go from there okay I'm all set up I think this will be a good view and I'm going to I'm working this hand here is working the on and off and then with this hand I'll just just hold this down on the top of the sander and I'll work it back and forth and we'll I'll do that a little and we'll take a look at what we've got okay let's see what we've got here all right we're starting to get some shape they're they're starting to grind the angle that we need okay you can see they're a little bit more we're making progress the beauty of this belt is that it spins relatively slowly which means it doesn't get too hot and it's really ideal for this purpose there you see we're making progress now I can feel that metal getting warm under my finger here and if I thought this was getting too hot I wouldn't just wait okay you can see where we'll get it in view here you can see we're getting out there where we belong I can take this and kind of look at it if I need to I can shift the handle one way or the other here but I I'm looking good for now okay yeah looking good that's getting quite warm I I'm not where I want to be over here we've still got a little bit of unevenness in my in the front of my blade what I want to do is get a get this get the very end metal to peel back to get a little flap of metal on there a wire edge I guess they call it and while I'm talking here this is cooling down a bit which is desirable yep we're we're getting there now it's getting too hot for my finger now I don't have to hold my finger there but it does you know right here when I'm doing this but it does let me know how hot it's getting and if it gets too hot for my finger I'm gonna pull it off now you can't tell but I can tell because fingertips can detect very small things that this I'm getting a wire edge here up here up here but not down here I still have a little bit of nick in the blade so we'll keep going okay you can see the Nick's right there now I could and I have taken this and just ground it flat you know turn it on grind a flat there before putting the edge on and you can also take a square and you can check the squareness of now let me get in view here you can check the squareness of the end of your blade if you want but generally for a carpenter's chisel a working chisel like this you can I it up pretty well okay now I could just tell by the sparks I don't know if they were visible to you that I'm just about there the sparks were coming off the front pretty evenly across yeah see a little smoke coming out of here and that's something I mean I haven't used this to to you know on wood for years but there may be a little bit of residue yet still down there okay we're almost there almost there it's getting hot and I've got that wire edge almost all the way I can feel it right here with my fingertip and I'm letting this cool down as I talk but you could see a little bit of unevenness right here little gouges yeah it's still in there those will come out no they're a little bit of grinding really close now if I had water here I could just dip the end of this in water it's not a bad idea but this is not overheating it's just getting hot it's not overheating it's not changing the temper it's not blowing along this edge if I had a really fast stone or a belt like this it might do that in fact I could probably do that with this belt but I'm being careful little by slow I've got that wire edge almost all the way across I can now not just feel it but I can see it I don't know if you can see it but I've got a little bit of section right here that still needs to be needs to get sharp can you see that wire edge one of those things set up that I don't think my camera will pick up now we're there I'm there I you can see that wire edge right it's all the way across I can fold it back and forth okay I'm going to go just a touch more right here this is really there but I'm gonna just attach touch just a touch more okay I'm happy with that that is I've got a a wire edge all the way across there get it up real close here see if you can see that maybe you can see it okay my camera battery's almost out I got to stop and recharge and we'll come back to this okay the the blade is shaped pretty sharp as it is right now but we're gonna get it even sharper and I'm gonna do that by taking off this 120 belt still lots of good grit these those blue belts are exceptionally good now I'm going to take that 150 grit belt that of the aluminum oxide these are your common belts aluminum oxide this is has been used it's got a little bit of grit to it but not much it's really worn down quite a bit and I'm gonna put this in there and get going give it a pull here yeah alright now what I'm gonna do is something kind of neat I'm going to charge this 150 bit aluminum oxide belt that is pretty much smooth it's really worn down I'm gonna charge it with this a honing compound this is the Veritas green honing compound I bought it from Lee Valley good stuff this is really going to put up a final finish on so I just turn it on and push this into got that loaded right up without honing compound and now we'll come back we'll get our I haven't changed anything it's still in the jig just the way it was and ral will hone it you could see a few sparks coming off of there but not many and let's see you could see that wire edge I guess you could see a best right there it's it's actually coming off and I can recharge the belt a little you can see though the edges peeling back here and a honing compound peels back with it you can turn over here you can see that is getting shinier there's scratch marks from the 120 blue belt but it doesn't matter where were you this is a working chisel you'll see this is going to be very sharp now I could have gone down from the 120 to something something finer to a finer belt for all practical purposes as a working chisel for a remodel or carpenter this is this is all you need okay now I'm gonna say that's good enough you can see that that's that edge has come a long way and yeah I've talked a lot here if I wasn't talking so much I would have had this done a long time ago only takes a couple of minutes to do this you can do it on the job site no problem okay so that's that's good I still have a bit of a wire edge there and I'm going to strap this next okay now traditionally or you know typically I guess perhaps I should say you would drop a sharpened edge on leather but you can strop it got an old pair of jeans on you can strop it right on your pant leg and or another option pivot over here if we can you can strop believe it or not on cardboard just back and forth you're breaking the wire edge do that a few times and you've got a very sharp you got a very sharp I like to test I got dirty fingernails as usual it's from gardening as much as woodworking but I like to test the sharpness of a blade by holding it on my fingernail and seeing how far down I can bring it before it slips and I'm down you can see I'm down quite away it's not slipping I got to bring it right down this is you know a dull blade it'll slide right off and then you the lower you come this is one sharp blade let me find a piece of wood yeah it's a sharp chisel this is Ash and sharp chisels are such a joy to use aren't they buy this chisel at a yard sale for 75 cents put two three minutes of sharpening into it that is a great tool make a jig buy a jig get my specifications whatever it takes get yourself a sharpening jig whiz bang sharpening jig and gets the chisel sharp everybody will wonder how do you keep your chisels so sharp you'll have the sharpest chisels on the jobsite very easy check out my website got a link in the description below you can find out how to get the PDF specifications how to package and where you can buy a ready-made sharpening jig like I used to sharpen this chisel thanks for watching everybody here's to sharp chisels right there beautiful in it don't cut yourself

Channel: Herrick Kimball

Views: 357,147

Rating: 4.7156839 out of 5

Keywords: Chisel sharpening, sharpening jig, sharpening chisels, Herrick Kimball, Whizbang jig

Id: 4uei2HYv9RA

Length: 22min 47sec (1367 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 30 2017