Took me 4 years to accept that my chisel sharpening angle was wrong

Had this old timer come through the shop last spring and he watched me sharpen a chisel for about 30 seconds. He just said 'you're fighting the steel, not helping it' and walked off. I was so annoyed but later I measured my angle and I was running about 28 degrees when I should have been at 25 for my specific brand. Changed it up and suddenly my paring cuts went from decent to actually clean. Anyone else get stubborn about a habit for way too long?

2 comments

2 Comments

patking13d agoMost Upvoted

Oh man I was you about three years ago with my plane irons. My grandpa's old stanley sat in a drawer for two years because I had them at some insane angle and blamed the tool. Sometimes you just gotta trust the numbers before your ego catches up.

owens.willow13d ago

And once you get them dialed in it's almost embarrassing how much easier everything gets. I spent a whole weekend fighting a block plane that just needed the chip breaker set right.