Took me 6 months to realize I was sharpening my chisels backwards

I kept wondering why my dovetails looked like a beaver chewed them. Finally stopped by an old furniture restorer's shop in Lancaster last month and he watched me for maybe 20 seconds before he laughed and showed me I was grinding the bevel on the wrong side. Felt pretty dumb but now my joints actually fit together. Anyone else have a basic technique they did wrong for way too long?

3 comments

3 Comments

milacraig6d ago

Flip the stone around and try sharpening with the other side up next time.

taylor.sean6d ago

Did you ever try just running the chisel across your thumb to check which side you were on? I spent a whole summer using a bastard file to try to fix my grandfather's old hand plane, only to find out I had been filing the sole flat instead of the sides. Turns out the thing was fine to start with, I just needed to clean the rust off and set the blade right.

-1

robinf514d agoMost Upvoted

I ended up just tapping the chisel against the side of my workbench to feel for a burr after I took it off the stone. That did the trick for me, saved a lot of guessing.