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Recently I picked up a set of fairly cheap but decent quality paring chisels. Prior to this I've only worked with regular bevel edge bench chisels which as you all know are quite shorter/smaller than their paring relatives. I'm having a very difficult time sharpening the paring chisels using my waterstones. Here's what happens:

When I sharpen chisels I try to keep my fingertips and my weight focused on the business end of the tool. These paring chisels are much longer than my other bench chisels so when I do that I find it very hard to push them across the stone! There's all this weight that is unsupported from at least the middle of the chisel down to the wood handle. That's a lot of weight just hanging there while I'm trying to push. Paring chisels can be big! I tried another technique which involved me putting as much pressure as I could on the tip of the chisel with my right hand while my left hand very lightly supported the weight on the heavy handle end. I got pretty good results from this I guess. I'm just wondering how some of the people around here slide their heavy tools across their stones, etc.... I'm keeping the stone nice and wet so it stays lubricated. It's strange because I've seen videos and books that say it's breaking a cardinal rule if you don't have your fingertips from both hands on the tip of the chisel at all times!!. But then I read Leanord Lee's book on sharpening and it clearly shows a picture of someone supporting the chisel handle with one hand, and holding down the tip end with the other hand, like I described earlier. These are Norton stones btw and there is no info regarding this in their small guide or on their DVD. Actually the guy on the DVD says to always use both hands on the tip, but he's demonstrating with small bench chisels!

What should I do? I'm pretty lost here. I want to stick to one system that gives results and doesn't do harm to the tool or the stones. And btw, how often should I flatten my stones? I have one of those coarse flattening stones with diagonal "canals" on the surface.
-John

I normally sharpen with just one hand, for a chisel pushing with the index in the center, and with the thumb and index on the corners for wide plane irons, while the remaining 3 or 2 fingers support the tool from underneath it.
I don't under stand why you can't support the weight of the chisel with the ring and pinkies, regardless of how many hands you use?

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Build log

Alexandru, I'm sure I can support it with the ring and pinky finger. But if you read my post you can probably tell that I'm confused from seeing all the different methods. And some methods try to make it sound like they are set in stone. Just want to know the general technique for sharpening a long paring chisel on a waterstone.

In fact I did try to support it with my ring and pinky fingers and after about 40 minutes it felt like the steel was ready to cut into them. That's when I decided to try and lightly support the handle.

No method that gives good results at this can be wrong because of where you put your hands.

One tip I got several years ago from a site that I think was talking about sharpening Japanese plane irons--but it works for chisels, too--is to rotate the blade about 45º to the direction of your stroke. This puts a greater length of metal in line with the stroke and helps you to maintain an angle/ keep from rocking. Starting with a hollow grind and maintaining a bit of that hollow through the process also lets you feel more easily when the bevel is sitting flat on the stone.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

No one will pick on you for using a honing guide, unless they are mean.

About stones- they gradually develop a hollow in the middle, where most of the action is. You flatten it out when it gets to be "too much". If you flatten often, its not much of a hassle.

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Jordan Aceto
Ithaca, NY

Oh, absolutely. There is a flavor of machismo competition in many of the things you read about getting a great edge without a guide, like it's just not manly or something to use one. You don't have to be Sigmund Freud to figure out where "my tool is sharper than your tool" is coming from.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

I've also found that having flat stones is a must. Once I got myself a flattening stone and cleaned up my water stones my sharpening improved to razor shape.
Dom

Hi, John. Lots of techniques will work, and you have received some good tips already. Try these methods and experiment with your own methods until you find out what works for you.
You'll get it. I probably don't need to say this to you, but I'll remind you anyway: Don't forget to flatten the back of your chisels first. You'll want a flat stone to do that. I haven't used water stones, but I've read that they wear pretty quickly. To me, that would imply frequent flattening.

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Thanks guys. Didn't mean to get anyone riled up about honing guides. After all, I'm only concerned right now with flattening the backs so I can't even use a honing guide for that. Wish I could though! I'm going to re-read all of the posts and try to go back to the stones with the new tips you guys gave me.

Todd, which Youtube video do you suggest I look at for the best visual representation? I saw a video, I believe by "Woodcraft" and here is a screen-capture of how the gentleman was holding the chisel while sharpening the back:

-John

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