Six hours in a garage later...

Today I spent this afternoon sharpening a plane blade and three chisels to a razor sharp edge. My chisel was fine, but the ones I was doing for ladymora turned out to have been ground to an utterly bizarre 45° or 50°. For reference, the steepest angle I’ve ever heard of anybody grinding a chisel to is 40°, and that’s for mortising chisels intended for concrete. For wood, that kind of angle is nearly useless, which would explain why everybody has such trouble using them.

Anyway, after regrinding I decided I wanted a good way to prove to myself that the chisel would be useful; accordingly I mortised an approx. 1" × 1" × 5/8" hole into the middle of a block of cheap pine, I think. It went quite smoothly and took about an hour or so, so I think those chisels are fit for use now.

I did say those chisels for a good reason; there are half a dozen or so left in the box that have been ground in utterly bizarre ways. It’s not enough that all the angles be ridiculously steep, the wrong side has to be ground or the like. At this point I’m not even confident enough as to what the tools’ original purpose was, let alone what they are to be used for now! I have, accordingly, left them be.

(no subject)

In other news, I fail at dovetailing. I cut the tails and pins out fine, but they didn't mesh right and the fact that I cut both way too thin became apparent. Oh well, better luck next time, and I think I know what I did wrong. And it wasn't a bad show for the first time I've ever done it.

Edit: when I tried it a second time, it worked much better and faster, although it was a looser fit, right up until I attacked it with a jack plane trying to remove the bits that stuck out. If I'd glued it even that would have been fine. I've not mastered dovetailing by any means but I can do it now.