And then there is... As sharp as bailing wire....

In my part-time job, I look after our local woodcrafts shop a few days every month. And, of course, one part of the job is tool maintenance.

Well, I had a slow day (everyone seems to have finished holiday project) and started looking through the wood chisels in the tool cabinet. It seems the chisels had suffered a bit from an occasional drop to the concrete floor, and needed more than a little sharpening. Of course, the first part of the project was to build a new chisel rack, so they would no longer jump to the floor (and attack your toes, by the way) when the cabinet door was opened.

Then the real work started... I had to grind back nearly 1/8 inch of steel from the 1-inch wide chisel, just to get to where I could shape a decent edge (thank god for power tools for that little chore!). Then it was just the time-consuming work of forming a new edge. I spent about 2 hours of hand-sharpening before I had to quit and close the shop. Fortunately, there is only a little left to do. Probably another 30 minutes of forming the edge, then honing it to where it is truly sharp. The blade geometry will not let it become as sharp as a razor, but it will still slice hairs off the back of your hand when I'me done with it.