# Making a pair of skew chisels



## siouxdawgs0409 (Dec 5, 2009)

I am debating on making a pair of skew chisels from some Stanley 1/4 inch that were bought at HD. I have a grinder and some waterstones that I use to sharpen my chisels now. I have never made any of these before and was wondering if there was any good resources on how to make them? Do you simply grind the tip at the angle and then add the bevel to the edge and flatten the back? I believe there is no side bevels at all like and an ordinary bench chisel. Any help is appreciated…specific angles etc. Thanks.


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## tsangell (Jan 10, 2011)

Lay out the angle you want on the back, grind the bevel back to the line, and sharpen. As long as you don't overheat the steel, you shouldn't have to re-harden or temper. Bottom line: just go for it! The worst you can do is trash a couple of cheap chisels, and I think even that would be hard to do.

Mafe has a good post/blog here:
http://lumberjocks.com/projects/42395

Derek Cohen has a good one on grinding side-bevels here:
http://lumberjocks.com/projects/31266

As to specific angles, as long as the skew angle is slightly sharper than the highest dovetail angle you use, you'll be able to reach the corners of a half-blind socket with it.


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## siouxdawgs0409 (Dec 5, 2009)

Thanks for the reply.


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## Dal300 (Aug 4, 2011)

You might find that if they are the low end Stanley's at HD and other box store the hardening is gone after about 1/8".

You'll need to harden them again which isn't for those that are faint of heart.

I have a set of el-Cheapo Deep West Chinese chisels that lost their edge on the first piece of pine I used them on. They look and act and feel just like the Stanley's I have next to them except they don't say "Stanley".

I had to heat them and reharden the steel with a charcoal fire and a MAPP gas torch. With some help from a fellow Iknow that does this for a living, the chisels now work like high dollar chisels and don't seem to chip or lose an edge.

The Stanley's? I'm glad you asked. 
I tried the same heat and quench method on all of them and they are so brittle the edge snaps when looking at anything as heavy as pine.

Of course, this could have been my fault as I'm not a metal worker by any means.


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## tsangell (Jan 10, 2011)

It sounds like you need to temper them. If you do a google search for "DIY heat treat," or tempering, or hardening chisels (or something similar) you'll see how guys do this in the shop.


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