pikergolf

thanks for your replies guys, The chisels are ground with the factory edges 25 or 35 degrees i'm not sure. i polish the back of the chisel using 600 sand paper and going finer in stages until i reach 2000 then i hone the back to 8000 grit water stone and the face the same next is a small micro bevel at about 2 degrees steeper last both sides are polished with a leather strop coated in jewellers rouge.shine like a mirror and razor sharp. I notice on the really hard woods the edge doesn,t break but tends to roll or deform slightly. I didn,t know that I could try to Harden the existing chisels, so i guess that will be my first step. Once agian thanks for taking the time to answer if anyone has anything to add i will be checking back regards Denis

Hey guys, I won't be a regular here I just came to ask a few questions, if that's rude I apologize. I just thought I would find a forum of experts and ask away. I'm a carpenter by trade and woodworker by choice, and worked in a manufacturing field for many years before that. My questions are regarding using old files to make wood chisels, I have a decent set of chisels now but am frustrated by how quickly they dull when used in very hard and dense wood. I can scratch the chisel metal with the file so I now that the file metal is harder. And I know that if I heat the file thourghly and the cool the metal very slowly I can take the temper out of it and shape it as I want, I know to that I can then reheat the metal and quench it to make it hard agian. Now bearing in mind that these chisels would never be struck with a mallet but only pushed. Do I have to reheat and temper it to keep it from breaking? If so to what temperature or color. Is there a temperature crayon available to help with this? Most Chisels are made to a rockwell hardness of 59-61 or of a2 toolsteel or even 01 toolsteel I would like to be harder than all of these, is this possible doing what I have discribed. Thank you so much for your time and advice Denis