September 9, 2023

I bought HSS chisels and a bench grinder today. Using them scared the shit right out of me.

On my way to the workshop this afternoon, I stopped at Canadian Tire to pick up a set of chisels, a bench grinder, and a grinding wheel. The carbide chisels are fine, but I think that learning how to use more traditional tools will be good. Why not, right? People listen to vinyl even though we have streaming music.

None of what I bought today is of the best quality. I’d say that it’s the right place to start because I’m going to make a lot of mistakes. Learning how to sharpen the tools is going to take me a good while. Then, I have to learn how to use them properly.

I went in more confidently than I should have.

The first time the chisel caught on the wood — a catch — I was okay. I figured it was going to happen and I just needed to pay attention to what I was doing so that I could prevent it happening again. Another catch. Then some skating — when the tool slides along the surface of the spinning piece of wood. More catches, more skating. It was baseball on ice.

I was getting real frustrated, I was. I kept cussing. “Fuck!”

I would switch to carbide tools because I’m more comfortable with them, work with them for a bit, until I got my confidence up, and then I’d try with the HSS tools again…