How much use is an out-of-square mortise chisel?

[Cliff Rogers]

Time warp!

[Twisted Tenon]

I don't know how you resurrected tis thread. Normally you can't re start a thread over a year old. Wouldn't you be able to grind it square?

TT

[wolfdogg]

The thought had crossed my mind to grind it, but I don't have the means or experience, and certainly not the time. If you've done something like this before, is it quick and easy and what tools do I need? And how to keep the grind nice and straight along the face edge?

[Cliff Rogers]

Keep it for opening paint cans.

[Twisted Tenon]

Wow this thread is now very old but its aided my sanity check after wondering about a recent chisel I brought at a market tool trader. Beautiful old Ward mortice chisel with no signs of usage, however on closer inspection once home I found the profile to be very skewed. That is, all opposing sides are parallel but very out of square. What a waste! Now to find another use for this tool...can't bring myself to demote it to a life of paint tin opening and glue scraping.

The thought had crossed my mind to grind it, but I don't have the means or experience, and certainly not the time. If you've done something like this before, is it quick and easy and what tools do I need? And how to keep the grind nice and straight along the face edge?

If you are describing some sort of rhombus then I would re-grind the tip of the blade square with the sides. A pic would help. Is it a 1/4" blade?

Keep it for opening paint cans.

If you don't have a bench grinder then it is all probably moot. In which case I agree with Cliff

TT

[wolfdogg]

TT yes it's a definite and very obvious rhombus (rhomboidal!) shaped cross section. The blade is 1/2" wide with some hefty thickness to it. Alas I don't have a bench grinder, though I do know someone who works with metal now that I think about it, so will see what they could do.
Cheers,
Simon

[Christos]

I don't know how you resurrected tis thread. Normally you can't re start a thread over a year old......

There has been a modification to older threads where members are able to reply to older threads as more members were requesting to reply to older threads.

[Robson Valley]

Why bother to make something that it isn't? If the chisel has anything of a skew to it, why not make a skew out of it? I have 2 pairs of 1/2" x 20* skews for wood carving that had other past lives.
Doesn't matter if the cross section is a hernia. Shape it as you need it. Or, at least, use the metal to practice making something that you might need to make in future.