Clearcut Chisels Restoration

Well it's official I am hooked... restoring old tools is my new obsession. This time I found some old chisels, Clearcut brand, ever heard of it? Me either. I also couldn't find much information on the brand online, I did find one post that mentioned they are from Montgomery Ward but I can't be sure of that. No matter the steel feels good. Guess we will see if it holds an edge.

I also shot a video of the restoration which can be viewed here.

As you can see in this first picture the chisels needed some help, the sockets had been mushroom from somebody beating the crap out them with a metal hammer and no handles. So to restore these I will need to grind down the mushrooming, clean and polish the chisels, make new handles and of course sharpen the chisels.

I started by grinding down the mushrooming, first the outside of the sockets.

Then using a rotary tool I worked on the inside of the sockets, making sure not to change the angle so that the handles work... of course if I did change the angle by accident I could make the handles with a different angle but its better to stay consistent so that the handles are interchangeable.

Next I moved onto cleaning the chisels using a series of cleaners and rust removers with scotch brite pads.

I also used a wire wheel on my grinder to get the deep rust and grime off.

Now that the chisels are clean and ready to move on...

It's time to move onto the bevels... They are really beat up and not sharpened very well.

I started by grinding down the bevels flat to start from scratch.

The I used the worksharp 3000 to shape the bevels back to a 30 degree grind.

Next I moved onto the chisel handles, I used some white oak on my lathe deciding to use the shape from my Stanley Sweetheart chisels only a little longer and larger because these chisels are more like long pairing chisels.

Only thing left now is to sharpen the chisels. I used my diamond stones progressing from 300, 1000, 4000 and 8000 grit on both the back and front of the chisels. Then I used a leather strop to polish out to a mirror like finish.

The I tested the chisels on a piece of Walnut endgrain to make sure they were sharp.

They look pretty sharp to me.... Now will they hold an edge? Is the steel good? well only time will tell. 

For now get ready for some more tool porn!!!