Popular Woodworking - Unicorned Chisel Edges?

[Jon Rista]

Anyone else read this article on "unicorned" chisel edges?

The Unicorn Sharpening Method | Popular Woodworking

By David Weaver, Winston Chang, and William Tindal Nothing slices, chops or pares through wood like a freshly sharpened chisel, but sharp edges don’t last forever. Frequent sharpening is a must…

www.popularwoodworking.com

Curious what people's thoughts are. I have always been frustrated with out short lasting my sharpened edges are. This concept of "unicorning" the edge seems intriguing. What they didn't say much about, was performance. Not sure if anyone else has used this technique much. It does intrigue me, as I don't like to have to spend a lot of time sharpening, anything. I recently managed to reduce my gouge sharpening time with a 600 grit CBN wheel that just seems to have a superior grit than my other CBN wheels, and it produces a better and longer lasting edge. Wonder if this would do the same with chisel (or even skew) edges.

 

[Steve Tiedman]

Well, that wasn't published on April Fool's Day, so...

It just seems to be a micro-micro bevel. An edge is an edge. They happened to create a very, very small bevel that is backed up by a relatively substantial amount of steel. It's all anecdotal until scientific study is used to support or refute the claim.

Personally, I don't mind sharpening, it's part and parcel to being a woodworker of any kind. If I'm turning, I've got to make trips to the grinder. If I'm doing flat board joinery, I'll be at the waterstones and strop. And when that edge sings a pretty song on the lump of wood, I feel happy about both my sharpening efforts and the improved results that fresh edge provides.

There are lots of ways to sharpen edges. Find one that works for you and stick with it. Even if it was through discovering mythical critters.

 

[Brian Gustin]

Agree with Steve - I don't think it is anything really new - I get the very same results with a few strokes of my chisel or plane blades on a strop... I see nothing really unique about it, TBH. Have used strop wheels before in knife sharpening as well... and many of us will grind a very fine micro bevel on gouges.... With my chisels (I do a lot of flat work too) I have my strop handy nearby and frequently will re-strop as soon as it "feels like" things aren't cutting as good as they could be. Same with my finely set smoothing planes - no need to go back to sharpening station and go through the grits if you're doing a quick strop often enough, could be quite a while between actual sharpenings.