Reply To: Pine endgrain and chisel bevel angle
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Well, this is one of those irritating questions! Some people say the angle you grind your chisel makes a significant and obvious difference on pine endgrain (Cosman) and some say that as long as your chisel is very sharp (extra sharp for pine) it makes little or no difference. The most helpful suggestion I can offer is that if you have an electric grinder so changing angles goes fast, and an extra chisel, try it! After all, if you do not like the 17-20 degree angle, it takes all of a few moments on a diamond stone to get back to a 25-30 degree angle at the tip. Just keep in mind that the grinder does create a curved bevel so that if you set it for some angle, say 20 degrees, the angle at the tip will be a lot different from and far more fragile than the over all angle of the bevel. I have messed around a bit changing angles on all sorts of things (including chisels, saw teeth and so on) and find that it is kind of fun and very instructive. And why not? Its not as if you can ruin these tools very easily.
For what it is worth, here is my experience. (1) I do keep a few chisels with about 20 degree angles or less (though I do not actually measure the angle much). I use them for light paring and find they work well. I would never chop anything with them, not even pine, except maybe to take a last tiny bit off from a dovetail or whatever. (2) I originally got really bad tear out in pine when chopping dovetails. I tried chisels with very low bevels but the edges dulled and even crumbled, even in pine, and I still got tear out. So I went back to the usual bevels and just put up with the tear out. Then one day I no longer got much tear out. I guess my sharpening got better. (3) Though I do not find that pine is much of a problem any more, doug fir is a problem. It has ridiculously soft wood and very (sometimes very very very) hard grain. Your chisel or plane melts through the soft wood and then slams into the hard grain. The chisel is instantly dull and crushes the wood. If you can work at an angle to the grain things are better, but you do not always have a choice when chopping a mortise.