One difference between a 1″ and a smaller chisel is that it takes more hand force to push a 1″ chisel than a narrower one. Think of it as similar to pressure….force per length of blade. If your next size down is 1/2″, then the 1″ will take twice as much force to push through the work. Thus, the 1″ may not be different from your smaller chisels, but may reveal the degree of sharpness you are achieving overall.

One way to test this is to try to take paring cuts in the end grain of pine. Especially in construction lumber, if the chisel isn’t perfectly sharp (and without good technique), the grain between the growth rings will crush and tear and this will largely be independent of the blade width. So, it is a good test of sharpness. But be warned, you can drive yourself insane with this. Like I said, construction lumber is very difficult to pare without tearing and requires a degree of sharpness that you do not need in other wood, including in _good_ pine. So, don’t drive yourself crazy with this test.

The “belt sander” has be a bit terrified. You can destroy a chisel in the blink of an eye with a belt sander. My experience with them, despite what some people say, is that they do not flatten the backs of your chisel…they make them into a curvy mess and do so fast enough that it can be hard to correct by hand. If you are using sandpaper by hand, maybe a belt, make sure it is glued down to a flat surface. Not just on it, not just sort of stuck down with some water, but glued down. Othewise, what I find is that the paper creeps as the blade passes over it and can dub over the edge from the back.

Finally, for some reason, I find it harder to get the burr off of wide blades than off of narrow, so maybe you just aren’t getting the burr off?