(We shouldn’t discount the fact that people do have spare time and they like to simply spend time sharpening even of they don’t actually use the tools for real work. This method becomes irritating and a nuisance as well as a waste of valuable time in the process of making. The other thing is that you want a system that’s ready to go and without mess and fuss. In the long term, using any kind of abrasive paper soon becomes prohibitively expensive because the paper tears unexpectedly and this often, not rarely, happens on the first go round. The lower 24mm chisel has been worked on the abrasive paper using 1/2″ plate glass as the support to establish flatness. Flattening the backs and polishing them out is generally a one shot deal you most likely will never need do again, but it is an essential step to a sharp edge. The important thing is to get you started and then consider the long term methods after we have a sharp edge and a flat back face to the set. Recently I blogged that sharpening on expensive diamond plates or ceramic and water stones may be prohibitive for new woodworkers starting out, so using wet-and-dry could be the way to get started and certainly this is indeed a good way to flatten the backs of the chisels anyway, if not the bevel edges too. We thought that people might expect them to be sharp and ready to go and certainly Aldi will not have the insights we woodworkers have for just what sharpness is, but they have given us some good steel and solid wood handles on a well balanced and well made chisel. Unlike the claim on the packet, these chisels are not polished and the chisels are certainly not sharp enough out of the bubble pack – neither should they be, so what to do? Some high-end makers, send their chisels out sharp enough to go with, but that’s totally unnecessary because no matter how good they are they will need sharpening in a few hours anyway. It was a low-grade stone, which was not necessarily helpful and I am glad they have removed this from the pack this year. In the past Aldi included a two-sided carborundum whetstone with their chisel set.
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