Dress up mushroomed chisel or splitting wedge - PEP BB metalworking.sand.mushroom

This post is a quick how to on sharpening and fixing mushroomed chisels to obtain 1/2 point for "Dress up a mushroomed chisel or splitting wedge - ½ point"

I selected a chisel and the appropriate safety gear. I'll be using a pedestal grinder for this process.



The chisel, safety glasses, and earmuffs to complete this project.

First I fixed the butt end. A mushroomed chisel can wreak havoc on gloves not to mention bare skin.



Then I flattened the tip of the chisel. It had many grooves from chiseling into bolts.



I alternated between grinding the cutting angle and dressing the sides as evidenced in the next two photos.





Complete chisel. This appears to be an old air hammer chisel someone's been using by hand, but at least now it's a bit more prepared for work.



Finished chisel ready for use. The full post can be seen on our blog. Permarecycling

That works great, wasn't quite sure where to post. Thanks a bunch!

My pleasure!  Nothing like having a BB done to get me going on typing up the BB.  Some day we'll have pages made for all the BBs so folks can get going on the Straw level items as well...

I cleaned up my splitting wedge today. I didn’t realize this was a potentially dangerous situation until I read this post. It wasn’t too badly mushroomed but I documented the cleanup anyways :-)

I noticed my chisel scraper head was starting to mushroom.  

To fix this issue, I first locked the chisel in a vice, then used a pneumatic angle grinder to quickly remove the deformities.

To finish up i used a file to remove the agressive tool marks left by the grinder.

I deflated the mushroom on my splitting wedge.  I vinegared it, steel-wooled it, then used the bench grinder to sharpen it and deflate the mushroom.  Then I oiled it with linseed oil.

Here is the mushroom head.  



I cleaned it up some:



Used a bench grinder on it:



Here is the de-mushroomed head:



It wasn't specified in this BB but I also sharpened the wedge.  Here is the before:



and after:

I decided it was about time I fixed up some of the chasing tools I use the most and thus mushroom the heads over on the most.  Since it's also a metalworking BB let me apply for this one too.  :)  Oh, I guess for this BB I really only have to do one, but I figured since my tools are small I'll do several.  It's a quick job.  I'm not trying to apply for the BB multiple times here just to be clear.

So here's my bolster chisel.

I started by using the angle ginder to slice of the curled sections but when I saw the holes I decided to cut about 10mm off the end.

Bench grinder and disc sander to finish.

Here is my submission for the Metalworking - Sand - Dress a Mushroomed Chisel BB.

I sharpened and dressed two cold chisels.  Both were dull and rusty.  One had a slightly mushroomed striking surface (and is only shown in the first photo) and the second had a significantly mushroomed striking surface.  I used an angle grinder with a wire wheel to remove the rust and a bench grinder to reshape the striking end and to sharpen them.  I finished with a quick kiss on each edge on the large stationary belt sander then a light coat of linseed oil as they are stored outside in an area protected from rain but not humidity.

To document the completion of the BB, I have provided the following:
 - A picture of the mushroomed head
 - The tool you're fixing it with
 - The fixed tool

I dressed up the mushroomed heads of two chisels using an angle grinder.

I took some time this afternoon to dress a mushroomed masonry chisel. This is something I do quite often to axes (which previous owners have treated badly!) but I never think to take photographs.

This gets the occasional whacking when there's bricks that need removing so it gets mushroomed pretty quick

Used a hand Grinder and cutting disk as well as a sanding disk to get the tip back only a little since it's more for brute strength than finesse.

Found an old mushroomed chisel who need love. I used a power tool with metal brush and disk to clean the rust and dress up the head. Next job, sharpening.

Here is my submission for this badge bit. I did it at SKIP camp last summer, lots of mushroomed chisels needing attention. I used an angle grinder to do the job. I'm attaching pictures of:

 - The mushroomed head
 - The angle grinder I used
 - The partially reshaped head
 - The fixed chisel

I cleaned up Opalyn’s splitting wedge and put an edge on it to boot!  Opalyn said she didn’t care about having a fixed angle from the side to the top so, I focused on giving it a surface comfortable to bare hands. I started with a cutting wheel on an angle grinder. This removed moved most of the deviant metal with minimal effort. I then switched to a 125 grinding wheel to grade the surfaces and remove burrs. I used the same grinding wheel to set the new edge before finishing off any unwanted burrs and ledges with a flat file.

To those celebrating - happy Thanksgiving!
Today I’m thankful for Paul Wheaton, Permies.com, and extra thankful for all the volunteers who certify badge bits <3

Today I fixed this splitting wedge. I used a cutoff wheel to slice the majority of the mushroom. From there, I switched to the grinding wheel to chamfer and roll the sharp corners over.
All in all, a quick Thanksgiving Day bb

This hatchet is used to crack kindling. Because we have knotty pine, we often need to use it as a splitting wedge as the hatchet gets stuck. It's gets hammered in sometimes. It's mushroomed on the back end and the cutting edge needs some grinding, too. It's dead.

All I did was use a bench grinder, layer after layer, changing the angle guard as I needed to.

I think I have more than a dozen splitting wedges but this one is my go-to for starting splits. It is the best for that due to the camber to the edge and being generally sharper than all my others. This makes it stick better and much less likely to jump out of the log when starting out. It's wasn't as mushroomed as some others but is still due for a dressing. This took a lot longer than I expected with this little grinder. I started to reshape another one at the same time, alternately cooling them off in a bucket of water. I'll have to work out a faster method before I continue with this one and others. I'm definitely going to go with a cutting disc to do the bulk removal in the future.