I recently purchased a set of 10 Japan chisels about five months ago. When I received them I honed each one and built a wooden tray holder in a drawer to keep the chisels from rolling around in the drawer and damaging the tips. I haven’t use them much, but they do all look very nice in such a well organized drawer. My problem is that I just went to use them recently if found that the very tip of four of the ten chisels had rust on them. The rust is fairly deep and will require removing quite a bit of steel to rehone the edge. I have never had rust problems on the tip or chisels before. Is this to be expected or is it a sign of poor steel? Since only some of the chisels have rusted tips I’m wondering if it is the steel or a defect in the way these chisels were made. I know steel rusts but, I’ve never seen it happen like this before.
I am in the process of contacting the company who sold me the set to see what they have to say, but wanted some of your advice.
Thanks,
Aaron
Replies
Japanese chisels will definitely rust, and possibly faster than some other chisels, depending on the steel content. Rather than put them in the drawer, you might try oiling them and keeping them in a chisel roll.
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tannins in the wood and even leather will corrode steel. Coating with camelia (sp?) oil or other light oils will help prevent corrosion.
I have a canvas chisel pouch and keep it lightly oiled and ive had good luck with that.
As I understand it, most Japanese chisels are laminate steel using very hard steel on the face for the cutting edge and backing it with mild steel for shock resistance. I once read that old anchor chain is a prized source for the mild steel. I was curious if this stratification showed up in the rust as in more rust on the mild steel? I live 3 miles from the beach. I wipe down my Marples chisels and my planes with a 3 in 1 oiled rag. I keep them in a Craftsman roll-away and throw all those little silca packs that come along in with them. The wood tray is nice but since it's hygroscopic it will wick water out of the air and hold it on the tools. Does the rust correspond to the contact points with the tray? I made a covered BB ply box for my set of hollow chisels and they rusted inside the box which was inside the roll-away. I oiled the crap out of the inside of the box and had no more rust since.
John O'Connell - JKO Handcrafted Woodworking
Life is tough. It's tougher if you're stupid - John Wayne
Thanks to all for the advice.
John - The rust is occurring at the very tip which as I understand it would be the harder steel. As the Japan Woodworker informed me these things need to be oiled. I will try that and I will put some oil on the wood metal contact points in my storage tray. It looks too nice and is very convenient to find what exactly what so I won't be switching to a tool roll.
Edited 9/24/2003 4:38:25 PM ET by ABENKER
Yet somewhere I've read that keeping tools in a wooden box helps to prevent rust because - the wood is hygroscopic - the arguement being that the wood adsorbs the moisture out of the air, while steel merely condenses it.
Yeah I've read that too, but have had another experience to the contrary. An unfinished BB Ply cutoff sled did the same thing to my TS before I put a couple of coats of wax on the bottom.John O'Connell - JKO Handcrafted Woodworking
Life is tough. It's tougher if you're stupid - John Wayne
Hmmm, common denominator - plywood. Just a thought.
Exactly.John O'Connell - JKO Handcrafted Woodworking
Life is tough. It's tougher if you're stupid - John Wayne
Whenever I work on a tool that is wooden or steel I wax it to keep it from rusting and with wooden planes and such to help them slide better.
A top-notch chairmaker taught me this trick (it works!):
After sharpening, use your chisel to carefully perforate the plastic top of a film canister. The resulting hole should match the profile of the chisel blade.
Next, moisten a small quantity of cotton gauze ( a 2" x 2" or 4" x 4" cotton bandage, or a few cotton balls, work well) with camelia oil and insert into the botton of the film canister.
Insert the sharp end of the chisel tip into the film canister, and snap the lid in place.
Stored this way, your fingers are protected from the sharp chisel tips, and the chisels are protected from rust.
BTW, if some camelia oil gets on your wood it won't cause fisheye and ruin the finish the way a petrolium-based oil can.
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