Bob Rozaieskie of the Logan Cabinet Shoppe deserves a round of applause, he has done some thing rare. He has gone against the common wisdom of the online wood working community. In his latest post he explains why chisel backs do not need to be lapped flat and in fact in most cases it is counter productive. This is also true of plane irons, David Charlesworth has written about this. Chris Pye has also written about back bevels on carving chisels.
The necessity for a flat back is just one of the myths in a large amount of bad information that is constantly circulated on line. I often wonder why so many people that know better allow so much bad information to persist. I think more of the respected and well known wood workers need to speak up and call spades spades.
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