[Lol999]

I got this off ebay for about £8. It's a #7 sweep, I reckon it to be a Marples and for some reason bought it. By my estimation it needs the end flattening and re-grinding, am I right?

 

[gdenby]

Yes, it needs to be reworked. The front should definitely be perpendicular to the shaft. I'm less certain about the tapering from the broadest part of the shaft to the front edge. Usually there is little or no taper.

When I started working wood, I never thought I'd also need to learn working steel.

 

[Batakali]

It kinda looks like it's been reground before. I don't know much about chisels and gouges and such, but could the temper be affected much by a regrind? Say if the person before you didn't really know what they were doing?

 

[Gloops]

Yes rework required, best advice is to keep it cool when working, 60/80 grit to flat it back, start at 80 and work down to 320/400 the nearer you get to final edge and finally strop it, keep dipping in water as you go, as you start to reduce the grit size the greater the friction and the thinner the material gets thus gets hotter quicker so decrease time between cooling.

 

[Lol999]

I'm going to use my Tormek knock off waterstone to reshape the end and end up on some 400 grit wet and dry before hitting the strop.

 

[Lol999]

Well I had a real go at this thing for an hour or so today. First on the wetstone to reshape the end, then the oil stone followed by stropping using Autosol, then jewellers rouge, then plain leather.

I know it isn't perfect, there are a few deep scratches that will come out with time and the inner channel will get more polished, but already it will cut the end grain of pine smoothly and shave my arm. There is a slight ripple in the end, this came and went so I think it's either my inaccurate hand sharpening, a variation in thickness of the forged steel or a combination of both.
Oh, and the black mark you can see on one of the pictures is the camera reflected in the finish