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I can see from the piece of chiselled off softwood in the photo that your unsharp chisel is just splitting the wood where it wants to split rather than cutting it where you want it cut. You don’t want to go down a cabinet maker’s sharpening rabbit hole
but showing it an oil stone from time to time will help.I went through a phase of buying old chisel sets on ebay and getting them scary sharp, backs all flattened and edges perfectly square. It’s the work of a weekend for a full set of averagely treated chisels. Fifteen minutes with a double sided oilstone and a honing guide, if you want to drop an extra tenner, will suit your purposes.
Sharkstar-
Thanks.
Last time I looked on eBay it didn't really seem worth it vs a set of Magnusson ones from Screwfix. Probably gonna grab these as they have a free honing guide that sounds like it could be hit or miss, but I reckon should still be able to be made to work.
They're the sort of thing that I'd normally try and get at car boot sales. But the seasons over now. There was a lovely full set at the last one I went to, but they weren't super cheap I didn't have the cash at the time.
hugo7
Ha!
Yes I gave it a super quick once over when I fist borrowed it. Probably with my gardening folding sharpener. It was alright but I think I may have misjudged how little time I spent sharpening it and how many times I've used it since then.
Ultimately it was used to take out wood roughly and quickly, so I could finish it off with files and sanding.
Now I have a whetstone I should really give it another going over... you've also made me think it would have been more useful to test the stone on this than a vintage plane blade.
Forgot to grab a pic but I've finished the foot and attached it to the leg. Next up is attaching it which will require a sharp chisels. Unfortunately it will also require emptying the space again, so the project is probably going to have a little hiatus.