Woodworking: Chisels

Here they are.

My chisels.

I bought these used for my woodworking classes.

Here's the thing about chisels...I had no idea that they needed to be flattened.  Sharpening, sure; but flattening?  

I spent about five hours flattening the backs of these guys.  Grinding them by hand against sand paper and water stones.  You're not done until the back shows no shimmery irregularities.  Each shimmer is a dip in the metal, which means that your cuts won't be completely straight.

As you can see, my chisels are still very shimmery.

And rusty.  (I dropped this one into a snowbank.)

So, they are not done.  But they still work for cutting...

...because I sliced my palm open.  

I won't show a photo of that.

Just enjoy this one instead.