Donna Banfield
now. I just scanned the American Woodturner article Friday night, and my experience with it falls somewhere between that article and Katherine's.

I free-hand sharpen all my bowl gouges using the Hannes Michelsen grind. I still use a Oneway jig for my spindle and detail gouges. I have two grinders, one has Norton 3X wheels, a 46 grit and 80 grit. The other grinder has a Norton 3X 80 grit and the Wood River Diamond Wheel. The Wood River Wheel allows me to put a very fine edge on any of my tools holding it free-hand. In fact, I don't have anything underneath that wheel, such as a Wolverine base. I simply have a piece of wood that extends about 2" or so beyond the grinder platform, which gives me a place to rest my left had while holding the tools for sharpening the bowl gouges. I have a lot of students and club members in my shop and have personally seen the 'HEAVY' hand that some of them use to bear down when sharpening. I could see that aluminum core getting dished very quickly right in the center when using a jig. If that happened, there would be no way to 'true' that aluminum core. So, unless you can free-hand sharpen, that wheel is useless to you in my shop.

I agree that it was a bit pricey, and the jury's still out for me as to whether it will do something that my Norton Wheels don't already do. I'm not saying it isn't a nice wheel, but I seem to be able to get a very fine edge from my Norton Wheels when I'm putting that micro bevel on my gouges (again, remember, all sharpening I do on this wheel is free-hand). When the time comes to replace it, I may go with another Norton Wheel. But that's still a few years down the road, and by then next new 'Woodturning Craze/Fad' will hit the market

Fortunately we have the American Woodturner, Woodturning Design and these forums to give us a lot of information about these new toys...er tools, and if and when we make our decisions, they can at least be informed decisions.