Dressing a Felt Sharpening Wheel

Re: Dressing a Felt Sharpening Wheel

thomd

>Sharp burr on a turner's scraper, and light cuts with the tool held below the radial angle to avoid a catch.

Re: Dressing a Felt Sharpening Wheel

Frank D.

>Or a ROS on a rest of some sort while the wheel is turning.

Re: Dressing a Felt Sharpening Wheel

Kevin French

>Thanks for the help, I put a burr on the tang end of a file and used that to rough it out, then used a dressing stone to finish it off.

Now all I've got to do is clean up the mess.

Craving gouges

Bill Houghton, cold but no rain, Sebastopol, CA

>You mean there are tools for it? I just figured it was a natural function, like breathing. Sure feels like it wells up spontaneously when I look at a Lee Valley catalog.

Oh, and on your original question: calico is nice.

Using a Felt Sharpening Wheel

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

>I took the wheel guards off and reverse them so I get the rotation reversed, (top moving away from). I've ordered a shaped felt wheel and sharpening compound for the cloth wheel side.

My hard felt wheel is set up on my grinder and rotates in the same direction as the Nortons white wheel. Very recently I bought a new lathe and relegated the old one - a real (real!) cheapie - to do duty as a honing centre. This involved turning a thick MDF disk and gluing a leather belt to the circumference (the face plate has another leather disk). Since I could now choose which side from which to work, I decided to do the opposite of the grinder, that is, work with the wheel turning upwards. Honing edges low down on the wheel - as one would for a grinder wheel - is a big mistake, unless you enjoy getting a face full of green rouge (courtesy of Veritas)! The solution appears to be (as I have not yet had the opportunity to try it out) that I work the blade edge at the top of the wheel, as per a Tormek. This now requires that I find a lower surface/bench to site the machine.

It took a little adjusting to using the hard felt feel on the grinder - that is, holding the blade low down and on the opposite side to when in the grinding position - but it now feels easier. The problem I have with the hard felt wheel on a high speed grinder is that it is difficult to load up the surface with green crayon if the wheel is at speed. It flies off, or just melts the stick and leaves a molten puddle under the wheel.

Using these wheels is still a newish experience for me and I would love to hear the experience of others - setting up, using strategy, etc. It is still very easy to dub an edge on a wheel. My preference at this time is freehanding on a flat surface (either green rouge on MDF or Joel's Horse Butt Strop) or leather on the face plate if the motorized option is sought.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Re: Craving gouges

Kevin French

>You know I was going to put a final line, something like I didn't have anything appropreate for the season, (to dress it in), but I couldn't quite word it.

Thank Bill

Re: Craving gouges

thomd

>Most of the time that I have used the hard felt wheel I have done a version of Tage Frid sharpening, in which he touches the tool to a grinding stone, and then buffs it. We had a bun fight here a while back about whether touching a 100 grit stone and then buffing could actually sharpen a tool to any decent standard. It can, but it really does need something to fine grind it also. It will give a very serviceable tool but the razor edge one gets is that barely razor sharp edge, not the abundantly sharp one, which after all is what green compound can do.

The way I buff is with wheel rotation toward me I approach the wheel with the edge in line with the rotation (up and down) but turned a little further around so no catch is possible, and just buff away for a few seconds. Even doing this it's important not to allow the corner to work down into the wheel for a catch. I just come at it from both sides work form the middle to the trailing corner then flip it.

Buffing can raise tool temperature, even with the wax lube. I mostly buff tools that I turn with or cheaper rough tools. I have several buffing compounds but I mostly only use the LV green compound these days.

Buffing is extremely dangerous if not done correctly. Some of the knife videos I have seen won't even illustrate the step given the extreme danger. It is actually pretty safe if you know how avoid catches. But the pottential for a cutting tool to move at a 100 mph is there.