Anybody have an opinion about using a buffing wheel to achieve a mirror finish on plane blades and chisels? I worry that the buffer would take away the flatness of the blade. Is this a justified worry?
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Replies
My set up has a 10" x 2" drum with sandpaper for the initial sharpen and a buffing wheel on the other arbor to hone the edge. You are not trying to put a mirror finish on the tool. You would buff on the bevel side for the most part. You would be talking microns of metal removal. It's a fast system for carving tools.
There are many different ways to sharpen and none are wrong.
Edited 6/11/2008 12:12 pm ET by RickL
There are many different ways to sharpen and none are wrong.
Shows what you know... Every other method but mine is wrong.
Nonsense. Your way is the wrongest of the wrong.
-Steve
You are both wrong. My way is the only right one. Napie told me so.
Ray
I have been using a hard felt wheel, charged with green rouge.
In order NOT to soften the keen edge, I clamp an Oak scrap to the backside, a 32nd (or so) forward of the edge.
Arlington, Texas (The dash in Dallas-Fort Worth)
Practice...'till you can do it right the first time.
On plane blades and chisels I do worry about "dubbing". The only place I could see a buffing wheel is with carving tools, and even there it's not my favorite.
Philmm-
As long as the back of the chisel or plane iron is perfectly flat and polished, no problem. DON'T POLISH THE BACK. Just use a light touch on the bevel side and don't "dig in".
Sean
Edited 6/11/2008 9:44 pm ET by Sean2112
I used to use a hard felt wheel with coumpound to get the final mirror finish on blades. Like other posters, I was worried that this was "dubbing" the edge -- tho' it did produce a nice result. Certainly seemed to me like the edges were just fine.
I later switched to a cardboard wheel with compound. Since the wheel is rigid, no worries about dubbing. Again, excellent results. IMHO, neither method removes enough steel to put a blade out of flat.
However, I've sworn off all the zen sharpening/polishing routines. Sure, they produce a scalpel-fine edge -- which would be perfect if you were performing surgery on soft tissue. I rarely do that tho'. (Only when I acquire a splinter). I usually use my tools on wood, not flesh -- tho' I do keep a box of band-aids on the shelf for those unintended times when it's the other way 'round. ;-)
These days, unless I am doing some really fine chisel work, like end grain softwood, I figger the tool is sharp enough for wood when it comes off the fine diamond plate (which I find a lot less hassle than stones). OK, maybe once in a while, just by habit, I'll run an edge over a black Arkansas. I have not noticed any decline in the functionality of the tools or the quality of the cuts. I find I sharpen less often as well.
Heresy, I know. ;-)
I think there is a tendency to get too fixated on the "best" tool, with the perfectly-sharpened edge. Much of this is overkill, which you abandon as you gain overall skills using the tools.
I notice the same tendency in music. I took up guitar several years ago and noticed that many beginning students (usually males in the same general age bracket as many of us on this forum -- 50+) tried to improve their playing by buying really expensive guitars, sometimes several of them, and getting them all tricked out, when they should have been spending time, not money, if they wanted to play better.
Mike Hennessy
Pittsburgh, PA
Mike,
I took a woodworking class while I was living in Texas and the instructor went over most of the jigs, tools and different systems for getting a sharp edge. The one he favored was a diamond plate and a leather strop all by hand. At first I thought that I would never be able to get this down where I could get a decent edge on a plane iron but as the old saying goes "practice makes perfect" and I thank Paul every time I get those thin shavings when using my plane.
Greg
phil,
during the late 70's i became obsessed with a need to carve. in those days, of early fine woodworking, there opened a number of high end wood related businesses in and around the los angeles area. i purchased about 15 good henry taylors-all with a "factory edge", a set or whet stones and many, many hours later i had, what i thought to be, a few sharp chisels. i proceeded to carve. many, many hours later i had before me a work of such amateurish awfulness, that i almost gave up. the obsession to learn remained in spite of the frustration, however, so i went looking for help. i was introduced, by way of a store named "the cutting edge", to nora lang. (two years after i was fortunate enough to meet her, she became nora hall.) at this first meeting i happened to have my chisels with me as this was also a one day carving lesson with nora. she looked at my tools then back at me and with, what seemed to me to be pity, said "oh-you have double bevels". she taught me how to sharpen my tools and she taught me the wonderful basics of wood carving.
i have used a cloth wheel and buffing compound for years. it seems the mirror finish that this sharpening method imparts, helps the chisel slide nicely.
eef
"it seems the mirror finish that this sharpening method imparts, helps the chisel slide nicely."
I would say it's the sharp edge and not the mirror finish that allows the chisel to slide nicely.
From the diverse opinion on the subject, it seems that people are divided about the usefulness of a buffing wheel. Seems to me that carvers opt for the buffing wheel - general woodworkers not so much.
I carve and plenty of cabinet / furniture work, and sharpen all on the same tools. I like to use the compound on a MDF wheel, charged with a hard white compound, giving it a final sanding with a coarse paper. With the scratch and natural fibrous texture, it holds the compound just fine, and is hard enough to not round the edge like softer materials such as felt or leather.
Just because a piece of steel looks highly polished does not mean it is sharp and ready for use. Strops or anything that is soft tends to round the edges. For strops I use diamond paste and a light touch to preserve the flat surfaces and prevent the edges from being rounded.
I have used a number of different motorised strops. Some did not work, and others are great.
I could not get a hard felt wheels plus rouge to work on a high speed grinder. The rouge spun off and I inevitably dubbed the edge. I would have completely given up on wheels but then I tried the wheel on the Tormek. This spins very slowly. The results here have been excellent.
Better than a round wheel is my flat wheel. I turned a disk sander into a motorised strop by adding a leather disk (chamois leather glued to a sanding disk). This is easier to use (for me) and the results are fantastic.
View Image
Best of all, however, are simple non-motorised leather strops made of hard horse butt leather.
Regards from Perth
Derek
A question.
What is a ... 'non-motorised' leather?
I have never heard that term.
Gosh Will, I don't know? Is this a riddle?
:)
Regards from Perth
Derek
ps ... leather strop
Gosh Will, I don't know? Is this a riddle?
NO .. for once.. a serious question.. I REALLY have no idea ..
Your statement..
Best of all, however, are simple non-motorised leather strops made of hard horse butt leather.
I use to ride.. I was the one that got the .. hard horse butt leather
'are simple non-motorised' I wanted to know what 'non-motorised' leather was!
Sorry, I'm very stupid at times!
Edited 6/16/2008 8:49 am by WillGeorge
Hi Will
Sorry, I was being silly. My apologies.
My original description was not very good. All I was attempting to state was that the best strop I have used is a strip of horse butt leather (from Joel at Tools for Working Wood) glued to hard wood. While leather or MDF (motorised)wheels are capable of doing a good job, a plain strip of hard, unyielding leather - either with green rouge or without - that is held in one's hand, does a better job.
Regards from Perth
Derek
Sorry, I was being silly. My apologies.??????
Why? Life is silly sometimes! As I am usually..
I still have my grandfathers razor strap.. NO ..he never hit us with it.. He had a Hickory Stick!
Just a Joke.. If he was really mad at us we would get a pinch that hurt ALOT!!
He was a WWI Artillary Officer... That lived through the whole thing. I would suppose he did not like children! Just put up with us as best he could!
I'm still wondering about what a 'non-motorised' leather is!
I do not give up easy!
Long before I began working wood, I was a Boy Scout carving neckerchief slides. My knife was one I found near an old rock quarry. Sharpened it down to about half its original length, and a very small point. Used to use an old oil stone of my dad's and then strop it on the sole of my mocassin. Still the sharpest cutting tool I've used. Didn't know anything about edges, dubbing, or any thing else for that matter, but I could whittle a pretty cool slide.
I think that is "non-motorized stropping".
Stef
Hi Stef
That's about as good a description as I ever read.
Incidentally, I gained my love of wood from my father, a lifelong Boy Scout (does one call a 94 year old man a "boy" scout?). He knew a lot about wood, but the closest he got to joinery was a ball of string (still, he sure could tie a knot!).
Regards from Perth
Derek
We should be Children that experiment!
Yes! I Sure hope you have many less scars than I do!
Edited 6/16/2008 12:20 pm by WillGeorge
knowledge came from experience. Went to pass my First Class badge by sharpening an ax. Put it on the ground between two pegs driven in the ground. One pass of the file, slipped, and nearly cut my middle finger off. Put on a bandaid, and continued. Did finally pass.
Many, many scars.
Stef
I use a Dremel tool with a buffing wheel loaded with polishing compound to finish cutting edges after using sharpining stones. With the wheel spinning at high speed I start behind the cutting edge and come across it, then return to the starting position for the next pass and continue the process until the length of the edge is polished. The polishing wheel is always spinning in a direction that does not allow the wheel to dig into the edge. The polishing removes the wire edge from the sharpinig process. The tools come out very sharp after polishing. I think that a larger polising wheel would also work.
Don't know, never tried it. I know that the Swiss chisels I recently bought look like they were buffed to hone them, and they were quite sharp. I have always worked on the stone until I had the edge I wanted, and I think the edge I put on the chisels hen they need it is a little better than the one that came on them. Maybe buffing would be a way to speed the process? Are you worried about the flatness as in across the edge, like in the straightness of the edge, or is it the flatness of the edge from the perspective of the flat side of the chisel, used to lay the chisel down when paring something? If it is the flatness of the paring surface you are concerned with you could just only buff the ground side of the chisel, and not the flat side.
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