curious about paper wheels

E

elementfe

Joined
May 3, 2008
Messages
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Just got a set and still making friends with them...
I'm wondering what the advantage is, over a belt? Every page I go to says, "Gee, these work great and are fast"
but if you're a knifemaker and very comfortable with belts, why not use a belt and then just buff on the white rouge wheel? What's the advantage of the paper grit wheel?

Thanks,
Andy G.
 
None that I can think of. But perhaps the 1/2" width would handle recurves better than the typical 1" wide belts. Other than that, I've got nothing. Maybe you could make an argument for the longevity, as the wheel simply needs to be recoated every now and then. But then again, you could probably get a good 5 ceramic belts of the same grit for the cost of the wheel, so it's debatable.

I suppose you could call them a midway between sharpening stones and a belt sander.

I honestly don't know if I would use the slotted wheel after the belts given that you could just as easily buy a felt/linen/leather belt and load them up with your compound of choice for finishing.
 
I tried a wheel.... It did a great job but for me the grit wore off too fast. I prefer belts with the different grits.
 
If the grit wheel is dressed properly with the "goose grease" (wax) then the grit will last a long time. I just re-gritted my first wheel after using it for a year and a half. It would still grind OK, but it was getting thin and took a little longer to grind some hard blades. (s30v) AS far as the slotted wheel, I can often re-sharpen a blade that is not round-edge dull just by running it on the slotted wheel without having to use the gritted wheel. When I am done, you can shave arm hair, push cut phone book paper, etc, etc, and all those other sharpness tests. It does require some skill and a small learning curve to use them properly, and get satisfactory results from.

Any of you guys that don't like, or use your wheels, and want to get rid of them just pm me and maybe we can work something out.

Blessings,

Omar
 
Interesting question. I'm a little surprised at the replies.

I use to use my little belt grinder a lot. That is until I completely smoked a brand new Blur, but I know what I did wrong now. All of the fault was mine, not the tools, but I'm just getting the courage to start using it again. One problem was that I never had decent belts. That factor with the grinder is not a factor with the wheels since they are properly set up from the start.

I'd love to have the wheels, but it's cheaper just to buy some belts.
 
I'm sharpening a lot of knives in a day at the farmers' market. Today I found that I could go with a coarser grit on the belt sander and with most steels pretty well take off the burr with the white rouge on the slotted paper wheel (I'm trying to stay with lower grits in the interest of a longer lasting slicing edge on mostly cheap knives.)
I still keep a table strop with Jantz green compound to pull stubborn burrs off, though.
Still haven't really found the sweet spot in my system for the grit wheel, but I'm guessing that because of the wax I can get a straighter (as in not so convex) bevel without over heating.
I don't sharpen on the platen even on my 1x30, it's just too easy to burn things- I'm always just above the platen, with sharp belts. The bevel doesn't go overly convex, because sharp belts mean very light pressure and no overheating.
Thanks for the comments, and I'm looking forward to learning just how to use the grit wheel.
 
Right, exactly. I stay away from the platen too (now), but I didn't think about getting just above it, or even the benefit of a sharp belt. I guess a very tight belt would be advantageous too.

Haha you just helped me out a bunch and didn't even mean to.

Thanks! :)
 
elementfe said:
...why not use a belt and then just buff on the white rouge wheel? What's the advantage of the paper grit wheel?

Thanks,
Andy G.
Click to expand...

I put this together a few years back... best of both worlds...

MT_01.jpg


"MultiTool" belt attachment (with a Trizact belt) followed by a strop on the wheel. Works well! :thumbup:
 
Thanks for the link. :) The attachment seems a tad expensive. Would you say it's worth two bills for the base model? My bench grinder isn't variable either so I'd probably need a new motor as well. May be less to just build a clone.
 
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