paper sharpening wheels - when your time is important to you

mike sent me an email this morning in reply to my asking about the rouge and grit. you can get the grit at detroit abrasives and the rouge at jackson lea. it might cost more to buy small ammounts from the manufacturer but if anyone wants something different, these suppliers are the place to go. you can get coarser grit and have several wheels made up for any knife needing a lot of metal removed quickly to repair a badly damaged edge.
 
richard j said:
a member posted about the router speed control and later another member said the buffer motor is the wrong kind for the speed control to work. see if you can find a variable speed motor or a 1/2" 1725 rpm motor and an arbor to mount the wheels on.
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I wasn't sure, I found this info on another site, but I don't know about the motor types, such as "soft start" etc.

"Mike, I can only venture a guess on that buffer, but I think that has an induction type motor and those router controls work only on brush type motors. I'm not familiar with any way to electronically vary the speed of an induction type AC motor.

I wouldn't suggest trying it...you'll burn out either the motor or the control if left on long enough."
 
You can change the speed. It will change the frequency. It will work fine until it lets the smoke out. The motor is designed to operate at a certain RPM. Eventually it will overheat unless it's designed to work at lower speeds.
 
Richard,
I have been using the paper wheel set up for well over a year. When sharpening on the grit wheel at about 20 degrees I can see the burr come up on one side then move back when sharpening the other. This burr or feather edge can be pushed from one side to the other with a very,very light touch of your finger. At this point I proceed to the paper wheel with white rouge. The very fine burr/feather edge still goes from one side to the other. I find myself just hitting the edge lightly on a bench stone (hard Arkansas) a few times at about 25-30 degrees to remove this or by drawing the edge on a piece of wood. You can see this burr come right off with 2 light strokes on the stone. Should I just increase the angle on the paper wheel w/white rouge a few degrees? My result always pop hairs and take about a minute or less to sharpen a knife. This system is the fastest that I have used to produce a great edge.
Thanks
Ron
 
rpttrsn said:
Richard,
I have been using the paper wheel set up for well over a year. When sharpening on the grit wheel at about 20 degrees I can see the burr come up on one side then move back when sharpening the other. This burr or feather edge can be pushed from one side to the other with a very,very light touch of your finger. At this point I proceed to the paper wheel with white rouge. The very fine burr/feather edge still goes from one side to the other. I find myself just hitting the edge lightly on a bench stone (hard Arkansas) a few times at about 25-30 degrees to remove this or by drawing the edge on a piece of wood. You can see this burr come right off with 2 light strokes on the stone. Should I just increase the angle on the paper wheel w/white rouge a few degrees? My result always pop hairs and take about a minute or less to sharpen a knife. This system is the fastest that I have used to produce a great edge.
Thanks
Ron
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I've noticed this as well. I think the slotted paper wheel has such a fine abrasive action that it actually acts as more of a straight steel than anything else. It seems to leave a wire edge that's very hard to notice without a good magnifying glass because the wire edge is also mirror polished.

Since I don't conveniently have a piece of wood to run the edge against, I ordered the felt pads from Japanese Knife Sharpening. I'm not really into microbevels, so I try to avoid turning the knife too far into the wheel to get rid of the wire edge.

P.S.
Out of the blue here, but does anyone happen to know if shoving a Spydie H1 knife against the slotted paper wheel will harden the edge? Or does the grinding need to be much more aggressive for it to work?
 
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when removing the burr on the slotted wheel, you should see the burr peel off if there is any width to it. if you have a chip for example and work up a wide burr, you should see the burr come off in pieces. being up too far from the edge will cause the burr to not be removed which means you need to go lower on the edge.

the slotted wheel is a little forgiving when it comes to buffing an edge so you can go a tiny bit lower than what you might think on the very edge and still get a shaving sharp edge. too low and its just like holding the spine too high on a leather strop. all it takes is some experimenting to find out what works. remember, the slotted wheel is a strop so if you still have a burr after using the slotted wheel, you're not doing something right.
 
Thanks Richard.
I strop it on the slotted wheel at the same angle that I sharpen, so it seems to me. When sharpening I can see this fine burr come up. I then go to the other side and the same burr follows the knife edge as I sharpen it. When that occurs I go to the strop and it goes from one side of the knife edge, as I draw it across the wheel, then to the other. I'll drop it back a degree or two and see if it removes this very fine burr.
Thanks for your insight.
Ron
 
i noticed that some brands of knives or steel types tend to not give the burr up so easy so a little more pressure is required. experiment with pushing a little harder and see what that does and go from there.
 
richard j said:
i noticed that some brands of knives or steel types tend to not give the burr up so easy so a little more pressure is required. experiment with pushing a little harder and see what that does and go from there.
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Wouldn't that roll the edge with less than 15 degree per side angles?
 
you dont bear down super hard. experiment like i said to find out what works on a certain brand or steel type. a busse for example takes a little more pressure than most other knives to remove the burr. a cheap chinese no name might not take much at all.
i learned what works from sharpening thousands of knives over the years using the wheels.
 
Don't spare the rouge when going to the slotted wheel. It throws alot off, but what's left will make short work of that burr.
 
i tried that but got tired of the excess ending up on me. you can apply a little more after a few passes if needed instead of having it fly off. some steels do require a little more pressure even with plenty of rouge. i have a tool steel ulu that i made from a slitting saw blade and the burr on it comes off easily without much pressure or rouge on the wheel.
 
Richard I tried the wheels on some traditional broadheads yesterday. They worked great. I shaved a nice patch on my leg to test it and didnt notice until later that it was bleeding. Good stuff.
josh
 
they work great for broadheads. i sharpen some for a buddy every season. there is a company in alaska that offers the wheels to customers who buy bows and other bowhunting accessories for broadhead sharpening. i was going to design a holder for removeable broadheads but havent done it yet. i do have a few ideas.
 
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