paper sharpening wheels - when your time is important to you

Bingo!
I removed some of the wax and it became sharper. Hopefully I'm getting there. I'll keep practicing.
Thanks for the help.

RoMo
 
RoMo said:
I just went back to try again and noticed that there is a lot of wax on my wheel. I'm going to try and remove some. I would still like to hear your answer.
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I try to hold the knife parallel to the floor on the back of the wheel at 1 o'clock with the wheel spinning towards me. It sounds a bit unscientific, but works for me.
 
Thanks. I'm getting a little better with it but, I'm not there yet. Thanks for your response.

RoMo
 
The other day I picked up an old bench grinder and some accessories at St. Vinnie's, and as an experiment mounted a cotton buffing wheel on one side and loaded it with green polishing compound. With a little practice I'm getting knives with very smooth, shaving sharp edges (once it shaves my arm smoothly I call it good enough for a working knife; I don't mess with splitting hairs). Of course, the knife has to be fairly sharp before I give it that treatment, but it's a great finishing touch.

Is there a reason this isn't a good idea?
 
I bought the Paper Wheels from Grizzly and things are going great. However, It seems to take some time for me to work up a burr with the sanding wheel. Instead, I have just been using a coarse diamond stone(around 200) to get a nice burr along the whole edge which I then touch up with the strop wheel.
Is this bad practice?

I have ordered an iphone microscope so i can start to see what is happening at the edge.
 
Just for clarification on the method Richard uses - the knife is behind the mid point of the wheel, with the edge facing you, and the wheel rotating towards you (at the top). The rouge will hit you in the face like this, but you can look right at the blade/wheel contact spot and vary your angle/pressure how you like. Obviously, safety glasses are a must, a face shield would be better.

I sharpened a couple knives last year on Richard's paper wheels. Cool setup - very simple and very effective. I haven't got a set yet, but I picked up a bench grinder a couple months ago so I need the wheels and I'll be set.

You should be able to work up a burr on the grit wheel. If you a re-profiling or starting a new edge you may want to use a fine grit grinding wheel first, but be careful. The grit wheel I used was quick at moving metal too - so much so that the paper wheel/rouge was all that was needed.
 
KC8QVO said:
You should be able to work up a burr on the grit wheel. If you a re-profiling or starting a new edge you may want to use a fine grit grinding wheel first, but be careful. The grit wheel I used was quick at moving metal too - so much so that the paper wheel/rouge was all that was needed.
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Be very careful. It's easy to overheat the edge with any grinding wheel. A belt sander is much easier to use without generating excess heat.
 
I finally picked up a set of paper wheels for myself last night after work. I think the slotted wheel is all I am going to use. I guess I didn't really need both, but I bought the whole kit with the rouge, wax, and extra grit so I'm set. I could just as well use the fine grinding wheel that came with the grinder (in fact, I think its a finer grit than the paper wheel grit wheel is), of course watching the heat as Bernoulli mentions.

I've sharpened a lot of drill bits on the grinder and the same holds true - if you over-heat the edge you loose the tempering.
 
Bernoulli said:
Be very careful. It's easy to overheat the edge with any grinding wheel. A belt sander is much easier to use without generating excess heat.
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And just how is it easier to use a belt sander without generating excess heat? Most belt sanders I have seen and used will remove metal much faster (which means more heat) than my paper wheels with the proper amount of wax on it. Of course if you really bear down on the blade (which of course is UN-neccessary) you can burn up any blade on any type of sharpener. Moderation in all things is a good thing.:rolleyes:
 
OHALLUM said:
And just how is it easier to use a belt sander without generating excess heat? Most belt sanders I have seen and used will remove metal much faster (which means more heat) than my paper wheels with the proper amount of wax on it. Of course if you really bear down on the blade (which of course is UN-neccessary) you can burn up any blade on any type of sharpener. Moderation in all things is a good thing.:rolleyes:
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Just my 2 cents.
Belts running at 1700 do much less damage than the wheel.
I've seen the wheel burn the tip, even when I'm moving fast.
Granted, I'm using a 3600 rpm grinder.

For what its worth, control is better on the belts (I'd say towards the heel a bit of debate, you have to get the feel/angle for the slack, or platen it if your fixing a bolster/heel.
But the beautiful part is any belt discrepancies can be addressed on the paper rouged wheel with no heat.
You miss a bit on the belt, the slotted wheel can make up for your mistakes.

But that's just me, I'm comfortable with that setup.

I think everyone will develop their own comfortable style.
 
OHALLUM said:
And just how is it easier to use a belt sander without generating excess heat? Most belt sanders I have seen and used will remove metal much faster (which means more heat) than my paper wheels with the proper amount of wax on it. Of course if you really bear down on the blade (which of course is UN-neccessary) you can burn up any blade on any type of sharpener. Moderation in all things is a good thing.:rolleyes:
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That's my experience. I'm use 10" paper wheels. My belt grinder is a linisher mounted on a 8" grinder. I haven't figured out the feed rates, but there's no question that the belt sander does not generate the heat that a carborundum wheel does. I recently bout 100 commercial grind limit boning knives. All of the tips had to be re-shaped ( I assume that the commercial sharpening machines don't work well when the blade gets thin). I had to be careful and I used a water dip, but the process worked a lot better than using a grinding wheel.
 
This is my first post. Is it ok to install an 8" wheel on an 8" Ryobi Grinder?
Is it ok to run only one wheel on a grinder at a time, without causing problems?
 
If the wheel sticks up above the motor enough to maneuver the blades you have to sharpen that is the important thing. Watch the RPM on the grinder too, slower is better but 3000 or so RPM will work.

Since the wheels are balanced one is OK. I have the slotted wheel running with a fine grit stone. The slotted wheel is for sharpening and the stone is for other metal work (I have not used any more coarse wheel for a knife, I profile mine on an Edge Pro and touch up on the slotted wheel, or just use the slotted wheel only).
 
if the housing is 8" you need to go with the 10" wheels so you have knuckle room.

i only use 1 wheel at a time since i am using a single shaft 1725 rpm motor with an arbor so i can attach my wheels. i used to have both wheels mounted on my belt drive variable speed buffer until i buffed my left elbow and removed some skin in the process.
 
Richard,
Glad to see you. I know that the answer is in this thread, but if you don't mind, I will ask you. What kind of glue do you use when putting grit on the wheel? Also, after waiting for 24 hours, how much wax do you apply and how do you apply it. The reason I ask these questions is because, when I first bought my wheels, I think I put on too much wax. I can get my blades to some what sharp but not great by my standards. So I'm going to remove the grit and or wax and start over. Do you have any other pointers?

Thanks,

Romo

P.S. it sure would help me, and I'm sure, quite a few others if someone with a lot of talent would make a video showing the whole installation process. Starting with the unpacking all the way to placing your blade on the wheel.
 
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a buddy of mine has a high def vid camera and i might get him to help me make some new vids. there is not much to mounting the wheels on the motor, just dont torque them down too tight. since i only use 1 wheel at a time, i have to switch wheels and i just get the nut finger tight. when i turn the motor on it tightens the nut up to the point where i have to use pliers to loosen it up.

i do have a few short vids out showing how i work up a burr. since it only takes a short time to work up a burr the vids are not very long. the vids i made buffing the burr off are longer.
 
richard j said:
a buddy of mine has a high def vid camera and i might get him to help me make some new vids. there is not much to mounting the wheels on the motor, just dont torque them down too tight. since i only use 1 wheel at a time, i have to switch wheels and i just get the nut finger tight. when i turn the motor on it tightens the nut up to the point where i have to use pliers to loosen it up.

i do have a few short vids out showing how i work up a burr. since it only takes a short time to work up a burr the vids are not very long. the vids i made buffing the burr off are longer.
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hey richard
my spartan went out yesterday, you should have it today or tomorrow.
 
i recently won a speed sharpening contest on youtube with a paper wheel setup... enjoy!

[video=youtube;d2H9ha6RWNs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2H9ha6RWNs[/video]
[video=youtube;Bpkv-1vmpos]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bpkv-1vmpos[/video]

got a free Benchmade 940 as 1st prize.... the wheels have already paid for themselves! lol.
 
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