paper sharpening wheels - when your time is important to you

JSMcustoms said:
Do these wheels remove a lot of metal quickly?
Click to expand...

if you sharpen knives on the wheels like i do, you can watch the burr form and all you need is a tiny burr. there are some steels that will not forum much of a burr at all since it tends to break off. thats when i look straight down on an edge and if i still see a flat spot, i know i need to make a few more passes. you can also buff the edge and then check to see if there is any shiny (dull) spots. if there are, you need to make a few more passes on the grit wheel.
 
has anyone volunteered to sharpen knives at any fundraisers yet? get with any bike clubs in your area and i'm sure they would let you sharpen knives and donate the money. its a lot of fun and a way to meet new people. i also liked to go to any military base or guard units and sharpen their knives for free. also get with your local fire dept, pd, sheriff and emergency squad.
 
if anyone wants to come over and learn how to sharpen knives with the wheels, they better contact me soon. i go back in the hospital next month.
unit will be taking over for me again while i'm healing back up. he is the only person on the forum i would trust to take over for me and do a good job. if anyone is not in a hurry they can wait for me to get healed back up.
 
I'm having trouble getting the tip right. Problem is flattening and/or rounding. There must be some posts with advice for working the tip in this thread somewhere; but not sure how to search for them?
 
when you draw the knife across the wheel, stop and lift the blade off the wheel when you reach the tip and do it all in 1 motion (which should be in the middle of the wheel). if you pull the knife across the wheel and let it drop off the side, it will round off the tip. its always a good idea to practice on some cheap knives before sharpening any good knives so you can correct any problems in your method. remember, the smoother you move the blade the better looking your edge will be. any hesitation will result in a flat spot.
 
I just started using a set of paper wheels from sharpeningmadeeasy.com and had a few newbie questions. The instructions say to use a grinder over 3000 RPM, so I'm using an old ~3500 RPM 6" grinder with the guards cut off. Unfortunately this high of an RPM seems to generate a lot of friction heat and I've blued a couple knife tips with it by accident. Should I be using a slower speed grinder (I noticed that Richard uses a 1725 RPM motor)?

I've also found it tricky to polish out the scratches left by the grit wheel. Should I be aiming for a mirror-like edge, or just quickly polish the scratches with the stropping wheel and not worry about it? Also, should I use the same wheel angle for both the grit and stropping wheels, or make the strop angle a little larger to hit the edge?

Finally, a lot of the grit on my coarse wheel is now gone (mostly with large patches missing next to fully-gritted patches) after sharpening about 6 knives. Am I not adding enough wax? I did re-grind the edge on a couple knives to be steeper, but I took it slow. I'll try re-gritting it soon.

Thanks for looking at my novice questions. I'm having really good results with the wheels so far. I sharpened a santoku kitchen knife and it can now cut hanging paper at any angle with zero resistance... pretty neat.
 
1. 3600 is recommended by the mfg, so no it is not too fast. You should just use light pressure and keep the blade moving. A slower turning machine is better, but what you have is ok as long as you learn the limits of it. I have a 3600 rpm buffer that I use, and have had no problems.

2.You should get a somewhat polished edge if you are using enough of the white rouge on the slotted wheel. Add some each time you strop a knife on it. Yes you should use the same angle on both wheels as close as you can.

3. If the "patches" are wax, and not bare paper, then there is enough grit on the wheel, as long as they still grind your knife blades. You should only have to re grit after sharpening lots (as in 100 or more) knives if you are using light even pressure. Let the wheel do the work. Mine show little grit and mostly wax patches, but still sharpen my knives ok. The wax is to help keep the blade cool when grinding.

It does take some practice to get it all down and working right. The key, I think is to use light pressure and keep the blade moving on both wheels. Sounds like you are close if your santoku will cut paper like you said. Get some old knives to practice on, or as Richard says, sharpen some old hack saw blades to get your rhythm and technique down. Good luck!

Blessings,

Omar
 
bobasaurus, i think the 3400 rpm is way too fast. a variable speed buffer or 1725 rpm motor with an arbor will work much better.

as for the scratches, it is not really necessary to remove all the scratches. its just cosmetics. try a knife out after a few passes on each side and you will see its sharp even with any lines in the edge.

as for the grit wheel having a bare look to it in spots, you might need to clean off the wax on the wheel. i use a small wire brush that is about the size of a toothbrush to clean the wheel off and then reapply a new coat of wax. rub the wax in after applying some in a small area. go all the way around until its coated but not excessively.

read my tips page. http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=608864 PAPER WHEEL 101
 
I got a few questions: Does the gritted wheel cut fast enough to thin out blades which come way too thick from factory? Like those typical big heavy bowie knives. I tried to thin them out with waterstones but it takes forever and used up a lot of my expensive waterstones. Then I bought a Tormek just to find out that it's not much faster, so I sold the Tormek again. Now I am back to where I started.

I basically need to thin out, sharpen and polish short as well as long knives, machetes and swords. I know a bench grinder would be fast but a problem I can see with using a bench grinder is that if the blade is too long it will touch the second running wheel while using it on the first wheel. I experienced that on the Tormek: When using the leather strop wheel I had to hold the long blade diagonally which I found to be awkward and not ideal and I think it's not possible to keep a consistent angle that way. Of course I could take one wheel off the bench grinder. I have not much experience with them but from what I read they are not made to put on/off wheels all the time, hard to balance, etc...

Is there one machine that can do everything I need? Or do I need a combination of things? Most importantly for me now is to thin out blades. I can kind of sharpen and polish with waterstones but I am not good at it. I would prefer to use these paper wheels I am pretty sure.
 
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i have thinned out thick edge blades with the grit wheel, it just takes a few more passes. i also use 1 wheel at a time so i can sharpen a long machete or knife and not worry about hitting the other wheel. i took a thin blade and scraped the inside of the wheel so it would slip on and off easily yet still remain fairly true. some wax applied to the inside of the wheel helps quite a bit.

a belt sander is also a good addition to the wheels. i use a belt sander for swords since i would not suggest sharpening it on the grit wheel but i finish off the edge with the slotted wheel instead of a strop. i found out that the paper wheel works much better than a leather wheel or strop. a buddy had a tormek and he liked the edge the slotted wheel put on his woodworking chisels compared to the leather wheel on the tormek.

a 1725 rpm motor or similar is best to run the wheels on. i have run mine on a 1/2 hp 1725 rpm motor ever since i first bought them.

i have a buddy in australia that sells the wheels. i can put you in touch with him if you want. send me an email.
 
Thanks Richard. I just realized that I need a belt sander anyway to make convex edges, so I go down that route first. Later I may get the paper wheels as well.
 
Richard J said,i dont use anything special, just a 1/2 hp 1725 rpm motor and an arbor to attach the wheels to the shaft.
I just got a HF Buffer because every thing I saw said, you need at least the speed of 3,000 .
Did I just mess up by not using on of my old 1750 motor ?
mustang6
 
i would take the 3400 rpm buffer back and get a variable speed buffer and run it slow or get a 1/2 hp 1725 rpm motor and use it. i called mike up at razorsharp and told him that he needs to try a slower buffer out and he will see that it works just as well and that he needs to add that to his instructions on his website.
 
That is a good deal Richard J.
I just got HFT buffer from advise of another blog and since the maker of the wheels recommend it. I haven't even used the buffer yet nor unwrapped the Wheels yet.
In fact made a 110 mile trip to buy buffer.
The slower speed made since to me and I've not done any power sharpening. Just knowing what heat does on a grinder and does it fast.
I think you said,you can't slow these AC motors down ?
mustang6
 
there is a link to a variable speed grinder in my tips page that lowes carries. look at my post above for the link to my tips page
 
Quick note on the Master of Maintenance:

Happy birthday, richard j -- and your fellow July 21rsters, Vampire Gerbil and Lorena Bobbitski!
 
Richard, hope you enjoyed your Birthday, (lets see, it was your 25th right?:D) and was able to celebrate it with lots of cake and ice cream. Just take care of yourself so we can congratulate your birthdays for years to come. You are loved and admired by many on this forum. May God bless you on your special day!

Blessings,

Omar
 
today i sharpened about 36 knives in about 40 minutes and that includes changing from grit to slotted wheel. some were kitchen knives ranging in length from 4" up to 8". there were 2 emersons that needed changed from a chisel edge to a to a v edge and a couple of duty knives for a soldier in the army. you cant beat the wheels for speed and a good edge :D
 
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