[Woodcarver] Sharpening Chisels

[Joe Dillett]

Hi Terry,

I made a buffing wheel from an old wet grinder. The wet grinder had a
10-inch diameter grinding wheel turning at 150 RPM when adding my 1750 RPM
motor. I glued two pieces of ¾-inch plywood together and turned it to a
10-inch diameter. I glued a leather strop around the outside. I've been
using this buffer for the last 20 years and love it as much today as when I
converted it over from a wet grinder.

I've also made buffers from particleboard. The buffing compound clings to
the particleboard quite well. Other buffers include paper wheels, soft and
hard felt. There are two important factors when making a buffer. The most
important is that they turn away from you and not toward you. The next is
the surface speed of the buffing surface. For the green compound I use my
10-inch diameter buffer turning at 150 RPM has a surface speed of 390 feet
per minute. With that speed I get just enough heat buildup to make the waxes
in the buffing compound flow. I expect that surface speed could increase to
about 450 before I would be melting the wax and loosing more compound. I
feel that ideally for safety and minimum use of buffing compound the surface
speed should be around 400 feet per minute.


Joe Dillett
The Carving Shop
645 E. LaSalle St. Suite 3
Somonauk, IL. 60552
(815) 498-9290 phone
(815) 498-9249 fax
http://www.thecarvingshop.com
jdillett at thecarvingshop.com
http://www.carvingmagazine.com Carving Magazine web site and Readers Forum
http://community.webshots.com/user/joe_dillett
http://www.citizenactions.org
http://www.safeguardsystemsinc.com
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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Terry Ensley" <sns at atlascomm.net>
To: "[Woodcarver]" <woodcarver at six.pairlist.net>
Sent: Sunday, March 13, 2005 11:43 AM
Subject: [Woodcarver] Sharpening Chisels


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>
> I would like to get some opinions on the "best" method for sharpening -:)
As soon as I took up carving I quickly realized that sharpening is
incredibly important.  In the past with woodworking chisels I used the scary
sharp method and was satisfied with that.  But wood carving chisels are a
bit more difficult and need sharpened more often wood chisels, simply
because they are being used constantly.  I have thought that I might want to
move to a buffer type system for sharpening.  I have a couple 1750 rpm
motors lying around, just unsure of what wheels to put on them.
>
>
>
> Anyway just want to glean some insight from your experience and what works
"best" for you.
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
>
>
> Terry
>
>
>


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