Sharpening for luthiers
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Tagged: instrument making, sharpening
- This topic has 18 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 6 years, 6 months ago by Larry Geib.
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@lorenzojose you are exactly right- It is an aluminum oxide stone. I don’t know the details of what makes this one different from others, but I get a mirror finish on my chip carving knife with it and have started using it on the backs of my irons and for doing my chisels. I get mine from Wayne Barton (https://blaiseba.dot5hosting.com/chipcarving.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=1&products_id=32&osCsid=1fc2fda53fa17ff374f76aba3dcc7989 ) I avoided posting a link because I don’t want to appear to be advertising for my teacher. There are two stones…the white one is the polishing stone.
@antekboodzik Tod Herrli showed me sharpening on a “buffing wheel.” In his case, it was a wheel of MDF turned on his lathe and charged with green compound. He likes this because he is sharpening moulding planes and finds that having a couple wheel thicknesses allows him access to the various shapes. You must understand that you *drag* the blade on the wheel. The wheel rotates *away* from the edge. If you do it the other way, you will catch and have the blade thrown at you and will get hurt. This gives a mirror edge, but I’ve avoided it because I don’t want to be dependent on a machine. I do have a stiff (rigid) felt wheel that I can use for convex and flat surfaces.It takes some practice because it is largely by feel. It is really easy to round over the edge and polish it blunt. It’s the normal grinding thing- You start by registering well away from the cutting edge and then roll slowly and carefully until the abrasive reaches the edge. Unlike grinding, though, there are no sparks, so you can’t watch for sparks coming over the edge. The wheel is rotating the wrong direction to cause that anyway. You just need to practice until you get the feel.
Ernie Conover showed us buffing for sharpening in a turning class, too. For spindlle gouges, we’d grind to shape and then go to a buffing wheel to polish. Two wheels, really. To be honest, I’ve actually switched to a stone for my spindle gouge..I grind to shape and then use Wayne’s polishing stone to polish after grinding and as touch up later. I’m pretty new to turning, so I can’t promise this is a good idea.
Hope that helps. I didn’t realize you were asking about buffing.
@ed Buffing on a wheel just comes here as an one possibility.
But do I see a bench grinder with soft buffing wheel loaded with chromium oxide? Here:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BJ2hWPpBRd3/?taken-by=paul.a.j.sellers
and here:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BHmJZfShFCj/?taken-by=paul.a.j.sellers22 October 2017 at 7:03 pm #338742The buffing wheel seems evident. What isn’t evident is that it is used on an edge.
- This reply was modified 6 years, 6 months ago by Larry Geib.
- This reply was modified 6 years, 6 months ago by Larry Geib.
22 October 2017 at 7:12 pm #338748“Mr van Edwards also warns agains using oil with any stone – probably it could contaminate small pieces of fine work. Is it a so big concern really? And does it make sense to use let’s say Arkansas stone, or any “traditional” oilstone with water?”
I think he’s commenting on his Belgian stone, which he describes as water stones and pretty soft. water stones are pourous, so the oil would get into the stone and stay there.
Arkansas stones were traditionally used with a light oil by gents and kerosene by tradesmen I knew. If you had some spare change you got a pint of Stoddards solvent from the dry cleaner. It smelled less.
What is generally not a good idea is to change the fluid from stone to stone or the swarf does funny things. I have read where people us diamond stones with water, simple green, or the windshield washer fluid and continue with the fluid on the Arkansas fine stone. It seems to work fine, the little I’ve tried, as long as the stone has the oil removed from it. Otherwise the water based fluid just floats on top.
A wipe with Acetone seems to work to clear the old oil off.I love word replacement, which changed swarf to dwarf before I caught it.
Different meaning 🙂 -
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