Dressing stone wheels

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Taximanny

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Jul 27, 2015
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Did not want to hijack the Nail nick thread, so started another.

I'm going the Norton White wheel route on these nail nicks.
Question is...
How to dress these white fine wheels at an angle?
I'm reading diamond, but don't know exactly what to order..?
I see diamond sticks but can't find a video of someone using them.

Some how I need to dress the 1/4" thick wheel at about s 30 to 45 degree angle.
What cuts these stones?
Files ?
Other stones?

I know most people use this in a mill or surface grinder.
But I believe if I go easy enough I could chuck it up in a HF drill press.

Any info would be great.
 
Norton white AO wheel is not a good choice for this.

Read the norton stone guide. You need a stone with a code that encourages good corner holding, ends with a "V" code.


I use a 5SGP70-K8VH and get excellent results. I selected this wheel based on what was available at a reasonable price on ebay. I thought I'd want a finer grit stone, but I know now that I would not.

This stone gives excellent corner holding, I get very sharp clean ends to my nail nicks, and I can easily feed into a tiny slipjoint blade in a single cut, on a medium pole chuck that doesn't have a rock solid hold on the blade due to the lack of ideal pole configuration and the fact that the blade is finished ground and not engaging completely.


I also do not recommend dressing at anything like a 45 degree angle. I was told that, and I tried it, I was also told to dress down to about 4" diameter, also not in line with what I was looking for in a nail nick. I dress at 15 or 20 degrees depending on what size knife I'm working with, and leave the stone approx 7" diameter. I like a nice crescent shaped nail nick. The shallower angle gives this at less depth.

You need to use a diamond dresser to dress this angle. Ideally, an angle dresser that lets you set the angle and make correct passes.


Edit: I do this on a surface grinder. I would be remiss to suggest this method in a drill press. One, you're going to have a difficult time creating a properly mounted stone on an arbor that's balanced. Without this, you're going to get shit results. Any wobble or chatter doesn't beget a clean cut nick. Hand feeding will exacerbate this. A fly cutter is likely a better option for this method, using an x-y vise, or some kind of fixture, on non hardened blades.
 
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Hmmmm
Another nail nick stumbling block.
I was going by past threads and info...
I didn't see the date on the threads....
Fron the pics in the threads the crescent was perfect, but they did state they had to redress after a couple nicks.
As for the drill press.. Yes that makes since about wobble.
Hopefully more will chime in.
 
Maybe it'll work better than I'm guessing. It's also somewhat relative what makes a "good nail nick" I'm extremely particular about the sharpness of my corners and the specific shape. I tried a bunch of methods before I got results I was happy with, consistent, and easy to duplicate. YMMV.
 
Ok tried some more methods today...
I couldn't find a white wheel today except for in a harbor freight rotary tool kit.
I turned it down with a diamond cut off wheel supplied in the kit.
Chucked it up in the drill press at highest speed and came up with what I think is acceptable nail nick.
I blacked it out for a better look with a sharpie. But if done before HT it would be black from the HT.
I would say for the 20$ I spent it wasn't a waist.
Now if I could find a stone, sat 3" in diameter it would be better. This one is 3/4" diameter so I had to move the knife back and forth to achieve the 5/8 long nick.
 
Yeah, also, why do you feel you need it to be a white stone? Those are usually low density, highly friable AO wheels that break down fast for aggressive cutting. A harder, less porous stone will likely hold a more acute edge, and give better results. You'll just have to be lighter feeding the workpiece into it.

It's a good start. Although notice the dips at the corners and inconsistencies of the arcs? That's going to be the difficult thing to overcome with this method I believe. It's certainly an acceptable starting point however. The nail nicks on my first slipjoints look as bad or worse certainly, and it's up to you how obsessive you're going to be over this feature. We're all loco over different things.
 
Good starting point, i would (i will!) dress a lower angle on the stone as suggested by Javan, he definetely knows how to manage all the subtle details that sets the knives close to perfection :thumbup:
 
javand said:
Yeah, also, why do you feel you need it to be a white stone? Those are usually low density, highly friable AO wheels that break down fast for aggressive cutting. A harder, less porous stone will likely hold a more acute edge, and give better results. You'll just have to be lighter feeding the workpiece into it.

It's a good start. Although notice the dips at the corners and inconsistencies of the arcs? That's going to be the difficult thing to overcome with this method I believe. It's certainly an acceptable starting point however. The nail nicks on my first slipjoints look as bad or worse certainly, and it's up to you how obsessive you're going to be over this feature. We're all loco over different things.
Click to expand...

I'm just going by older post and what I have found on the Internet.
I can't afford a surface grinder nor a mill at the present time, so I have no choice but to do my best with what I have at the moment.
I am all ears here! And will listen to all the advise I can get. From what I read I thought the white wheel was the best for this application.
What do you recommend ? For the stone if you had to do it this way?
I'm sure I am as particular as the next guy and would love to have the cleanest lines possible.

Also yes I do feel the angle is not sharp enough on the stone.
A less angle would bring it in a little tighter.
I'm all ears
Thanks, Manny
 
Plus I could not find the number you listed on the Norton link you attached.
I'm thinking its blue in color?
I guess if I got one that size I can tear apart and angle grinder to get the mandrel I need to carry it.
 
Ok went out early this morning and got an assortment of wheels in various colors.
All the stones I had tried would not hold an edge.
Went to northern tool and found a 2.5" grey one.
Turned it down flat and at about a 25 degree taper.
It held an edge
I fed it as slow as I could into the stone at 3600 rpm.

Here is the result one bare and the other blacked out to show the detail better.
To be honest I am very satisfied with the result.




For a two dollar stone and a HB 16 speed drill press
I don't believe I can do better.
Now to build a slippy.
 
Yes, you should be very satisfied with that, and I agree, you're not likely to get better results under the circumstances. The last two are very nice.
 
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