Modifying a metallography polisher to sharpen knives

[GABaus]

I have been wondering if anyone has tried modifying a manual metallography polisher to sharpen knives. When I was in college I spent a fair bit of time polishing samples for metallography using manual polishers and always thought that with a little modification it would they would make great knife sharpeners. It is easy to change grits, you have water cooling, your abrasives are always on a flat surface, there are several different options of abrasive materials, and with a little practice you can get a very consistent finish. The biggest downside is that they will essentially fling water at you once they have been modified for knife sharpening. For those who don't know these polishing machines consist of one or two spinning magnetic disks which hold various plates(which can be diamond or have various grits of sandpaper glued to them) and buffs with what is essentially a small faucet to provide water for cooling a setup that can be easily adapted into a knife and tool sharpener.
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[ToddS]

Are you aware of how much these cost?

 

[HeavyHanded]

It would be easier to modify an old microtome blade sharpener...but not very practical.

 

[GABaus]

Are you aware of how much these cost?

It has been difficult for me to find a price quote.

Edit- just found a couple listed with the price, looks like they cost about twice what I expected.

 

[eKretz]

I use one for reprofiling. Mine is a water cooled 4"x36" Buehler belt sander.

 

[tiguy7]

I have spent a lot of time polishing metallographic specimens and at least as much time sharpening knives. I don’t see a common denominator. The splash ring would limit access to the rotating platen. You might be able to sharpen the tip but forget about the base of the blade.

 

[GABaus]

I have spent a lot of time polishing metallographic specimens and at least as much time sharpening knives. I don’t see a common denominator. The splash ring would limit access to the rotating platen. You might be able to sharpen the tip but forget about the base of the blade.

I was thinking of removing the splash ring.

 

[tiguy7]

I was thinking of removing the splash ring.[/.
My main equipment was a table with 3 wheels in it. The 2 slower wheels used adhesive backed wet sand paper and had faucets and drains. The fast wheel was dry and used silk or kitten’s ear with a retaining ring and Diamond paste or Cerium Oxide for abrasion. The only way to get at the base of a blade would be to cut a hole in the granite table. A wet suit might have been needed.

 

[GABaus]

sounds like your setup was rather different, the setup i used was 2 wheels with adjustable speeds which used either adhesive backed sandpaper, or diamond plates for the first few steps depending on the material being prepared and some soft plates to which various grits of diamond were applied to refine the finish past 1000 grit(the water was shut off before switching to the soft plates)