paper sharpening wheels - when your time is important to you

CasePeanut said:
Thanks for the link. I didn't have the grinder oriented that way. I had it facing towards me. Tons of sparks. I don't have any grinding experience so it was a little surprising. I read nearly all of this long thread before I jumped in. Sounded like there are a few different ways people use these wheels, but turning it away from me makes a lot of sense and I will try that after I regrit the wheel. Thanks for the help!
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No problem, I'm a noob here and been sharpening for a couple years mostly for neighbors. Lately been sharpening at a local farmers market. I learned that bartering is a good thing LOL trading sharpening for preserves and vegitables etc. I mostly use 1 x 42 belts and do more than knives. I generally go 120 grit, 400 grit and a leather strop for knives and 120 grit for tools. Paper wheels are fast going over 3600 SFM.

I have a lot of reading to do here on the forum. There's a lot I don't know, tons of cool knives out there.
 
Can some of you please post a picture of the grit wheel after waxed and working well? I got my wheels a few weeks ago and they worked awesome, I sharpened everything I had. I went back to resharpen my pocket knife and it wouldn’t bring up a burr. I got a waxy mess trying to do it. I re-gritted the wheel and still get poor results. I don’t see how all the wax on the wheel will make it cut. Any advice please?
 
LEE IN VA. said:
Can some of you please post a picture of the grit wheel after waxed and working well? I got my wheels a few weeks ago and they worked awesome, I sharpened everything I had. I went back to resharpen my pocket knife and it wouldn’t bring up a burr. I got a waxy mess trying to do it. I re-gritted the wheel and still get poor results. I don’t see how all the wax on the wheel will make it cut. Any advice please?
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I’m thinking you have put too muck wax on the wheel. I don’t really remember how to remove it right now but, try searching for too muck wax and removing too much wax on Razor Sharp Wheel.
 
LEE IN VA. said:
Can some of you please post a picture of the grit wheel after waxed and working well? I got my wheels a few weeks ago and they worked awesome, I sharpened everything I had. I went back to resharpen my pocket knife and it wouldn’t bring up a burr. I got a waxy mess trying to do it. I re-gritted the wheel and still get poor results. I don’t see how all the wax on the wheel will make it cut. Any advice please?
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On the previous page in this thread (post #1790) I posted a couple pics of my grit wheel if you care to take a look. It works just fine for me with that amount of wax on it. No problems raising a burr at all.

I've been using that same grit wheel since Fall 2009 and I haven't had to re-grit it yet.
 
Railsplitter said:
On the previous page in this thread (post #1790) I posted a couple pics of my grit wheel if you care to take a look. It works just fine for me with that amount of wax on it. No problems raising a burr at all.

I've been using that same grit wheel since Fall 2009 and I haven't had to re-grit it yet.
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Thanks, Are your wheels Grizzly brand? Mine are the pro sharpening supplies brand and I don’t see them mentioned much.
 
LEE IN VA. said:
Thanks, Are your wheels Grizzly brand? Mine are the pro sharpening supplies brand and I don’t see them mentioned much.
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I did buy mine from Grizzly but they are the original Razor Sharp Edgemaking System wheels. I don't think Grizzly makes their own brand but I could be wrong.

I bought another set a few years ago just in case they got discontinued and those are still in the package.

Somewhere in this enormous thread it is recommended to buy only the Razor Sharp Edgemaking brand. Apparently, the other brands are of inferior quality. That might be why you're having problems. I don't know but I thought I would mention it.

The photo will enlarge slightly if you click on it.

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LEE IN VA. said:
How often do you apply wax and do you apply it with wheel turning?
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The first year or so I applied the wax pretty often (maybe every third blade sharpened) but that was only because I didn't know how much was too much and I didn't want to overdo it.

Now that I have a good seasoned coat on there I probably apply fresh wax every 30th blade or so. I apply it with the machine turned off and I rotate the wheel by hand. Then I take the unsharpened side of a hacksaw blade and spread it out a little with the machine running.
 
LEE IN VA. said:
Can some of you please post a picture of the grit wheel after waxed and working well? I got my wheels a few weeks ago and they worked awesome, I sharpened everything I had. I went back to resharpen my pocket knife and it wouldn’t bring up a burr. I got a waxy mess trying to do it. I re-gritted the wheel and still get poor results. I don’t see how all the wax on the wheel will make it cut. Any advice please?
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Did you solve this?

If you have too much wax, it can help to take a piece of hardened steel, and just hold it against the wheel till it warms a bit (so, not a knife obviously)... this will heat the wax and remove some of the excess. You can rotate the steel a bit so the edge scrapes some of it off. The wax doesn't help "make it cut"... it helps to keep the blade cool.

Hopefully, you didn't "re-grit" the wheel, by trying to add grit on top of what was already there...

Railsplitter said:
The first year or so I applied the wax pretty often (maybe every third blade sharpened) but that was only because I didn't know how much was too much and I didn't want to overdo it.

Now that I have a good seasoned coat on there I probably apply fresh wax every 30th blade or so. I apply it with the machine turned off and I rotate the wheel by hand. Then I take the unsharpened side of a hacksaw blade and spread it out a little with the machine running.
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This sounds similar to what I do... just add a bit by hand occasionally.
 
Man I’ve tried everything re-gritted, light wax, even “burnt” wax in with a piece of pipe and every knife I’ve tried cannot get sharp. It was so easy when I first sharpened all my knives. Now it’s like nothing I try works. Can’t even slice notebook paper.
 
LEE IN VA. said:
Man I’ve tried everything re-gritted, light wax, even “burnt” wax in with a piece of pipe and every knife I’ve tried cannot get sharp. It was so easy when I first sharpened all my knives. Now it’s like nothing I try works. Can’t even slice notebook paper.
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Hi,
Does the wheel spin?
Does it remove metal?

Maybe you put too much glue when you regritted

Maybe low blood sugar/coffee level, so take a break, sharpen something already sharp ...
 
LEE IN VA. said:
Man I’ve tried everything re-gritted, light wax, even “burnt” wax in with a piece of pipe and every knife I’ve tried cannot get sharp. It was so easy when I first sharpened all my knives. Now it’s like nothing I try works. Can’t even slice notebook paper.
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How, specifically, did you regrit the wheel? It's not super complicated... but does require a good coating of grit for good results.

Post some pictures of your wheel if you can... maybe something will become apparent.

My only other thought... when I have an issue sharpening... it's back to the basics... mark with Sharpie, insure metal is being removed where I want, proper angle, burr creation, proper burr removal etc. (Finishing the blade on the polish wheel, especially on paper wheels, can be more important than the initial sharpening... to get a clean/sharp edge).

Unless you're sharpening some of the "super steels"... I can't imagine even a poorly gritted wheel not creating a burr on a "regular" steel knife... so maybe try a lower end steel and see if it'll get sharp?
 
I used Elmer’s glue and applied grit just like instructions said. It looked exactly like new. I’ve tried an already shaving sharp knife I did the other week and it makes it non shaving sharp.
 
LEE IN VA. said:
I used Elmer’s glue and applied grit just like instructions said. It looked exactly like new. I’ve tried an already shaving sharp knife I did the other week and it makes it non shaving sharp.
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Don't know what to add... other than what I mentioned before of going back to the basics... I'll add, use light pressure, make sure you're hitting the same spot on the wheel (I use a Laser Guide for that), be consistent, remember one "bad pass", for example, not holding the blade at the same angle on the wheel can "erase" all your previous work, etc.... and if it's frustrating you, set it aside for a few days, then start fresh.
 
Right hand Takamura R2 Gyuto 210 mm from a local Chef, who got it as a birthday present from his wife.
The knife has already been used for two months in the commercial kitchen and it was time for it's first resharpening, which i did yesterday on a Paper Wheel with 15 micron diamond compound and then deburred on a second Paper Wheel with 0.25 micron diamond compound.
The idea was to make an edge that would do both slicing & pushcutting well, and also to remove as little steel as possible from the fine and thin R2/SG2 blade @ 63-64 HRC.
The new edge measures +/- 20 degrees inclusive and can whittle a chest hair from root-to-tip at about 4 centimeters from the point of holding, and after a few test cuts into a old piece of beechwood cutting board.

I took these pics with an old Ipad and actually wanted to erase them again as being not good enough until i enlarged the last picture twice.
At first i thought i saw small dirt spots on the new bevel, but those tiny white specks were actually the sliced off peaks of the micro-dot structure on the inside of the flimsy plastic blade protector sleeve.













 
I think I understand you but, did you sharpen this only on the paper wheel? If yes, CONGRATULATIONS!
 
- Repairing the point of the knife (about 2 mm was broken off) was done on the Tormek by grinding the back of the blade until there was a new point.
- Flattening the old edge was also done on the Tormek (by grinding off about 1/10th of a mm on the side of the stone.
- Sharpening to burr was done exclusively on the 15 micron Paper Wheel.
- Deburring was done exclusively on the 0.25 micron Paper Wheel.
- Rounding the heel of the knife was again done on the Tormek (by grinding off a tiny bit of steel on the side of the stone.)
 
So I got me a set of paper wheels a couple weeks ago and holyyyyyy shitttt. I love them. I really only use the polishing wheel but I work with knives for a living at a pig slaughterhouse and this is the best route to go. I’m fairly new to sharpening but the wheel makes it so easy. I like to sharpen at about 9 o clock with the wheels rotating away from me. I usually use the work sharp blade grinder attatchment with a x65(220 grit) belt to work up a burr and then hit it on the wheel one pass on each side and voila!!! My knives have been staying super sharp all throughout the night. Deff recommend the paper wheels. Haven’t played much with the grit wheel but one day I will.

Jesse
 
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