The care and feeding of the stropping wheel

[Jeff Farris]

Well, it appears the ground has been well covered, but I wanted to add that I have seen many more wheels damaged by too much oil than I have frustrated owners who needed to use more oil.

The entire point of using oil at all is to conserve honing compound. If you partially fill the leather with oil, you don't have to fill it with compound to get compound on the surface.

I'm not convinced that handbook has it right. I've rarely had an application of compound last for more than 2 or 3 tools. I find I go through less compound if I put a little bit (one very thin stripe all the way around) every couple of tools rather than putting a lot on and expecting it to last.

[mike40]

Routers are wonderful and very versatile tools Rob. I use mine quite a bit, a British Trend router BTW,and I also have a few cheap ones, but I have never learned to love them, even though I built a nice router table and split adjustable fence for it which works very well. Maybe it's the high pitched screaming sound they make. I guess it's old age. I like it quiet nowadays! There are of course many things a router can do very precisely and quickly, and of course working oak by hand isn't quite as much fun as pine (English understatement).

[Herman Trivilino]

Any word on the shelf life of the honing compound?  I have a tube that until recently went unopened for 12 years.  It seems to have too much oil in it, but I think it's working ok.

[Jeff Farris]

Herman,

Put the cap on and squish it around a little. It will mix back together.

As for shelf life....think Twinkies. Short of nuclear holocaust (or leaving the cap off), it should be fine.

[mike40]

Jeff, I did use the paste sparingly as you suggest, about the amount I saw you using in your videos. I think I have about the right balance of oil and paste now. I agree that actual experience is better than the manual, but in this case it did give me the confidence to add more oil without fearing that I would ruin the wheel, and it worked out well, but I was careful not to overcompensate.

[mike40]

Jeff, I did use the paste sparingly as you suggest, about the amount I saw you using in your videos. I think I have about the right balance of oil and paste now. I agree that actual experience is better than the manual, but in this case it did give me the confidence to add more oil without fearing that I would ruin the wheel, and it worked out well, but I was careful not to overcompensate.

[mike40]

Could someone please tell me how to put a quote in a post? I tried it above, but wound up with a double post instead.

[Rob]

Could someone please tell me how to put a quote in a post? I tried it above, but wound up with a double post instead.

Go to the upper right hand side of the post box area of the post you want to quote and press the quote button.

That pastes the text from that entire post into a new post of your making.  You can then edit that text as you would normally if perhaps you didn't want to quote the entire original posters content.

Further the quoted content is held between place markers which look like this [/quote] one at start and one at end.  Obviously don't mess with them :-)

[Rob]

By way of visual explanation.....

[mike40]

By way of visual explanation.....

Got it Ron. Thanks very much.

[Rob]

No probs. It's Rob by the way :-)

[mike40]

Sorry Rob, I know your name, but the 'n' is right next to the 'b' on the keyboard, so it's actually the fault of my wild fingers. (damn those fingers!).

[Rob]

Just teasing Mije...I get it all the time.....dam that name :-)

[mike40]

No problem, it's Mikw by way.

[Rob]

oh very drole Oscar :-)  Buffalo...where...on the croquet lawn...blam (sorry lapsed into Monty Python)