honing leather replacement?

[3253535]

I have a T-7.  The leather on my honing wheel is damaged and difficult to use.  Can I replace the leather without replacing the whole honing wheel?  If so, what adhesive should I use?

[grepper]

Providing you could get the old leather off and leave a smooth surface, I don't see why you could not glue on new leather.  It doesn't turn very fast so I don't think you would need some super adhesive.

Just guessing here, but maybe Marine Goop or some other silicone based adhesive might be all you need, and you cold remove it more easily than say, epoxy, if it did not work out or you wanted to change the leather again.

I think it would be important to get the wheel smooth before applying new leather so the blade would ride smoothly when you were done.

When mine was new, it was delivered with a crappy butt joint where the ends of the leather joined on the wheel, and the blade would jump every time it passed the joint.  Sandpaper, time and use smoothed it out eventually, but it was annoying at first.  I'd pay extra attention to that if I were replacing it.  I suspect that if dry leather absorbed moisture from the adhesive it could shrink causing the butt joint to separate.  Don't know if that would be an issue with a silicone based adhesive, but might be something to keep in mind.

Could you just glue a new one over the old one?  That way you would not have to mess around trying to remove the old leather.  (I'm lazy)   You would just want to make sure the new surface was smooth and even.

You could always email Tormek and ask them what they think.

Onion other hand, if it's mess up you have nothing to lose so you might as well have at it! 

[Ken S]

You could certainly try.  As grepper stated, you have nothing to lose.
However, in the long run, I believe you would be better served to bite the bullet and buy a replacement honing wheel. If the original wheel was damaged by inadvertently running it in the direction toward the blade instead of away, and if you have since learned not to do that, the new wheel should last many years.

Ken

[3253535]

Thanks.  Those comments were helpful.

[Ken S]

New lA-220 leather honing wheel is $69.  Money well spent.

Ken