cbn wheels for knife sharpening

[Ken S]

Excellent posts, Curt and Elden.

Elden, I was thinking the same thing about more frequent, lighter truing cuts. I reshapen a skew chisel using the SB-250 blackstone. What a chore! I ended up having to frequently tetrue the stone to keep it cutting. I actually used two universal support bars. Setting the one bar was easy; I just used the closer hole in the TTS-100. With the second bar, I left the TT-50 truing tool locked in place on the second support bar. I rough set it very close to the wheel and tgen fine tuned it with the micro adjust.

In your morning situation, a practical solution might be to switch stones halfway through. Your worst cutting time would only be half as much out as you presently are toward the end of the morning. You would have to purchase two stones, however, each stone should last two years. The cost in the long run would be no higher, and your average roundness would improve.

I wish I could comment on a finer CBN wheel from experience. The finest wheels I have used are 180 grit, and really designed for turning tools. If I had not just purchased a 180 grit wheel,
i would be tempted to buy a finer wheel. Dave Sweitzer is already lending me two wheels; I am reluctant to askk for a third. My gut feeling it that it would be worth a try.

I found just using the leather honing wheel with Tormek .honing Compound after grinding with the 80 or 180 grit smoothed the edges reasonably well. The edges were close to, but not equal with the traditional three step Tormek technique.

How do you finish your knife edges?

Out of curiosity, have you read and/or tried the kenjig for setting your bevel angles? If you are interested, I have posted a paper on the kenjig with photos. If you can't find it, pm me, and I will email it to you.

Ken

[tonylumps]

Ken I have the 600 Grit CBN Alum. wheel from Woodturners Wanders I have not tried it yet on any of my Damascus knifes yet because I am content with the Tormek stones for everything but my turning steel.I have all 3 Tormek stones and I use them all.But my turning tools were doing a job on them.That is when I ended up with the 10" CBN.Like I said it does a beautiful job on the HSS but takes to long.I make and sell a lot o Pens and small ornaments out of Acrylic and that stuff does a number on the tools.With some acrylics you need to sharpen after every Pen Blank.And like you said no one stone for all.Same with Jigs Even though I have the Tormek set up on my Dry Grinder I use the Wolverine set up along with it.Ken I will try one of my knifes today wet and dry and let you know how it works out. Because the wheel is Alum.i do not have a problem with water.One thing for sure the Alum.wheel is less than have the Weight of the 8" steel wheel.

[tonylumps]

Update  on a 600 grit Alum. CBN wheel. I am by no means an expert on sharpening.If I could get my knifes to cut a roast beef almost paper thin then I am happy with the job.This is my own conclusion I sharpened 2 knives today a Damascus and one  High Carbon.First I tried it dry But the high pitched noise was 2 loud.Must be the Alum.wheel. I never had this with any of my turning tools.I put just enough water in to cover the wheel about an inch. The noise stopped. Both knifes came to an edge the quickest I ever sharpened a knife.Both knifes needed an edge but not a regrind.The edge looked a little rough compared to the SG with fine graded.But as soon as I honed the knife it polished up like normal with a very sharp edge.I originally bought it for turning But now I will also use it for my good knifes But nothing low carbon.