Clean leather honing wheel?

[Roger M.]

Is there any advantage to cleaning the leather honing wheel?

Mine seems quite loaded with black remnants of the honing compound, and I'm wondering if there might be some sort of cleaning process I'm not aware of, or if cleaning just isn't required on a leather wheel seeing normal use?
If one was to clean the wheel ... what general process and cleaning solution is used?

There is no real reference to this in the Tormek manual, so I'm wondering if it's not terribly important ... or if cleaning simply isn't required?

[Ken S]

Roger,

I enjoy watching Tormek related videos, including "expert" reviews. Whenever I see one where the Tormek has a nice pristine tan color leather honing wheel, I know that the expert has spent more time setting up his video device than using the Tormek.

The leather blackening is a natural byproduct of use. I would not worry about it.

Ken

ps I trust the replacement unit that Lee Valley shipped to you it working properly.

[John_B]

Once in a while when the black residue bothers me I will use the edge of a piece of steel held at a fairly high angle to remove most of it. The spine of a scrap knife also would work. For the most part I rarely do this as I find that the compound seems to break down with use and becomes finer resulting in an even better finished edge. How often you add compound of course depends on use but I now do not use it as liberally as I once did.

[Roger M.]

ps I trust the replacement unit that Lee Valley shipped to you it working properly.

All's well!

[jasonstone20]

I was wondering about this.  The black stuff is steel slurry, and it isn't the best thing to have your freshly sharpened edge have contact with.  At best the steel slurry will burnish the edge, but that degrades cutting performance and edge retention, in theory.  Not sure how much it effects the edge in real life.  Has anyone noticed a difference between a cleaned wheel and one that is used how the manual says?

[Ken S]

I used a leather cleaning saddle soap type cream on my leather honing wheel several years ago. Whether or not it actually helped the leather honing wheel, it did make me feel better. I think it is probably a good idea, especially if your leather wheel has not been used for a long time.

Ken

[jasonstone20]

I will give it a try, thank you.  I am just used to keeping my strops clean, for the reason I noted above, and I was thinking the honing wheel might need the same care.  I think it shouldn't really be an issue if new compound is applied to be honest, but with freehand sharpening and using strops that wasn't the best idea for leather strops.