Is Tormek leather wheel necessary for sharp edge?

[JoeS01]

Hello, I  sharpen my bench chisels with Tormek Supergrind 2000 with the SG-250 wheel which is now down to 240 mm diameter.

My question is what is the point of the leather wheel, other than to give a nice polish, It does not hone i.e, remove very fine metal, or give a microbevel. Or is this incorrect?

How does it compare with my method of  grinding with the SG-250, then going straight to the 1,200 and 8,000 waterstones? I  hold the chisel on the heel and the bevel edge, and draw the chisel backwards freehand about 5 times to give a microbevel as shown in the attached picture. I  can do this to hone the chisel during a job 5 or 6 times before needing a new grind

Hoping to get some knowledgeable and wise comments

[micha]

Hi Joe,
the leather wheel is definitely intended for honing, which it does quite effectively when used with some compound, like the Tormek honing paste. That works very well for many woodworkers, and sure gives a fine and usable cutting edge.

There are alternatives, like using felt wheels and finer honing compounds. Many woodworkers follow their own recipes here (and there's a lot of philosophy involved)

If you finish your chisels on waterstones, then microbeveling and honing is done on these stones (and maybe with some strokes on a leather strop) and I wouldn't go back to a leather wheel after an 8000 grit stone. In fact I use both methods (usually with plane blades) and I don't feel that much of a difference.

The wisest I can crank out : If you're happy with the results you achieve, don't change your workflow.

Mike

[Ken S]

Good questions, Joe.

I used your method (without the Tormek) for many years, going back to Norton India oilstones and more recently water stones. I was very satisfied with it, especially with water  stones, which cut faster. (With a DMT diamond flattening plate today, the India stones would cut better with regular maintenance.) Like you, I also used microbevels.

I have not used either bench stones or microbevels since 2009 when I purchased my Tormek. They still work as well today; however, in my opinion, the Tormek does the job more easily. The use of a microbevel was logical when sharpening was done by hand with bench stones. Instead of sharpening the entire bevel, only the "two point contact" area was sharpened. With the Tormek, the machine does the work. Sharpening the entire bevel is not strenuous.

I tested several CBN wheels for the forum several years ago. One off shoot of this testing was a chisel ground with only an 80 grit CBN wheel. Not surprisingly, this left a deeply scratched surface. As an experiment, I went directly from the 80 grit wheel to the leather honing wheel. I used the leather honing wheel longer and with more pressure than usual. This left a surprisingly smooth surface and a good BESS number. (By memory, I believe it was about 135.)
It was not a bragging rights mirror finish. I did not expect that, but, it was respectable.

For comparison, I ran an identical chisel with the traditional Tormek SG-250 coarse/ fine/ and leather honing wheel with PA-70 compound.

I have found both the fine graded wheel and the leather honing wheel important steps in sharpening/honing. In my opinion, the leather honing deburrs and does remove small amounts of metal (as in cleaning up scratch patterns).

I have found grinding pressure more influential than grit numbers. In fact, I have heard several grit numbers stated for the PA-70 honing compound. I put more faith in varying pressure than in numbers.

I will be the first to state that there are many satisfactory sharpening methods. Your method works well for you (and numerous others).

Ken

[JoeS01]

Thanks Mike and Ken, you have given me great confidence to continue with the coplanar bevel method on waterstones after grinding on the Tormek.
What a great Forum this is !