Paper Wheels

[kwakster]

In 2009 i started sharpening knives with a set of Paper Wheels, bought from a German dealer, the only European source at the time.
For me the Paper Wheels are an addition to sharpening by hand and sharpening with the Tormek.
I also often combine Tormek and Paper Wheels, where the Tormek is used to  do the heavy lifting and create the initial edge, and i then proceed with Paper Wheels for subsequent refining steps.



This was my first set-up, with the Paper Wheels mounted on my old Creusen bench grinder.
The sharpening Wheel is on the right in each picture, and the deburring Wheel on the left.
No guards on the machine, which is used turned around so the Wheels spin away from me.





Side view of the slotted Wheel with it's warning label:





The Wheels are made from industrially compressed cardboard, and are used on an ordinary bench grinder.
A standard set consists of 2 Wheels: a sharpening Wheel with a glued-on coating of silicon carbide grit (which does the actual sharpening) plus a coating of wax on top of the grit (which protects your edges from overheating during sharpening)
The second Wheel removes the burr and/or does the polishing of the edge, for which you need to charge the Wheel surface for each knife by holding a small block of fine white aluminium oxide for one or two seconds against the spinning surface.
Instead of cooling wax this Wheel uses several slots cut in it's surface, which work like a strong fan and thus protect your edge from overheating during burr removal and/or polishing.

A few years later i also bought several "naked" Wheels from another dealer in England and charged these with various diamond compounds & powders, first to be able to sharpen ceramic knives and later various high carbide steel knives.
The combination of speed together with built-in overheating protection and overall good results is why i still use my Paper Wheels to this very day.

After a short learning curve practising on several cheap knives i did this second hand Spyderco Military in CPM-D2 steel, and it became one of many quality knives i sharpened on my Wheels over the years.
It had some blade play (fixed it), some discoloration on the blade (left that) and it wasn't quite sharp (fixed that with my Wheels)
The knife was part of my edc for several years.

[Sir Amwell]

I could never get paper wheels to work for me, even with very precise angle controls à la Wootz. So gave up.
Interesting here Kwakster, are you free handing on the paper wheels? I see no bars to utilise using jigs?
What's your process with these wheels please?

[kwakster]

Everything i do on the Paper Wheels is completely freehand, no jigs, no bars, no lasers.
I spent quite a bit of time developing my hand-eye coordination, and so far that has been working well for me.

What process do you mean btw ?

[Sir Amwell]

By process I mean are you using them for full sharpening or just honing after grinding on something else?

[kwakster]

Both for full sharpenings as well as for deburring & (semi-) polishing after creating an initial edge on (for instance) my Tormek T7.

[kwakster]

Some old pictures dating back to 2011, showing my vintage Puma 6383 Buddy made in 1972.
The first set of pictures show the knife as it was before sharpening, still with it's original factory edge which was very obtuse and couldn't cut anything well.









The picturess below show the knife after reharpening the edge on my first set of (standard) Paper Wheels, using the silicon carbide grit Paper Wheel for reprofiling/sharpening, and the slotted Paper Wheel charged with the white aluminium oxide for burr removal & semi-polishing.









Specs:

Overall length: 9.6 inch (24,3 cm)
Blade length: 4.8 inch (12,2 cm)
Blade thickness: 3,1 mm
Steel: New Stainless Super Keen Cutting Steel
Hardness: 57-59 HRC
Handle material: Sambar Stag

[kwakster]

Custom Sponaugle 154CM droppoint hunter Loveless style from a professional hunter.
The knife has been in use for some time, and it was kept more or less sharp by the owner with the help of a Spyderco Sharpmaker.
However, due to the original edge angle being somewhat too large (35/40-ish near the heel developing into 35/30-ish towards the point), and also being a bit uneven keeping it in working condition was becoming a nuisance, and the point becoming rounded was not helping either.

Before sharpening:










After sharpening.
A new very slightly convex edge of almost exactly 30 degrees inclusive was made with just a standard Paper Wheel, after which i removed the burr on my Tormek leather wheel (the edge keeps a little more bite that way, which works better for hunting knives imo)
The new edge now transitions smoothly into the ricasso and there's a new point too.

[RichColvin]

My experience has been that:

• The paper wheels make a very shiny edge, but
• The Tormek leather stropping wheel provides a sharper and longer lasting edge. 

I've not seen any analysis on this, so I am wondering what others are finding.

[kwakster]

The edge on the Takamura R2 gyuto in the clip below was done on Paper Wheels with diamond compounds.
According to the professional Chef who owns the knife he could work with this edge for about 2 months in his commercial kitchen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID9KZW0d9ss

His rank in the kitchen is Chef-de-Partie (just below head Chef and sous-Chef), and he and his team are responsible for prep cutting all the meats, vegetables, and patisserie ingredients.
Basically all he does is cutting food, and he is one of my prime sources of detailed feedback regarding my edges.

The knife had already been used for two months in the commercial kitchen and it was time for it's first resharpening, which i did on a Paper Wheel with 15 micron diamond compound and then deburred on a second Paper Wheel with 0.25 micron diamond compound.
The idea was to make an edge that would do both slicing & pushcutting well, and also to remove as little steel as possible from the fine and thin R2/SG2 blade @ 63-64 HRC.
The new edge measures ~ 20 degrees inclusive (~10 degrees per side) and can whittle a chest hair from root-to-tip at about 4 centimeters from the point of holding, and after a few test cuts into a old piece of beechwood cutting board.

I took these pics with an old Ipad and actually wanted to erase them again as being not good enough until i enlarged the last picture twice.
At first i thought i saw small dirt spots on the new bevel, but those tiny white specks were actually the sliced off peaks of the micro-dot structure on the inside of the flimsy plastic blade protector sleeve.

[kwakster]

A Chinese Ganzo 704 as i received it from Hong Kong:






A very nice knife for the money (i paid about 17 US dollars including shipping from Hong Kong to the Netherlands), but with quite an obtuse edge angle of about 35-40 (ish) degrees inclusive and also a bit blunt not a very good cutter.
On the blade it says 440C stainless steel, but it's more than likely it's Chinese cousin 9Cr13MoV.

Reprofiled with a standard Paper Wheel with silicon carbide grit to 30 degrees inclusive, refined it just a bit with a second Paper Wheel coated with 15 micron diamond compound, and finally removed the tiny burr with a third Paper Wheel coated with 1 micron diamond compound.
It cuts hair above the back of my hand and can slice single layer toilet paper.

[kwakster]

An older one, a user custom Jens Anso from a Dutch knifeforum member after a tune-up by a Dutch knifemaker.
Part of the tune-up was a two-step stonewash treatment of the RWL34 blade, which unavoidably also removed the original edge.

Before sharpening:






After sharpening.
I put on a new edge using a standard Paper Wheel with silicon carbide grit, refined it with a second Paper Wheel coated with 15 micron diamond paste, and finally removed the very small burr on the Tormek leather wheel with some 1 micron diamond compound
This leaves an edge that looks almost polished, but has more bite than when finished with the polishing Paper Wheel using standard aluminum oxide.

[kwakster]

A while ago i reprofiled & sharpened this Ontario Afghan Bush in (probably) 5160 steel for a Dutch forum member, who when he received it tested it quite rigorously to see how the the knife would hold up with it's new edge.
The pictures show the knife with it's new edge measuring 35 degrees inclusive, a 15 micron diamond compound Paper Wheel finish, and a treetopping sharpness.








This was the mail i got from him when he was done testing:
(translated from Dutch)

Hereby i send you the results of the batonning test: my arm hurts and the knife just laughs at me.
I started with batonning through some standard firewood, which didn't cause any problems.
Then i proceeded to baton right through a hardwood pole with a big burl (?) in it (with a lot of effort from my side)
I then replaced the baton with a hard rubber hammer for a bit more comfort and hitting power, and with this i managed to drive the edge about half an inch crossgrain into another piece of tropical hardwood.
After this i cleaned the knife, and the edge would still pushcut through paper.

I almost forgot to mention that i also put the knife sideways with the point on a wooden block and gave it about 20 hard whacks with the rubber hammer on both sides of the knife.
Then i tested the point strength by stabbing it into hardwood and breaking it free sideways.
I think the knife already has endured more than it will ever have to in real life.

After all this i could still shave the hair on my leg on skin level, and after a bit of stropping it could treetop again.

[Rossy66]

I have been interested in adding a paper wheel to my deburring part of my sharpening business and your thread is pushing me even further into it. I have a couple of questions if you don't mind...

1. how long do you think it typically take you to get a finish your happy with (deburring only)
2. Is the a lot of dust particles flying around during use?

I ask these questions because I am a mobile knife sharpener and picked the Tormek so I don't have to wear PPE in the van while sharpening.

Your images, by the way, are amazing and the video with the grape was an eye opener.

Thanks