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I bought them at the address below. I have two leather wheels. The first one has polishing paste and the second one is just leather. In fact, my leather strap


https://schleifjunkies.de/produkt/lederrad-250x35-glatte-oberflaeche-zum-end-abzug/

I do use the felt wheel, but I can't say it's a game changer.

For inspiration: I do think it's important that all the wheels I use are 250 mm. So I also have a leather wheel with a diameter of 250 mm.  I use the M-102 as an FVB and use a long toolbar that I can use for both wheels. The wheels turn away from me.

This process means I don't have to change or adjust the setup as often.

Looks like a really cool and useful tool.  As long as woodworkers have been dealing with that sort of need, why has this not been invented before?

As a carpenter, I worked with a router plane in the 1970s. It was made entirely of wood.

Adjusting the depth was easy. You placed the router plane on the wood. And the depth of the groove was marked on the side of the wood. You then lowered the chisel until it touched this depth mark and tightened it with a nut. That's all there was to it.
If the groove was deeper, you set it to multiple depths.

The centuries-old name for this plane in Dutch was "Horletoet."
But if you translate the current name, "grondschaaf," into English, it becomes "ground plane."

What I find more important than a very precise adjustment of the chisel is a heavy mass. Then it pushes the plane more easily through the wood when encountering resistance from the wood.

Thanks for the tip. I hadn't thought of that.

In 1970, during my carpentry training at technical school, I received a set of chisels from Nooitgedagt. I used them a lot. Like every carpenter, I also have a 'favorite' chisel, which is the one in the photo.

This chisel has now been ground down so much that it no longer fits properly in the SE-77. It has become too short.

I made an 'emergency attachment' so that I could still sharpen it on the Tormek. It worked quite well. I want to refine it a bit with a slightly better 'grip' and also with a right-angled stop.

I did the deburring 'traditionally' on a so-called 'Belgian chunk'. There is still one quarry in Belgium that sells these whetstones (8000 grit).

Like all carpenters back then, we had to learn how to deburr freehand at technical school, by holding the chisel steady in front of your stomach and rotating the whetstone in circles over the chisel. You use your eye to make sure the stone is flat on the chisel. Once you've mastered that, it works really well. This was called the 'carpenter's deburring method'.

The BESS score is 135. I'm satisfied with that.
(I hope the translation is correct.)

PM me if you want details of how I do my workflow.

How can I post a PM?

Wim

Thanks for this additional information. It gives me a better picture. My goal is to stay below 200 BESS, even if the quality is mediocre. The path you take starts with a good analysis of the knife. I think 20 degrees is fine for a cheaper knife. For the better knives, the grinding angles are well known.
I often start with one or a few passes with the coarse diamond wheel. In my experience, if I don't do that, I end up doing a relatively large number of passes with the medium diamond wheel, which takes too long.

Thanks for the responses. I'm going to look for some videos.  Personally, I think pressure does make a difference. But you have to be careful not to apply too much pressure when placing the knife on the stone, especially when using a coarse diamond stone. If you press too hard, you can easily cause deep damage to the cutting edge. I usually place several fingers across the entire width of the knife. Actually, you should only use one finger when placing the knife and only press the knife onto the wheel in the middle of the stone. Then you can add the other fingers.

Thank you for your answers. That's very helpful. For me, it's also important to be able to carry out this type of grinding work at a reasonable pace. I also think standardization (reducing variation and making processes repeatable) is important in this regard.

Any further tips are very welcome.

High-quality knives are not for everyone. Nevertheless, I want to sharpen knives for these people too, and I am looking for a good workflow that suits this purpose. (So we are not talking about knives at the very bottom of the market, which are almost impossible to get sharp.)

(1) What is a common cutting angle for sharpening kitchen knives, paring knives, etc.?
(2) What does a good sharpening workflow look like? I have diamond discs from Tormel, an HR felt wheel, and a leather wheel (all 250 mm).
(3) Other useful tips for achieving a reasonably sharp knife within a certain amount of time.

So this is not about the well-known (top) brands, but about people who use 'mid-range' products. I would also like to sharpen knives for these people.

I am curious to hear your answers.

Wim

I would like to add one more thing. If you use a coarse grinding wheel, you need to be even more careful. Unfortunately, I have seen that applying slightly too much pressure too suddenly (which happened accidentally) can cause deeper damage.
This damage is clearly visible, even to your customers. This means that you have to grind away all of the damage.

So your concern and question are entirely justified.

I recognize that. What I do is spread my fingers across the entire length of the blade so that the same pressure is applied across the whole knife. This prevents too much pressure being applied to a specific part of the knife and ensures that it remains more evenly positioned on the stone.

As an older carpenter, I sharpen my tools on the T8 with diamond discs (DC-250, DF-250, and DE-250). I don't use woodturning chisels, but I do use woodchissels and plane irons.

Then I switch to a fine flat (diamond) whetstone and then to a Belgian grinding stone (https://ardennes-coticule.com/nl?srsltid=AfmBOopjWZ0lC9pWGWfQmXx366UvkT7CeYZWYIIjr8o1YzPeytmtgGxc).

The DC-250 was an important addition, because as a carpenter I sometimes have to deal with damage to the sharp edge of a chisel.

From my previous profession (carpenter), sharpening is nothing new to me.

In recent years, I have immersed myself in sharpening by watching high-quality videos. I have benefited most from the videos by the late Dr. Vadim Kraichuk of KnifeGrinders and from Tormek itself. I find that there are many videos on YouTube by people who present themselves as experts and, above all, as the best in their field. That takes a lot of (unnecessary) time.

I have also learned a lot on this forum by reading carefully and asking questions.
From all that information, I have created my own workflow for sharpening, which I now use.
I sharpen knives, chisels, and also hand saws (but sharpening handsaws is completely different from knives and chisels).

I often read about the unreliability of the BESS method. I want to write something about that.
In my previous work, I had to make or interpret many meteorological temperature measurements for the construction industry.

Comparing these temperatures is only possible if everyone uses the same measurement protocol. The most important ones for outdoor temperatures were:
- Measuring on a 10 x 10 meter lawn.
- The (calibrated) thermometer should be in a white ventilated hut, 1.5 m above the lawn and the door of the hut should face north.
Only then can you compare measurements with directly each other.

What meteorologists have done is to apply this measurement method worldwide as much as possible.

What I see with grinders in YT videos is to show that the BESS method is flawed because the results are always different. That is meaningless. So can meteorologists with their temperature measurements.

If you use the BESS method only for yourself, then how only to apply and interpret your own measurement protocol properly.

If you want to compare with others, you do need to know if "the others" are measuring in the same way. In fact, you have to indicate that in the presentation of your measurement results.