Leather honing wheel -- again

[wilburpan]

I've read up on the honing wheel, and how you are supposed to use mineral oil to break it in, but I haven't seen anything like what I am dealing with.

I use my Tormek almost only for turning tools.  I admit that I don't use the leather honing wheel anywhere to the extent that I use the waterstone wheel, mainly because the waterstone wheel gives me a good enough edge after the fine side of the grading stone.

When I first got my Tormek, I just started putting the honing compound on without the mineral oil conditioning, because I didn't know to do that.  Since then I have added mineral oil to the wheel on occasion (actually, I use baby oil, which is the same thing but smells really nice  ), and then add the honing compound. 

What seems to happen is that as soon as I start honing, the honing compound seems to flake off the leather wheel all at once, to the point that it seems that I have bare leather exposed, as if I never put any honing compound on in the first place.  It does seem to be doing some additional sharpening of the tool edge, but I haven't seen this behavior mentioned before.  I have seen the Tormek demoed live at woodworking shows, and my wheel doesn't look anything like the well-worn almost black look that I see at the demos.

One other thing: my wheel originally had a fuzzy consistency to the leather, like the non-smooth side of a piece of leather.  In the time that I have been using it, a lot of the leather fuzz has flaked off.

Am I doing anything wrong here?  Have I trashed my honing wheel?

[Jeff Farris]

The oil treatment should be a one time only break in procedure. From then on, you should use compound and nothing else.  One extremely thin stripe all the way around the wheel is enough compound to polish 3 or 4 tools. I hold the nozzle actually touching the wheel and turn the wheel one revolution with very light pressure on the tube. 

It sounds like you might have too much oil on your honing wheel.  Hold the side of a chisel against the wheel and "squeegee" some of the oil out of the leather.

The suede appearance should go away with use.  When your wheel is black, smooth, and relatively dry, it's ready for work.