Re-oil my T7 stropping wheel?

[mike40]

I am having a little problem getting my diamond paste to stick to the stropping wheel (please note the new terminology, I think it more clearly describes it's actual function). I probably used too little oil on it initially. Should  I try to re-oil it even though it now has dried paste on it mixed with some steel?

[Rob]

Nope......you almost certainly didn't put too little oil on it.  Just keep applying the honing paste and it will blend with the leather, the bits of steel etc and go a lovely slick black colour over time (quite quickly in fact).  Just make sure the paste is smeared on reasonably evenly and it will condition the strop

[grepper]

I didn't use my wheel for quite some time once, and it turned dry and hard.  I lightly sanded it with some coarse sand paper just to break the surface ever so  slightly. Then applied more honing compound.  Worked great.

I don't know if that is really the best way, but it worked for me. Like Rob said, you really don't want to over oil.

Speaking oiling, instead of drooling drops onto the surface, I put light machine oil on a rag and lightly pressed it against the surface.  This put a nice even very light coat on the wheel.

I suspect that since your wheel is new, Rob's suggestion is the correct way to go.

These questions about the care and feeding of the honing wheel come up all of the time!  I'm sure they have all been answered many times before.  Someone here needs to quick their life for a few days, go through the entire forum and make a nice, organized compendium that we could turn into a sticky! 

[mike40]

Thanks Rob and Mark. 

I have tried to read up as much as I can, but there is a limit to my attention span. A compendium outlining the most common problems and fixes would be most welcome. Any volunteers?

[Rob]

Thanks Rob and Mark. 

I have tried to read up as much as I can, but there is a limit to my attention span. A compendium outlining the most common problems and fixes would be most welcome. Any volunteers?

You've just scratched the surface of an idea that gained a lot of momentum when I first joined this forum.  We even began the process of documenting the "first approaches" and it exists today in a sticky.  Ken, Herman and Mark were all 100% on board.  It was during that period that this forum achieved its highest ever usage stats.

The idea was very simple....it was EXACTLY what you describe you need....a quick start guide covering all the bear traps and how to avoid them.  It would avoid people having to go into endless searches with poor understanding of the keywords owing to their "noob" status with the whole thing. The proper solution is simple and precedented ie a wiki style approach where all the protagonists with edit rights can contribute to evolving content on any subject we deemed appropriate to help learners.  We all know how long the learning curve is for any proper sharpening system and were motivated to help the new guys because the forum witnesses the same questions being repeated time and again.  It was our understanding that the forum software (simple machines forum) is capable of supporting wiki's and has no cost associated with it but regrettably the idea didn't really get the necessary "wind in it's sails" and so failed to be implemented.  It's not entirely clear why.  So you're stuck with regular posting I'm afraid :-)

[Ken S]

Good point, Rob.  We were off to a good start.  I thought we were at the point where Jeff was going to strip off all but the basic statement.  Jeff?

By the way, adding something to the basic statement about oiling and using the leather honing wheel would be useful. 

Mike, I agree the search system can be laborious and unproductive.  Most of us would rather spend our time sharpening than searching through the archives.

Ken

[mike40]

I imagine that once a newbie gets his spurs, the motivation to write a compendium might not be so compelling. I do think that it is probably easier to just ask the same old questions over than to do in depth reading of the old posts. That is,  if the experienced members are willing to answer them (again). It can be difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff in the old posts. Also, it is nice having some direct dialog with other members, especially you guys who make up the core of the site (the heroes) and have an avid (anal?) interest in all matters related to sharpening. I am enjoying your discussions and ideas. OMG, am I becoming one of you?

I found your comment about preferring to spend time sharpening rather than going through old posts amusing Ken.  Personally, I would rather spend my time woodworking!

I have been reconfiguring my shop here and there when time allows.I moved my work bench, which had a large tool cabinet hanging on the wall behind it, to a new location. After moving the bench I found that it was so much nicer hand planing without the cabinet and the open doors hanging partly out over the bench, so I decided to make some tool holders for my chisels, carving tools, files/rasps, and screw drivers to hang on the wall behind the bench, which makes work more pleasant without everything hanging in my face.

Well, after finishing the racks and hanging up all the tools, I now realize what a massive sharpening job I have to do. I didn't realize that I have 17 bench chisels and 17 carving tools, a couple of spoke shaves plus my 9 hand planes, and I guess I will have to wait until Christmas before I can get the jigs to sharpen my turning tools. Maybe some of you guys love to sharpen, but to me it's just a means to an end (at this point in time). Most of my edge tools are sharp, but not Tormek sharp.  I expect I will be fairly experienced at sharpening chisels and plane irons when I have finished doing these, or maybe just exhausted.

[Rob]

and possibly a little anal?....er avid :-)

[CleanCut]

In an earlier post I asked the question: How much oil for a new honing wheel of a T-7? The forum advice was to be "miserly" with the oil. RIFM (read your friendly manual)! Having done so, I now find the instruction is "14 ml" and the accompanying video "about 15 ml". Working the honing paste into the leather was more of a guess and I overapplied the initial paste and the xs scraped off the wheel in the first use. I have been following the forum about particle sizes in the paste and how they get used up (?) in the honing. Does this mean then that reapplications of the paste are applied when the wheel no longer does its polishing job?

The manual and video describe how the honing can be done while the tool (blade of a block plane in my case) remains in the square edge jig (SE-76). I find however that the straight edge jig fouls the support when I do this. Is this a problem, or operator error?

[Ken S]

"I found your comment about preferring to spend time sharpening rather than going through old posts amusing Ken.  Personally, I would rather spend my time woodworking!"

Mike, you gave me a good laugh! Once in a while, in spite of our best efforts, some common sense gets through!  You're right, of course.  I would rather be woodworking, also, or working in my darkroom (which was in my last house).  My wife and I are very full time grandparents for out two young grandchildren.  We chose this commitment, and I would not change it.  My personal time is in short spurts.  I can sharpen a tool or two on the Tormek or make a digital photograph.  Actually building something in wood or doing film photography with my beloved wooden camera is out or the question for the next few years.

So, I do what I can, and I enjoy it.  My last "project" before the Tormek was developing my dovetail router jig.  It started out as a standard issue (old) Omnijig.  It now has eighteen templates and is able to make half blind and through dovetails of several angles, as well as untapered sliding dovetails and dadoes.  I had some custom machining done on it.  I guess I'm a tinkerer at heart.

In my present house I finally have a basement workshop.  I hope to spend mess time sharpening and more time enjoying woodworking.

For better or worse, Mike, you are now a part of this forum.

Ken

[Ken S]

Cleancut, I think most of us hone (on the leather wheel) freehand.

Ken

ps I don't believe the actual (exact) amount of oil is critical. The point is not to overdue it.

[mike40]

Thanks Ken for taking my little joke in the spirit that was intended. I think photography and woodworking are very compatible hobbies. I love to photograph my work for blogs and such and I take a lot of photos of anything else I find interesting. I'm not very good at it, but digital photography has made it easy for folks like me to enjoy it and still get ok pics. My impression is that you are a film man, and being able to develop your own photos would surely make it fun and challenging. A great hobby.

I also find it difficult to get into my shop during the summer, except when it rains, as we have a lot of garden and house maintenance which can only be done during that time. I am trying to get my shop reorganized for the fall/winter. Every time I start a new kind of woodworking (marquetry this time) or buy a new piece of equipment, I have to reconfigure my relatively small shop (228sq.ft.) to suit the work I'm doing. At the same time I still have to be able to do general woodworking for other projects.


I was able to use the one chisel and the one plane iron I've sharpened on my Tormek so far to make a bunch of tool holders. I used both all day and both held an incredibly good edge. At the end of the day I tested my chisel with the paper test and it just tore it, so I re-stropped it on the leather wheel and bingo it passed the paper test again. The plane blade was used in my Stanley Bailey #4 to smooth  construction fir used to make my tool holders with. I planed a lot of boards for them and I then tested the plane on a piece of very dry solid beech at the end of the day and it produced wonderful thin shavings and a nice smooth surface without even closing up the mouth to a hardwood setting! I have to say that results like that do make sharpening less of a chore and more of an act of love (please, no tears).

I'm sure that learning more about how to use my Tormek to it's full potential, and more about sharpening in general, will make my woodworking (and sharpening) a lot more fun.

[Ken S]

Very good post, Mike.  I recall as a boy growing up in New Jersey billboards in Pennsylvania advertising a Pennsylvania Dutch (Amish) restaurant with the slogan, "Get to know what good is".  You have certainly gotten to know what sharp is!  Great work.

Humor is a great lubricant.....We can use more of it.

Photography and woodworking are compatible hobbies.  I did the darkroom work for three of Pat Warner's books on router woodworking.  Pat is a real guru; I learned a lot from him.  i believe he may even have learned a few things from me; after the first book his negatives were increasingly easier to print.

A couple thoughts for making good use of space in your shop:

I love the way the Shakers lined their walls with "Shaker pegs".  They were so functional.  In a workshop, I think the Shaker peg idea, but with French cleats, would be useful.  (French cleats are boards about an inch thick, by about three inches high.  The board mounted to the wall has a forty five degree angle on the top (high side out).  The other board, mounted to a cabinet or base of something, has a forty five going the other direction.  They lock together with gravity.  I think this would work well with something like a small cabinet for carving chisels or slightly larger for turning tools.  The appropriate cabinet could be placed in a convenient location for a particular project and stored away when not in use.

The other thing I use is mounting tools on plywood bases.  They are stored on shelves when not in use, and then clamped on the bench for use.  I use my dry grinder this way; the pocket screw tool; and the Omnijig.  They work OK this way with no need for a dedicated (space using) stand.

One of my photography instructors made the comment that good work can be done with very simple equipment if carefully thought through.  You apparently think very carefully.

Ken

[mike40]

Hi Ken,  I have read several good routing articles by Pat Warner and I agree that he is a genius with routers. One photo of him that I always think of when I read his name was taken of him working with his router in his driveway at the front of his home. I couldn't help wondering about what the neighbors thought about the noise. I suppose most of them are at work all day anyway, but I just couldn't get it out of my mind.

I appreciate your shop tips Ken, they are good. I have been using French cleats for some time now to hang my shop cabinets. I also use my walls to hang a lot of stuff. I'll eventually post some pics of my shop to show you what it's like working in my small shop 220sq ft. approx.

My youngest son lives in Sweden and has a house there. I set up a wood shop for him in his basement last summer, and I put up french cleats on his walls and I made one tool board for him to hang up and just to show him how to do it. It's a fairly modest shop mostly equipped with my own machines that I have replaced with upgrades including a bandsaw, a scroll saw, a miter saw, a bench drill press and some hand tools. I also bought him a new mini lathe and some basic turning tools. He is very artistic, but I hope he will eventually take up woodworking where he could use his creative skill. Meanwhile he can do DIY projects with the tools and I can also use them while we are visiting. Yes, I agree, there is a bit of self interest involved in my setting up a shop there. Here are some  photos. Not fancy, but an ok start. You can see the French cleat board with some chisels mounted onto it above the cabinet in the first photo. The cabinet is an old hospital fixture, but is now a tool cabinet (with no tools in it yet).










I didn't get to finish the job because I fell off a step stool while putting up that clamp rack on the wall behind the lathe and landed backwards pretty hard on the concrete floor. Luckily I only messed up my elbow and my foot , which I got sewed up at the local hospital, but I couldn't work with more before we had to drive home. We picked up the table at a second hand store in town to serve as a workbench for the time being. I will probably make some improvements if we can find the time to visit again this summer.

[grepper]

Wow!  Very cool Mike.  Lucky son!