Workers Of Wood

Was gonna purchase a diamond sharpening stone before WOW started & then Covid 19 also so now my dear wife asked me what can she get me for Christmas. I said a diamond SS. Not so much for sharpening tools but to alleviate a lot of what I usually accomplish with an ordinary coarse emery stone ,(two sided coarse/fine.)Thanks in anticipation,James.

I finally treated myself to DMT 8" in coarse, fine and extra fine...FANTASTIC...! The 8" has worked for me with the Veritas MKii...originally thought they would be too short. They are likely to last longer than I will...

Prior I used wet stones, flat rocks, wet paper and whatever else was around...kinda worked.

I bought the Harbor Freight 4-stone cube and that worked ok but not like the DMT's for sure.

DMT also sells a kit with coarse, medium, extra fine...about $140 USD...also on Amazon.

I just purchased one of the 4 sided cube just so I would have coarse to fine in one package. It works well enough. I have also been using the cheap 3 piece sets for 20 years almost. The ones that come 3 for somewhere between $10 to $20 for the set. They are about 2" x 6" I think. They work well enough that I could never justify the cost of the DMT ones. I also use the sand papers for sharpening and the finest one that Lee Valley sells will put a razor's edge on a chisel or iron. You just have to be very careful to always stroke backwards. One of the reasons I haven't gone with better stones is because I also have a hard felt wheel set up on a mandrel that I charge with the green honing compound you can buy and it sharpens to 8000 grit equivalence. Buffing the final edge with that will give an edge you can shave with.

Has anybody used the new diamond grinding wheels?

New? Like these?
https://www.amazon.com/Kent-Diamond-Lap ... 06&sr=8-51
One of the local turning Gurus swears by them; he has it right beside his lathe and touches up his chisels frequently. I thought his was maybe 800grit, but i could be wrong. They're a mainstay for the lapidary enthusiasts.

More...

In the past I always sharpened my lathe tools on the grinder with a white 180 grit wheel and they cut okay. The last time I did some turning I tried holding the tools in one hand and stroking the edges with my 600 grit diamond hone. The tools cut noticeably better so I'll only be using the grinder if I have to reestablishment the profile in the future.

Chuck, I found that a reverse rotation grinder doesn't burn the tool as easily, and give very good results.
Herb

That's the idea behind using a white wheel too Herb is that it is less prone to heat up the tool because the grit is held together with a more friable bond. I might be able to get better results from the grinder if I had a 600 or 1200 grit wheel like they offered in CBN in Dan's link but for now I'll just hone by hand. It only takes a couple of minutes I found and by holding the tool in one hand I can orient it so that I can see where the hone has to meet the edge which is a guess on the grinder.

The reverse rotation grinder I have has an 8" lapidary expanding wheel with a 180 grit carborundum belt on it. I turned the motor around to get the reverse rotation and mounted this wheel, using Carorundum belts 3" wide sanding black sanding belts.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/272363204/ ... 7fd982a776

Herb

That's an interesting option Herb and I see the belts come in a variety of grits to 14000. How long do the belts last?

Cherryville Chuck wrote: ↑Sun Dec 13, 2020 5:26 pm That's an interesting option Herb and I see the belts come in a variety of grits to 14000. How long do the belts last?

I am on my 2nd belt in wasn't done when I changed it,it had stretched so it seemed loose on the wheel.That has been many years ago,maybe 7 years. But I don't use it for anything but touching up the blades as I use them. It takes less than 20 sec to walk over ,turn on the grinder and touch it up then go to the LH wheel and use the diamond stick to give it a shine like a razor.
I can't find about reverse rotation grinding, I thought it was a Christopher Schwartz article I read years ago that got me onto it.

Herb

How fast does the wheel have to turn to expand enough to hold the belt?

Cherryville Chuck wrote: ↑Mon Dec 14, 2020 12:06 pm How fast does the wheel have to turn to expand enough to hold the belt?

This one is 6" diam., the one I have is 8"diam.
1825 rpm is recommended, Here is a link.
http://www.hansuperabrasive.com/special ... 69391.html
Herb