power stropping

[Dennis Taylor]

My garage is my carving/turning location....I have a grinder with a hard felt & floppy wheel, which I don't seem to have much luck with using....I do have a wood lathe, could I put leather to a piece of mdf, and use it on my carving tools, I can slow the speed down to about 300 rpms, would have a good tool rest.......has anyone done this?........any comments?......

Dennis

[Dan S]

I've done something similar with a drill press. It worked fine for me.

Dan

[urbansheepdog]

Hi Dennis
I was about to do the same as you suggested with my lathe but saw Allen Goodmans set up with a drill and bench bracket. It works superbly, and a vari-speed, reversable electric drill can be bought for £10.00 now-a-days!
Here's Allen's set up here YouTube - 2 ways to maintain an edge on your woodcarving knife!

[Dennis Taylor]

Well Urbansheepdog, funny you should of mentioned Allen, I just got a GREAT KNIFE FROM HIM, and had watched the video on YOUTube, that was where I got the lathe idea!....instead of a drill, a lathe with forward & reverse, slow speed to 300rpm's....and sitting in the middle of my shop already.....don't see why it would not work for me and anyone else with a lathe, I have a floppy wheel and hard felt, on a 3600rpm motor, kind of FAST & SCARY to be honest.....

Dennis

[Stan Curtis]

I currently use my midi lathe as a sharpening/honing station for my carving shop in our basement. The 8 inch wheels are from The Woodcraft store in Bettendorf, they sell them with specific compounds as the ones Denny uses to sharpen his knives and gouges. I have each mounted on a tapered spindle for quick change. I tried to make a 12 inch long multi mount, but the flex and vibration was too much for the bending strength. I particularly like the "floppy" buffing wheel since it resores sharpness without any overheating or rounding of the edge. Stand back of the lathe, grasp firmly and keep it safe, etc.

I am also looking to replace this, since I would like to move my lathe out to my somewhat dirty garage machine shop. Have some bowls and the like to turn. So I'm trying to decide what to get, and am leaning toward a Sears buffing machine. A bit pricy, but cheaper than another lathe. Down side is no variable speed, but might get a speed controller to work with it if that is possible.

Do any of you have any other optional ideas?

[Dull Knife]

Originally Posted by Dennis Taylor

My garage is my carving/turning location....I have a grinder with a hard felt & floppy wheel, which I don't seem to have much luck with using....I do have a wood lathe, could I put leather to a piece of mdf, and use it on my carving tools, I can slow the speed down to about 300 rpms, would have a good tool rest.......has anyone done this?........any comments?......

Dennis

I use a hard felt wheel to sharpen my knives....the wheel has been treated with a wax like compound that I got thru one of the carving catalogs. I run the wheels at around 3600 rpm and get really sharp edges. The floppy wheel is dangerous to use on knifes, will grab it and take it right out of your hands, so I only use it on my carving chisels.

The set up I had before, had four differant wheels, (but didn't include a hard felt wheel). They turned at 300 rpm....my knives didn't get as sharp as they do with the felt wheel.

[therenow]

I have tried several power stropping methods but the one that has produced consistent results is the razor wheel on a bench grinder at 3400 RPM,. It is a paper wheel with a buffing compound. One pass on both sides does it. I also use a hard felt wheel on occasion

[minowevie]

hi all what would be, the reason behind power stropping??? thanks. Evie

[Gulf Coast Handyman]

Good question Evie, maybe just faster ?? I have the upside down belt sander with a leather belt, it works fine but I find myself stropping with a hand strop most of the time.

Dave

[bill#1]

some people think that power stropping can take the place of hand stropping..here is the key ...keeping it slow enuff so the blade wont heat up..some issues back they had issue..of WI that showed a floor scrubber..with two rotating disks and then you put a router control on the supply line to slow it down..just fast enuff you can see it moving and that will do fine..it will make a fine horizontal rotary power strop..if you can find a dremel shoe polisher they make a great vertical power strop also..also a router control is needed to slow it down also so you dont heat up the blades..a few years back a famous carver named Harold Enlow showed us his rotary strop and it ...it had different steps on or different curves on it to accomodate the different shapes of gouges ...thats my 2cents bill#1