David Gilbert
01-16-2013, 10:23 PM
I’ve been woodworking for a long time and one of my challenges has always been sharpening. Three years ago my wife bought me a very nice lathe and so I have plunged into the vortex of woodturning. One of the things that I learned about turning is that sharp tools are essential and they need to be sharpened more often than my planes and chisels. In an effort to improve my tool sharpening for turning I bought a 180-grit CBN (Cubic Boron Nitride) grinding wheel from D-Way Tools. It works great for my turning tools but I also found that it is fantastic for sharpening chisel and plane blades too. I use a slow speed Woodcraft 8-inch grinder and had upgraded to the Norton 3X blue wheels. The advantage of the blue wheels over the original white ones is that they run much cooler. They are cooler but care must be taken because they will still over-heat and blue a plane or chisel blade. A real advantage of the CBN wheel is there is very little heat buildup so you can grind right up to the edge of a blade. Yes, if you push on it enough it will heat up but if you go slowly you can always sharpen right to the edge without over heating it (so you don't lose the temper) and if you touch your finger to the blade it won't burn you. If you don’t press hard and just let the wheel come to the tool, the tool only gets warm to the touch. I use a Wolverine system to grind my primary bevel and then hone on Shapton 1000 and 8000 stones. This makes sharpening fast, easy and enables me to have professional results for the first time.
One of the nice features of the CBN wheels is that they don’t wear away like diamond stones. I searched Sawmill Creek and it surprised me that all of the references to CBN wheels (except for one) were in the Turner’s Forum. I talked to Dave Schweitzer, the owner of D-Way Tools, and he indicated that although these wheels were designed for high speed steels, they can be safely used on hardened tool steels as well. There is one problem with the CBN wheels and that is the cost. They are a little over 3X the price of a my old blue wheels but I expect this will be the last grinding wheel that I will need to buy.
I know, if there isn't a photo then it didn't happen. Here is one.
Cheers,
David
251442
One of the nice features of the CBN wheels is that they don’t wear away like diamond stones. I searched Sawmill Creek and it surprised me that all of the references to CBN wheels (except for one) were in the Turner’s Forum. I talked to Dave Schweitzer, the owner of D-Way Tools, and he indicated that although these wheels were designed for high speed steels, they can be safely used on hardened tool steels as well. There is one problem with the CBN wheels and that is the cost. They are a little over 3X the price of a my old blue wheels but I expect this will be the last grinding wheel that I will need to buy.
I know, if there isn't a photo then it didn't happen. Here is one.
Cheers,
David
251442