Going honing

[Brian Brown]

I want to make a tool to hone my turning tools. I'm trying to get a better finished edge on my turnings. I have seen MDF rounds used with tripoly, and mounted to a faceplate. I have also seen a wheel with leather on the outside edge. Which do you think works better?

What is the best rouge for leather, or does it need anything at all?

What kind of leather should be used? Cowhide?

What diameter would you make the wheels?

What PRM would you hone at?

Most importantly, would you hone with the lathe running forward, or in reverse? Reverse seems to me to be the best way, except for the possibility of creating a micro burr on the edge.

Thanks for your help.

[John K Jordan]

Brian, I hone/polish lathe tools on my Tormek which has a leather wheel. I can't remember the diameter but it's less than the 10" stone but that shouldn't matter. Runs at a slow speed. I always use a honing compound - generally the stuff Tormek sells but just started using a green stick. I use a bit of mineral oil on the leather and probably would try that also if I used an MDF wheel. I've seen people hone/polish on the outside circumference of an MDF wheel as well as the side.

I also hone on a flat piece of leather by drawing the knife/gouge,skew by hand. I have on occasion honed carving tools with compound on flat wood.
I hone carving/chip carving, and other knives on leather glued to a flat board. Pigs leather is nice but any leather will work.

If turning you always want the wheel moving away from the edge or you will be cutting into the leather/mdf/etc so I would run the lathe in reverse. Since honing by hand works well, using a slow rotational speed makes sense.

I always use a shaped leather honing wheel to polish the inside of gouges too. Tormek sells a nice leather wheel which has two profiles to work on both the inside of gouges and a cove between which is great for polishing the heel of gouge after rounding (so the heel doesn't accidentally mar the work.) You could easily make any profile with an MDF disk.

You are right about getting a better finish with a polished cutting edge. If I take the time to polish my spindle gouges I can get a near mirror cut on dense, fine grained wood if I'm not too shaky that day. Also, I think it stays sharper longer. Makes sense if you look at the edge under a microscope.

JKJ

[Brice Rogers]

I did things really simply. I mounted a 3/4" thick disk of MDF about 8 inches in diameter to a faceplate and turned it round. Then I charged it with red rouge (waxy stuff). Like John said, always hone with the wheel going away from the sharp edge. I used this on a small lathe and its lowest speed was around 950 rpms. Perhaps a little fast, but I never noticed the tool getting hot. It worked well and worked fast. Sometimes when I was turning and my tool started getting dull, I would not re-sharpen per se but would just hone it. The wheel with the MDF and rouge was mounted on the left side of the lathe so I would be turning on the right side and without turning the lathe off would just touch it up a little. Only took perhaps 20 to 30 seconds. I primarily used the honing wheel on gouges.

I was thinking of attaching leather to a wheel but never got around to doing it. If you go that route, Tormek sell a paste abrasive. I suspect that an abrasive car polish would work to some extent as well with leather

[Thom Sturgill]

The green compound sold by Woodcraft is Aluminum/Chromium Oxide. It is designed for hardened metals and wheels at 1750 or lower speeds. I made a wheel by gluing two 3/4" MDF pieces together and rounding them on the lathe. I turned a bead on one edge for polishing the flutes. I mounted the wheel on my low speed grinder and polish using the lower half of the wheel. I removed the wheel when I bought a 360 grit CBN wheel to go with my 180 grit wheel.

The one thing I would do differently is to cut fine kerfs onto the wheel across its face to hold the compound.

I now use a 6" high speed grinder with doubled buffing wheels and black and green compounds for honing (two wheels one for black and one for green) and sharpening my wife's carving tools and my skews. On my other turning tools I occasionally hit them with a diamond card.

[john taliaferro]

I only hone chisels and carving tools maybe a skew . Use leather disk stacked then mounted on a arbor ,trued up on the lathe then mounted on an old motor and trued again with an old file . Charged with red ruge .

[robert baccus]

Try the diamond discs (6") on E-bay. Several grits and cheap. Mount them back to back for a grit choice. 6-12$ usually.