Hi grit CBN - fragile burr on the edge

[Roger Chandler]

At the Virginia Symposium today, I had a couple of minutes to stop by Ken Rizza's booth, and he had me grind a gouge on a 600 grit CBN wheel. Nice polished grind for sure, but the burr is so fragile that I could just brush my thumb against the edge and the burr would brush right away off the edge.

Just my own personal thinking on this, but that seems to be too fragile an edge for most wood turning. Perhaps getting that fine a grind for a light finishing cut would be advantageous, but I am not sure if it would improve all that much over a grind from 180 or 220 grit. Several turners in our club upgraded to CBN today.....I think they will regret not having done it sooner! Ken also had a good deal on some of the new Rikon Slow Speed Grinders, and CBN as a package.....forget what the sign said, as I noticed it, but had people talking to me at the same moment.

[Reed Gray]

I have 600 and 1000 grit wheels from Ken. They make for excellent edges for fine finish cuts, and the burr on my scrapers is excellent for high angle shear scrapes on difficult wood. Pretty much the same for the 1000 grit wheel. They also leave an excellent edge for fine finish cuts with gouges. Most of the time, the 180 works well. I could never get a comparable edge with the hand hones though for the fine edge. It makes a difference in punky wood also, higher shear angle and finer edge = cleaner cuts. Like you said though, they are not good for any heavy roughing, gone too soon. I also think my skews work better with the edge from the 1000 grit wheel. Skews and I don't get along that well..... I am a bowl turner...

robo hippy