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Thread: stropping machine ?

  1. #1

    stropping machine ?

    Wondering, has anyone tried constructing a stropping machine for sharpening carving tools. Would need a very slow speed, maybe a variable speed drill powered thing
    Either set up like an old foot peddle grind stone or flat like a record player.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Location
    TX, NM or on the road
    Posts
    845
    I used a Harbor Freight router controller on a Harbor Freight 4" angle grinder to control the speed. I believe there is also an adapter bolt to change out the head so you could add a plate with leather on it. But don't remember where I saw it.

  3. #3
    Lots of folks strop their carving tools on a buffer...

  4. #4
    When I visited Dollywood decades ago, the guy in the woodcarving shop only used the buffer. I'm not sure what wood he was carving, but he let me push the gouge on a piece that needed much removed and it cut like butter. His tools gleamed like mirrors too.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2017
    Location
    Townsville, Australia
    Posts
    21
    I have a motorised stropping plate - it's a round piece of mdf on an old potters' wheel. Works brilliantly, speed control is via a foot pedal which lifts a drive cone up to push a big pulley.
    Used potters' wheel cost me $30. Best investment ever.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    E TN, near Knoxville
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    12,298
    Quote Originally Posted by Perry Hilbert Jr View Post
    Wondering, has anyone tried constructing a stropping machine for sharpening carving tools. Would need a very slow speed, maybe a variable speed drill powered thing
    Either set up like an old foot peddle grind stone or flat like a record player.
    I strop on the leather wheels of a Tormek. One is 8"x1" or so and flat. The other is smaller and profiled to let me get into the flutes and grooves. The Tormek turns very slow.

    I once visited a carving shop near the Smoky Mountains and the guy showed me what he uses - a "buffing" wheel on a bench grinder. This wheel is different than most, very stiff so the outermost surface isn't as soft and yielding as a typical buffing wheel. The wheel looks like it is made of heavy stiffened canvas. He said he sells a lot of these wheels to woodcarvers for gouges and knives. I was worried that using such a wheel would round over the sharp edge too much but it sure didn't on the one he showed me. I bought one and it works well, but I still reach for the Tormek first since it is handy. I searched once and found a number of suppliers for the same wheel.

    JKJ
    Last edited by John K Jordan; 08-18-2018 at 9:44 AM.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Tallahassee, FL
    Posts
    722
    I built one using a motor from an old bread machine. Bought a glass platen for a Worksharp. There are plans for similar devices online. There's a good one on Instructables.

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