Grinding wheel

caretaker · 27 Mar 2007

Now this may be not a hand toll but, it sharpens hand tolls.
As you know I have a lathe and also have a grind stone, I need to know what stone to put (bye) for sharpening my chisels.
I have 2 on at the moment (gray in colour) but do I need the white one for fine finishing?
This will be only for lathe chisels.

PowerTool · 27 Mar 2007

I currently use a fine grey wheel,and a diamond hone when needed.
Thinking about getting the Perform wide white wheel grinder (mainly for the extra width for sharpening skews),although been quite happy with the edge I can get on chisels/scrapers so far.

Andrew

Mark Hancock · 27 Mar 2007

Reg

Most turning tools nowadays are made from High Speed Steel (HSS) and are usually sharpened on white grinding wheels. The general rule when grinding is the harden the material the softer the stone. There are also ruby/pink coloured stones and blue ones which are also for HSS. These are suppose to grind more efficiently with less heat generated. The stones come in various grits and widths. A good combination might be a 50 or 60 grit stone for heavier shaping and a 80 or 100 grit stone to refine the edge. It's also good to get the widest wheel possible for your grinder for the finer grit wheel. This is particularly useful when doing the swept back grind on gouges.

caretaker · 28 Mar 2007

Thanks for the advise all.
I will look out for the white and a pink stones, the ones I am using is like the ruff end of a pineapple, I have had smother rides on a roller coaster.

Tony Zaffuto · 28 Mar 2007

I'm new to this forum (first post), though I've "lurked" for the past year or two.

Regarding the question about grinding wheels, I've had experience with both the pink (ruby) and white. The pink was a 100 grit and the white was a 60 grit. I've used both wheels on two different high speed grinders on a variety of tools including chisels, plane blades and HSS turning tools. The pink wheel (probably because of the finer grit) was very easy to burn non-HSS steels on. The white never blued anything at all. The edge I got from the white steel (on chisels and plane blades) needed further honing on a medium India stone and a follow-up on a white Arkansas and a leather strop. The stone honing goes very fast.

The white wheel I have is a Norton 3X (no affiliation) and I would highly recommend it over the pink.

Now, I think I'll go back to just reading!