Just found this. Every step is really well thought-out, then explained very clearly. Thank you for posting. Now I have yet another channel to binge... Cheers!
I did something similar but with laminated wooden disks. I put the leather around the circumference. One disk with the rough leather side out, one with the smooth. It works pretty well. I hope this did what you want. You did a really nice job!
I mounted mine on a bench grinder and used a wooden rasp! Perfect glued a leather strop on the side. Now I'm waiting for diamond adhesive paste. Btw I cut mine with a jigsaw and once I gently pushed the rasp? Perfect! Great vids! 🙂👍👍👍
Thank you for showing me how you made yours. Watching something being made is the best set of instruction their is. In my opinion. Thanks again. Thumbs Up!
I agree with @teacheng3795 "Great vid. Clear, explanatory, and very easy to understand. NO useless distracting music that gets in the way of understanding". GREAT VIDEO!!
Very good information. Always easier to watch something done before doing it yourself. Why apprenticeships are so valuable. I thank you for sharing your knowledge with us.
Russell Platten nice video Russell, I also order leather from (i'm guessing) the same place, very good, high quality leather. They must have a very good tannery.
I bought a leather stropping wheel from Beavercraft. It's only 3"in diameter. I've had a hard time getting it to spin true and can't get the wobble or of it. It also seems to spin a little off center. After seeing your video, I think I'm going to get a different shaft to mount the leather on so I can tighten it like you did. Good video. Thanks for making it.
That’s cool you made your own . They are15-$20 0n Amazon . The polisher grinder sharpener machine can be dangerous . I always like t spinning away from me . I just turn it around for this and sharpen on the top . The thing about sharpening like this is it is so much quicker than using a stone for an hour . An hour is a long time to focus on precision moves one right after another and I find this to be much faster and worthwhile so I can do other things . The other thing is the blades heat up so keeping the materials cool or cooling them helps with . They work great once the edges get rounded and the polishing compound is all gooey Ed up . I clean mine with whatever sandpaper is handy but it gets HOT ! Lol thanks for the vid . Hello from America Ohio .
just to add to the "I bet you could do it this way" pool: Cut the 4x4 leather squares, and center drill. glue together, and mount on spindle. then, turn the glued leather on the lathe, as though it were wood.
Yes, there have been some great suggestions on making the wheel and I never thought for one minute so many people would be interested in it. Thank you for such a fine comment. :-)
Hi Russel, well done I love the video, I am woodcarver, with obviously more money then sense as I bought a power strop, however as I got better at carving (been doing it for 10+ years now) the 4 inch strop was too narrow. Your method gave me the inspiration to build a 3x6 strop. I mounted it to a B&Q cheap as chips bench grinder ( I reversed the drive) Thanks
a job well done sir, and thanks for sharing. i will definitely be giving that a go, a stropping wheel would be very handy indeed and I am the kinda guy that loves making things rather than buying things so this will be a nice little project.
Thanks for the video, Russell. I used your idea, but shortened the steps somewhat. I was fortunate enough to have purchased a box of leather remnants a few years ago that included about fifty 6 inch squares of thick leather. I cut two 1/4 inch thick pieces of plywood the same size as the leather and made a glued up sandwich with waxed paper between the leather and wood. After the clamped up arrangement dried and with my drill press, I drilled a hole the size of my motor shaft in the center, then proceeded to use your method of using a bandsaw to cut the circle. The result was an absolutely perfect smooth disk-edge surface! Thank you for sharing your idea and your inspiration for me to make my own motorized strop. It's not used often, but when I do use it it makes short work of stropping my chisels and carving tools! Best regards, Mick Bradford
+Mick Bradford Thank you for your comment Mick, that does sound like a quicker and easier way of making it. It is a great piece of kit for keeping things razor sharp!
I'm thinking rubber cement would be the better alternative to wood glue to bind the leather discs just because it doesn't harden like wood glue. Still a good idea. Thanks for sharing.
Brilliant idea! I'm gonna make this. Just curous how the Glue held up? Titebond 2 ok as a replacement coz where I am can't get the 3. Maybe Contact Cement if not.
Rotary strops certainly speed up the process and make life easier. I have been using a fully stitched buffing wheel to finish my wood chisels and plane irons for several years now. The only thing you have to be careful of is rolling the edge on the back of wood chisels, but you only need a light touch on the under side. Something I picked up from one of the guitar luthier channels is cockpit canopy glue for leather. It comes in small bottles, so I am not sure it would be suitable for all those leather disks, but it certainly works. Formula 560 is one of the makes, but search for canopy glue and you'll find it.
Hi Russell,great job on the honing wheel,made one myself similar to that and also made one with hard felt,it takes a charge of flexcut gold well and the steel sharpens really well, cheers malc
Russell thank you great video simple job shown and demonstrated very well I have all the component parts and was going to buy a stropping disc. I have almost every colour of polishing compound except yellow. Grrrrr blue or brown may have to do on my knives
+martin lowe Thank you for the kind comment Martin. I have found Tormek PA-70 Honing Paste better than anything else. I prefer it to the soap type compound blocks.
Thanks Russell will look for PA-70. Have actually made one with a disc of wood arbour and a strip of leather but will try your idea when I get enough leather.
Nice. I don't have a bandsaw so I used my table mounted router which cut the discs out perfectly. Spinning them at 450 rpm seems to work good for knives.
Glue up the leather squares into a billet first, then use whatever size circular hole saw, or other style circular fly cutter. The pilot bit takes care of your concentric center for the arbor all in one shot. I find high speed and light repetitive presses and plenty of pulling out to allow the saw to release enough heat to keep the smoke and stink down to a bare minimum...sharp bits are important. Anyway, just thought I would chime in with another way to skin the cat. Great video! Cheers!
I made my honing wheels from MDF offcuts. I say wheels because I have two fixed together. One has a flat rim, the other has profiles for the inside curves of the gouges. I bought a No 2 morse taper blank mandrel. This fits my lathe and is retained by the tailstock. After assembly I turned the profiles I wanted. The hone on the lathe is run in reverse at a moderate speed. I use the green stick abrasive. But Autosol works as well or better but is a bit messy.
@@RussellPlatten I am sure they have, cheaper and easier to work than leather. I am interested to see how long my wheels last as I fancy the leather might be tougher. At my carving club they buy paper wheels, clearly these are glued and compressed but do seem to be long lasting.
And you're totally right about the band saw being dangerous my friend went straight through the tip of his finger and halfway through the fingernail and Bone right through the middle of it it was crazy
@@RussellPlatten it's a scary machine especially when you're cutting metal like he was cuz I think you have to use more Force and I can't remember but I think that's how he met his wife he met his wife when he was in the emergency room I think it was for that injury so it ended up working out for the best but still it was a good Learning lesson because those band saws are crazy I'm impressed by your ideas you got a good head on your shoulders and you know how to make stuff happen
Good video Russel. One thing I need to mention is that I would not use wood glue. I dries to hard and would leave hard spots in your strop. I would use contact cement or rubber cement. That would stay more flexible and give you a cleaner strop.
Contact Cement or "barge" cement (preferred) is what leatherworkers use for gluing leather together. If you can't find either, you can substitute with rubber cement. Great video!
Great video, I wander what's the difference between a leather and a MDF disk . I made a couple of mdf for my knives but don't like them very much. Thanks!
Just came across the vid. I have made a number of profiled leather wheels using a similar method but using rubber cement rather than wood glue. Noticed your lathe rattling at low speed. This is the drive pulley rattling on the motor shaft. FGS get in there with an allan key and tighten the two grub screws on the fixed half of the pulley and while you are at it check the dgrub screws on the driven pulley. While replacement pulleys are available they are not cheap.
Very nice job, but Flexcut tools ship extremely sharp & I couldn’t imagine needing anything quite so aggressive except for maybe old, dull knives & such. My combo set is a decade old & still scary-sharp with only minor stropping on a strop I made from a paint stick/stir & scrap leather.
Great idea on how to cut out those circles. I wish I was able to think about solutions to problems that way. My brain gets stuck into "only one way to skin a cat mode" and I have a problem "thinking outside the box".
The more videos you watch on here, the more ideas you will come up with when you need to solve a problem. Thank you for taking the time to comment. :-)
I liked the video too. I was wondering if cutting 4 inch squares and gluing them together then going corner to corner for the center and cutting one time on the band saw would work?
+Bruce Ferguson I think that the blade I used would struggle with the radius if the leather was thick. The leather would not flex as much and could bind and stop the blade. It may be ok, I personally would use a narrow blade that could turn in the kerf. The thin leather can flex out of your he way with the thick blade.
Looks great ..only thing I would do different is I would use a hole saw to cut my circles ...it will cut every one perfect and also drill my center holes in one shot
@@RussellPlatten I used contact cement but stayed a little bit away from the edge. I’m going to put 6-7” wooden discs on both sides of the “leather sandwich” and see how it works out. Maybe keeping the glue out of the equation was unnecessary but we’ll see…fun to experiment. Thanks for your videos.
Great video, thanks. I think it's worth mentioning the risk when it runs towards you; it can smart a bit if the blade catches and flies into you, so be careful, or, better, stand on the other side so it goes away from you. I prefer the idea of leather to the mdf ones some have made, even though they are usually smaller.
That is one well used knife! May I suggest a variable speed motor like one from a washing machine wired in with a multi-speed or variable speed switch rather than a lathe or standard bench grinder.
Hi Russell. Me again. Emailed Flexcut about cleaning the powerstrop or any strop. If it gets "lover loaded" and slick/shiny, they say you can use a paint scraper or a flat tool to just scrape back exces compound which reconditions the leather surface to better accept fresh compound. If its a shiny surface it does not accept enough compound. Hope this is of use to you. ATB. Pete.
This is a great idea! Thanks for sharing it. Why not use contact cement to adhere them together? Do they really need to be adhered together? Also, for those without band saws, a holesaw used in reverse , maybe spray leather with soapy water. If no holesaw, use tin snips and spray leather with soapy water if it binds at all.
+j dog Thanks for your comment JD. The discs do require gluing. Hole saw or snips would probably work and the discs could be dressed once they were dry. :-)
Russell Platten ..I see, thanks for the reply. it had occurred to me later that the contoured one on my Tormek is all solid too. Did you say it was camel leather? ..and I recall having to season the tormek one with motor oil. Is that something you would do with this? Oh! Here's an idea. First, realize that I'm pretty frugal. I save the dust at the bottom of the water basin of my sharpener. There's usually quite a bit. I wonder if , instead of gluing the discs , a bigger washer could be used and that tormek dust could be mixed with motor oil and spread on both sides of all layers except the outsides, then sandwiched together and supported by the bigger washers. Maybe cut the washers with a holesaw one size smaller than the one used to cut the leather discs.. so the wheel will be impregnated with fine abrasives. If not stone dust. Maybe baking soda.? Stand aside when first trying..
Thank you for sharing , I am wondering if I can make it smaller scale. . I don't have a laith. I will have to think a little different but thanks for sharing!
I'm a bit late to the party but I've just BOUGHT a Powerstrop disk. Its loaded up with the black from steel residue. Do you clean it off or leave it on? If cleaning off , what with, how and how often please. Im very new to all this. Pete.
Hi Pete, I am not entirely sure if it needs cleaning. I just use mine without cleaning and apply the compound before each use. I reckon you could give the wheel a light sand to clean it if you felt the need to, but I would only use a fine grit paper.
Hi. After doing some research, apparently rubbing alcohol/ Isopropyl alcohol 90% dissolves the residue forming a sludge. You scrape it off and let it dry. The black is steel from the blades. Ive tried it on a flat strop Poured it on and toothbrushed it in, then scraped off with the back of a knife. Certainly brought most black out as a sludge. Like new next morning. The alcohol evaporates quickly. ATB. Pete. PS Ebay for "HAZ" Rubbing alcohol.
+Alex Eberherr Hi Alex, it is Flexcut Gold polishing compound, but after trying a few different products, I prefer Tormek PA-70 honing paste. I hope this helps.
Great vid. Clear, explanatory, and very easy to understand. NO useless distracting music that gets in the way of understanding.
Just found this. Every step is really well thought-out, then explained very clearly. Thank you for posting. Now I have yet another channel to binge... Cheers!
Thank you! :-)
COOL!! VERY NICE JOB !!
Good, sensible stuff. You've saved a lot of people a lot of money here. Thank you.
Thank you for taking the time to comment. :-)
I did something similar but with laminated wooden disks. I put the leather around the circumference. One disk with the rough leather side out, one with the smooth. It works pretty well. I hope this did what you want.
You did a really nice job!
Cheers Jerry. :-)
Simple and easy that's what I like russ brilliant thanks ❤👏👍
Glad I could help Keith. Thanks for the brilliant comment! :-)
Informative video. I made some small leather disks to work on my Dremel tool. Thanks for the idea.
super plain speaking bloke ,with sense and clarity .
thanks tony.
Cheers Tony!
I mounted mine on a bench grinder and used a wooden rasp! Perfect glued a leather strop on the side. Now I'm waiting for diamond adhesive paste. Btw I cut mine with a jigsaw and once I gently pushed the rasp? Perfect! Great vids! 🙂👍👍👍
Glad it worked out! :-)
Thank you for showing me how you made yours. Watching something being made is the best set of instruction their is. In my opinion. Thanks again. Thumbs Up!
Thank you. :-)
Well done. Enjoyed the video. It has given me some ideas. A sharp blade is a wonderful tool.
:-)
Russell, thanks for making this video. Great idea
Tim White, Mississippi USA
+Tim White Thank you Tim. :-)
Brilliant 👏 👏 thanks just what is needed, I'll make one
Glad I could help Keith! :-)
Nice video and instructional. I was wanting an MDF wheel but the initial purchase is too costly. Your video brought out a nice alternative..bravo!
Glad it helped Guy! :-)
Russell you did a Awesome Job
Cheers Gary :-)
Very intelligent mate, very well done, thanks for sharing!!
Glad I could help! :-)
I agree with @teacheng3795 "Great vid. Clear, explanatory, and very easy to understand. NO useless distracting music that gets in the way of understanding". GREAT VIDEO!!
Thank you! :-)
Very good information. Always easier to watch something done before doing it yourself.
Why apprenticeships are so valuable.
I thank you for sharing your knowledge with us.
+badalternative Thank you.
Russell Platten nice video Russell, I also order leather from (i'm guessing) the same place, very good, high quality leather. They must have a very good tannery.
This is an awesome idea.Thank you
You are welcome Tina! :-)
love it ..great and simple build ...that thing will last forever
Thank you!
i put a leather belt on ply wood wheel it slapped like crazy until it came off lol
I bought a leather stropping wheel from Beavercraft. It's only 3"in diameter. I've had a hard time getting it to spin true and can't get the wobble or of it. It also seems to spin a little off center. After seeing your video, I think I'm going to get a different shaft to mount the leather on so I can tighten it like you did. Good video. Thanks for making it.
Glad I could help! :-)
Brilliant. AND I was the 5000th like. Thanks for sharing. I'll be making one myself.
:-)
GREAT JOB RUSSELL.. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK..
+Larry Keesee Cheers Larry 🙂
That’s cool you made your own . They are15-$20 0n Amazon . The polisher grinder sharpener machine can be dangerous . I always like t spinning away from me . I just turn it around for this and sharpen on the top . The thing about sharpening like this is it is so much quicker than using a stone for an hour . An hour is a long time to focus on precision moves one right after another and I find this to be much faster and worthwhile so I can do other things . The other thing is the blades heat up so keeping the materials cool or cooling them helps with . They work great once the edges get rounded and the polishing compound is all gooey Ed up . I clean mine with whatever sandpaper is handy but it gets HOT ! Lol thanks for the vid . Hello from America Ohio .
I use mine occasionally, it is a great way to hone knives and chisels. Hi from East Sussex! :-)
nice work!
the small yellow lines of tite3 in the disc don't cause problems?
still holding after many uses?
No issues and yes, it is still holding. :-)
THANK YOU RUSSEL ! IT WAS A GREAT VIDEO, I ENJOYED IT VERY MUCH !! I'LL BE MAKING ONE MYSELF !!!
:-)
just to add to the "I bet you could do it this way" pool:
Cut the 4x4 leather squares, and center drill. glue together, and mount on spindle. then, turn the glued leather on the lathe, as though it were wood.
+Eagle Bird Knives I thought of stack cutting also. I probably would stick with the band saw jig for cutting it round.
OMG the comments on here are so well thought! Amazing!
Yes, there have been some great suggestions on making the wheel and I never thought for one minute so many people would be interested in it. Thank you for such a fine comment. :-)
Thanks for sharing!
Hi Russel, well done I love the video, I am woodcarver, with obviously more money then sense as I bought a power strop, however as I got better at carving (been doing it for 10+ years now) the 4 inch strop was too narrow. Your method gave me the inspiration to build a 3x6 strop. I mounted it to a B&Q cheap as chips bench grinder ( I reversed the drive) Thanks
+Dylan Dalton Nice one Dylan! Thanks for the comment. It makes it all worthwhile when someone sends a comment like this! :-)
Russell Platten
Great job, thanks for explaining each step. When you know very little about woodworking etc it helps lots.
+Harriot Shand Glad you liked the video Harriet. Thank you for your kind comment.
Thank you, Russell.
very good tip thank you Russell.
+Joe Dov Thank you Joe.
Nice job i know what im doing when ive finished painting mi house lol , thanks for showing ive liked n subd you . Greetings from Wales m8y .
a job well done sir, and thanks for sharing. i will definitely be giving that a go, a stropping wheel would be very handy indeed and I am the kinda guy that loves making things rather than buying things so this will be a nice little project.
+Doobster67 Thank you for your comment Doobster. Good name by the way!
Thanks for the video, Russell. I used your idea, but shortened the steps somewhat. I was fortunate enough to have purchased a box of leather remnants a few years ago that included about fifty 6 inch squares of thick leather.
I cut two 1/4 inch thick pieces of plywood the same size as the leather and made a glued up sandwich with waxed paper between the leather and wood. After the clamped up arrangement dried and with my drill press, I drilled a hole the size of my motor shaft in the center, then proceeded to use your method of using a bandsaw to cut the circle. The result was an absolutely perfect smooth disk-edge surface!
Thank you for sharing your idea and your inspiration for me to make my own motorized strop. It's not used often, but when I do use it it makes short work of stropping my chisels and carving tools!
Best regards,
Mick Bradford
+Mick Bradford Thank you for your comment Mick, that does sound like a quicker and easier way of making it. It is a great piece of kit for keeping things razor sharp!
Russell Platten as
Nice job on the stropping wheel. Thanks for your post.
+paulpaul1948 Thank you Paul :-)
I'm thinking rubber cement would be the better alternative to wood glue to bind the leather discs just because it doesn't harden like wood glue. Still a good idea. Thanks for sharing.
you mean contact cement. rubber cement won’t hold.
Where's there's a will there's a way. Well done and thank you.
Brilliant idea! I'm gonna make this. Just curous how the Glue held up? Titebond 2 ok as a replacement coz where I am can't get the 3. Maybe Contact Cement if not.
Awesome video and awesome idea
+Coyote Walking Thank you 😊
Nice one Russ. Good vid buddy
Thanks 👍
I made my disc from piece of MDF, really does get knives chisels scary sharp,
:-)
Thank you for sharing 👍👍
:-)
Thank you for sharing. Great idea and easy to follow video...
Thank you. :-)
U have sum good hand skills
thank you! :-)
Russel Nice.... Titebond is a good tip. congratulations
Thank you Said! :-)
Rotary strops certainly speed up the process and make life easier. I have been using a fully stitched buffing wheel to finish my wood chisels and plane irons for several years now. The only thing you have to be careful of is rolling the edge on the back of wood chisels, but you only need a light touch on the under side. Something I picked up from one of the guitar luthier channels is cockpit canopy glue for leather. It comes in small bottles, so I am not sure it would be suitable for all those leather disks, but it certainly works. Formula 560 is one of the makes, but search for canopy glue and you'll find it.
Thanks for that Trevor. The Titebond glue works too, I have had no issues since I made it. :-)
Hi can you send us an E Bay link where you got your 24" by 4" piece of leather please
Thanks Russell good video...
Cheers Robin. :-)
Thank you for that idea!
:-)
Hi Russell,great job on the honing wheel,made one myself similar to that and also made one with hard felt,it takes a charge of flexcut gold well and the steel sharpens really well, cheers malc
+malcolm oxley Cheers Malc.
Russell thank you great video simple job shown and demonstrated very well I have all the component parts and was going to buy a stropping disc. I have almost every colour of polishing compound except yellow. Grrrrr blue or brown may have to do on my knives
+martin lowe Thank you for the kind comment Martin. I have found Tormek PA-70 Honing Paste better than anything else. I prefer it to the soap type compound blocks.
Thanks Russell will look for PA-70. Have actually made one with a disc of wood arbour and a strip of leather but will try your idea when I get enough leather.
Thank you Russell for this. I'm off to make my own!
+DavieMac48 Cheers Davie!
Mister universal good fellow ....
😊
Nice. I don't have a bandsaw so I used my table mounted router which cut the discs out perfectly. Spinning them at 450 rpm seems to work good for knives.
+Dan Stump Brilliant idea with the router Dan! :-)
Glue up the leather squares into a billet first, then use whatever size circular hole saw, or other style circular fly cutter. The pilot bit takes care of your concentric center for the arbor all in one shot. I find high speed and light repetitive presses and plenty of pulling out to allow the saw to release enough heat to keep the smoke and stink down to a bare minimum...sharp bits are important. Anyway, just thought I would chime in with another way to skin the cat. Great video! Cheers!
:-)
Great idea. Thanks for the video.
+Mike McHenry Cheers Mike :-)
I made my honing wheels from MDF offcuts. I say wheels because I have two fixed together. One has a flat rim, the other has profiles for the inside curves of the gouges. I bought a No 2 morse taper blank mandrel. This fits my lathe and is retained by the tailstock. After assembly I turned the profiles I wanted. The hone on the lathe is run in reverse at a moderate speed. I use the green stick abrasive. But Autosol works as well or better but is a bit messy.
A lot of people have made MDF wheels Bill. :-)
@@RussellPlatten I am sure they have, cheaper and easier to work than leather. I am interested to see how long my wheels last as I fancy the leather might be tougher. At my carving club they buy paper wheels, clearly these are glued and compressed but do seem to be long lasting.
And you're totally right about the band saw being dangerous my friend went straight through the tip of his finger and halfway through the fingernail and Bone right through the middle of it it was crazy
I have had some stitches too, not quite as bad as that though! :-)
@@RussellPlatten it's a scary machine especially when you're cutting metal like he was cuz I think you have to use more Force and I can't remember but I think that's how he met his wife he met his wife when he was in the emergency room I think it was for that injury so it ended up working out for the best but still it was a good Learning lesson because those band saws are crazy I'm impressed by your ideas you got a good head on your shoulders and you know how to make stuff happen
I will be trying this says this Canadian cheap skate. Great idea
:-)
Good video Russel. One thing I need to mention is that I would not use wood glue. I dries to hard and would leave hard spots in your strop. I would use contact cement or rubber cement. That would stay more flexible and give you a cleaner strop.
Good point regarding the glue. I just used what I had in the garage and I had used Titebond on leather before.
Contact Cement or "barge" cement (preferred) is what leatherworkers use for gluing leather together. If you can't find either, you can substitute with rubber cement. Great video!
+Steve Gilbert Thank you for your comment Steve :-)
A friend of mine made a similar honer. He bought the leather wheel and mounted it onto a drill along with a buffer wheel. He runs it in reverse.
Thanks for posting the video, Russell. I've been thinking about doing the same thing. Looks really easy to do.
Thank you Dan :-)
Clear and very helpful. Thanks👍
Thank you Pete.
I use a cloth sanding belt inside out with some green compound.
Great video, I wander what's the difference between a leather and a MDF disk .
I made a couple of mdf for my knives but don't like them very much. Thanks!
Leather is the traditional material for honing blades. :-)
Great idea. I'm going to make one of these.
Great ingenuity sir. Thank you
Thank you :-)
Excellent. Well done. Subbed.
Thank you! :-)
Great video Russell. Excellent idea and your strop wheel (or is it stropping wheel) works like a charm!
Cheers Kerry!
Hi. Please what is the yellow product that you are using on edge wheell at 11:43 video time?
+26Beto The yellow product is Flexcut Gold polishing compound.
Thanks Russell!
Nice job.
Thank you Jack! :-)
Just came across the vid. I have made a number of profiled leather wheels using a similar method but using rubber cement rather than wood glue. Noticed your lathe rattling at low speed. This is the drive pulley rattling on the motor shaft. FGS get in there with an allan key and tighten the two grub screws on the fixed half of the pulley and while you are at it check the dgrub screws on the driven pulley. While replacement pulleys are available they are not cheap.
Unfortunately my pulley was damaged and has since been replaced. :-)
Very nice job, but Flexcut tools ship extremely sharp & I couldn’t imagine needing anything quite so aggressive except for maybe old, dull knives & such. My combo set is a decade old & still scary-sharp with only minor stropping on a strop I made from a paint stick/stir & scrap leather.
My wheel is just the lazy way of honing. :-)
Russell Platten You did an excellent job on it. 👍🏼
Love good ideas, thank you!
Cheers Howard. :-)
Great idea on how to cut out those circles. I wish I was able to think about solutions to problems that way. My brain gets stuck into "only one way to skin a cat mode" and I have a problem "thinking outside the box".
The more videos you watch on here, the more ideas you will come up with when you need to solve a problem. Thank you for taking the time to comment. :-)
Thanks. Great idea.
+M van veen Thank you :-)
Well done, Mate. I'll do the same, now that I've seen your work.
:-)
Nice work easy to follow great idea
Regards
Steve
Thank you Steve :-)
Great video..............I subscribed........................
I liked the video too. I was wondering if cutting 4 inch squares and gluing them together then going corner to corner for the center and cutting one time on the band saw would work?
+Bruce Ferguson I reckon it would if you had a narrow blade on the bandsaw, but it would be difficult with a wider blade.
Russell Platten wouldn't you need the same type blade wether you cut the disks one at a time or all at once if you glued the pieces together first?
+Bruce Ferguson I think that the blade I used would struggle with the radius if the leather was thick. The leather would not flex as much and could bind and stop the blade. It may be ok, I personally would use a narrow blade that could turn in the kerf. The thin leather can flex out of your he way with the thick blade.
gotcha..... thanks for clearing that up for me.
Looks great ..only thing I would do different is I would use a hole saw to cut my circles ...it will cut every one perfect and also drill my center holes in one shot
Yes Richard a hole saw would do the job, but you need a pretty big hole saw to get a decent sized disc.
Do you find the glue between the layers a problem when you use the wheel?
I haven't had any issues with it Rob. :-)
@@RussellPlatten I used contact cement but stayed a little bit away from the edge. I’m going to put 6-7” wooden discs on both sides of the “leather sandwich” and see how it works out. Maybe keeping the glue out of the equation was unnecessary but we’ll see…fun to experiment. Thanks for your videos.
@@bobrenda1618 :-)
What are you using on grinding wheel that's look yellow?
It is the honing compound that came with my Flexcut carving chisel set. :-)
Great video, thanks. I think it's worth mentioning the risk when it runs towards you; it can smart a bit if the blade catches and flies into you, so be careful, or, better, stand on the other side so it goes away from you. I prefer the idea of leather to the mdf ones some have made, even though they are usually smaller.
Good advice! :-)
That is one well used knife!
May I suggest a variable speed motor like one from a washing machine wired in with a multi-speed or variable speed switch rather than a lathe or standard bench grinder.
Yes, it would be better. Unfortunately i do not have one.
Hi Russell. Me again. Emailed Flexcut about cleaning the powerstrop or any strop. If it gets "lover loaded" and slick/shiny, they say you can use a paint scraper or a flat tool to just scrape back exces compound which reconditions the leather surface to better accept fresh compound. If its a shiny surface it does not accept enough compound. Hope this is of use to you. ATB. Pete.
+pete wright Thanks for that info Pete. I will give mine a clean! :-)
This is a great idea! Thanks for sharing it. Why not use contact cement to adhere them together? Do they really need to be adhered together? Also, for those without band saws, a holesaw used in reverse , maybe spray leather with soapy water. If no holesaw, use tin snips and spray leather with soapy water if it binds at all.
+j dog Thanks for your comment JD. The discs do require gluing. Hole saw or snips would probably work and the discs could be dressed once they were dry. :-)
Russell Platten ..I see, thanks for the reply. it had occurred to me later that the contoured one on my Tormek is all solid too. Did you say it was camel leather? ..and I recall having to season the tormek one with motor oil. Is that something you would do with this? Oh! Here's an idea. First, realize that I'm pretty frugal. I save the dust at the bottom of the water basin of my sharpener. There's usually quite a bit. I wonder if , instead of gluing the discs , a bigger washer could be used and that tormek dust could be mixed with motor oil and spread on both sides of all layers except the outsides, then sandwiched together and supported by the bigger washers. Maybe cut the washers with a holesaw one size smaller than the one used to cut the leather discs.. so the wheel will be impregnated with fine abrasives. If not stone dust. Maybe baking soda.? Stand aside when first trying..
Good job.
:-)
Were in England do you find basswood?
Look for lime wood David. :-)
Thanks Russell definitely going to make one subscribed & liked 😁👍🏼
Thank you Mark. :-)
Thank you for sharing , I am wondering if I can make it smaller scale. . I don't have a laith. I will have to think a little different but thanks for sharing!
+Martha West Cheers Martha :-)
I'm a bit late to the party but I've just BOUGHT a Powerstrop disk. Its loaded up with the black from steel residue. Do you clean it off or leave it on? If cleaning off , what with, how and how often please. Im very new to all this. Pete.
Hi Pete, I am not entirely sure if it needs cleaning. I just use mine without cleaning and apply the compound before each use. I reckon you could give the wheel a light sand to clean it if you felt the need to, but I would only use a fine grit paper.
Hi. After doing some research, apparently rubbing alcohol/ Isopropyl alcohol 90% dissolves the residue forming a sludge. You scrape it off and let it dry. The black is steel from the blades. Ive tried it on a flat strop Poured it on and toothbrushed it in, then scraped off with the back of a knife. Certainly brought most black out as a sludge. Like new next morning. The alcohol evaporates quickly. ATB. Pete. PS Ebay for "HAZ" Rubbing alcohol.
Scrape it off while running with a putty knife.
Very informative Thank you
+eric braithwaite (snoopsy100) Thank you for the comment Eric! Glad you liked it.
Nice job
Thank you! :-)
It's an added bonus to learn this from ned stark himself 😅
LOL
i would like to know, whats that yellow compound you bring on the leatherwheel befor you start sharping ?
+Alex Eberherr Hi Alex, it is Flexcut Gold polishing compound, but after trying a few different products, I prefer Tormek PA-70 honing paste. I hope this helps.
thanks for the info
Anyone who watches this, be careful not to blow the temper on you edge. These heat up your blade quickly.
Indeed, need to go way slower on that speed.
hello ' Anybody knows where to buy this exact leather I mean the size please ?
Search for 4mm veg tan leather Alberto. The strip is 100mm x 600mm. You could also use 200mm x300mm. :-)