I want an old style, LARGE (24+" dia.) grinding wheel, with or without a platform. I can sharpen knives, scissors, axes and most any other tools with the stones or files I have but a good old fashioned wheel fits into my preps as a useful skill. I can polish any newer blade with my stones, but a good wheel can turn an old worthless blade into a new tool. Being able to reprofile an old blade with a mechanical wheel mounted to a bike, foot treadle or even a large oversized weighted wheel make a lot of sense if you're cutting back from the standard 6/8"grinding wheel in a $50 bench grinder.
I have some cash, but I'd like to offer forever sharpening as a trade, that means your direct decedents, any or all of them, that can claim your line will get free sharpening off the wheel, as long as it's in use and I will guarantee it for my personal lifetime. As a bonus, the stone will be named after your surname. (shipping is a bitch, but I promise it at cost).
Let me know if you have a nice stone that I can work with, we'll make a deal.
If you're looking to sharpen your own knives and other tools I'll leave you with a couple of suggestions.
1. There's so much involved I can't do it in a short post.
2. Get a fine diamond plate sharpener (the larger the better) and try to slice off the top of the stone in equal amounts, ie. top and bottom of the blade. This is far from what you deserve and what I can provide, but it's been a long week.
Rick
Saturday, February 7, 2009
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4 comments:
That's a good idea for a barter, offering forever services in exchange for the tools to do the trade.
Several years ago, I purchased a Tormek sharpening system and several sharpening jigs. Might want to get some more of the jigs I don't have for tools that will be useful after the crash. I'm not sure a larger wheel makes that much difference. 10" or 12" diameter by 1" wide is large enough.
http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?FamilyID=20262
A large grinding wheel has an advantage of mass, smaller wheels need constant force or encouragement to keep spinning. A large wheel can be turned with a hand crank or treadle and once it's moving it will continue moving for a considerable amount of time even if you actually use it to remove metal.
There's also an opportunity to mount a large wheel like that as a drive wheel for a lathe.
The problem with large grinding wheels is that they are extremely expensive -- the ones available are for large surface grinders. In addition, just having a grinding wheel is not enough - you also need to be able to dress the wheel and you need jigs that will hold the tool(s) so you get smooth, constant, and repeatable results. Also, the Tormek grinders do not use a lot of electricity and can easily be powered by a small generator or a solar PV with battery setup.
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