Originally Posted by
george wilson
I NEVER,EVER buff the edge on a wheel. It rounds the cutting edge very easily. Some here use a piece of MDF with green compound on it. That is a good method which does not bugger up your edge. That is the method I use and recommend.
Please notice the nuance of the language used, "It rounds the cutting edge very easily."
George does not say it always rounds the edge.
Many years ago one of my supervisors would lament about the "American mind" thinking if a little was good twice as much is twice as good.
It is the same with stropping on leather or a soft buffing wheel. With care either can improve the edge on a tool up to a point. With carelessness either can round the edge. The degree of rounding depends on the degree of carelessness.
So far my experiments have been 3 for 4. Though today's attempt on a gouge may not be a real test because they have a geometry that works well with a slightly rounded edge. The blade that needed to be reworked may have been left too long under the buffing wheel.
The other test on this may be time. How many times can honing on one coarse stone followed by buffing can an edge take before it needs to be reground?
So in reality, it is very easy to round over the cutting edge if one doesn't take care. This can also happen on a flat leather strop. That is known from first hand experience.
Too bad this method came to light after some heavy mortise chopping on a project. It would have been a possible test of the Unicorn edge to see if there was any great benefit. Though the edges on the chisels used seemed to hold up rather well with standard sharpening & stropping.
Gonna Need a Bigger Chisel.jpg
Mortising is pretty much cutting across end grain. The chisel is a 3/4" flat sided chisel. Notice the full shavings the chisel is making across the end grain with help from a mallet. This was done using the 'riding the bevel' method.
jtk
Last edited by Jim Koepke; 08-13-2020 at 7:00 PM.
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)