The earlier honing compound topic is going so well that I did not want to break the momentum with a low tech question.

I plan to purchase a leather honing belt during the free shipping period at Lee Valley, which ends on the 18th. Where is a goid place to purchase one of the newer honing compounds?

Thanks,

Ken

I purchased my Viel belt grinder after watching Steve Bottorff use one in his Sharpening School DVD. It's a well designed solid and simple machine. I like it. As a side effect of this forum, I can see me liking it even more with some modifications. Maxtheknife's scissors video gave me some ideas. Using a custom machined adaptor to use the Wolff Twice as Sharp holder with the Viel scissors platform seems very clever. 

I called James Hammons of Ace Sharpening in Kansas City to order an adaptor like he made for Max. It is presently in process.

I ordered the Wolff holder through Steve (sharpeningmadeeasy.com). I ordered the standard width holder with the ergo locking screw. Max likes the wider holder. I may end up with a wider holder, however, At present I am the volunteer sharpener for my grandchildren's school and will be sharpening a boatload of kindergarten scissors.

Max has modified his Viel to be variable speed. That seems like the cat's meow. I hope to do the same. I am primarily a Tormeker, and am accistumed to working slow speed and cool.

One of the features Steve likes about the Viel is being able to use it on its back. Inspired by our own Grepper, I watched several youtubes showcasing the Kalamazoo belt grinder. The Sorby has the same feature. Last night I watched several Ken Schwartz videos. Ken did a great job of explaining how to keep the point bevels consistent with the rest of the bevels. On the Tormek, we generally do this by lifting the knife. If the knife could be kept horizontal (level), the point could be formed by just pivoting the blade. Ken did this by using a digital level cube and tilting his belt assembly.

As I really do not want a second belt grinder, I looked at my Viel, trying to determine how to tilt it. The answer seemed obvious, just rest the unit tipped over on the table in a flat position. I may need to clamp on a supporting piece to keep it from shifting, once I set the angle. That should be easily done.

By using the back side of the belt, the edge trailing direction, leather and felt belts should work. Rigging up a flat platform for the back should not be difficult.

Now....if I can just repower this for variable speed, it should be a Super Viel.

Thanks to all who inspired this.

Ken

picked up 9 Henckel steak knives......was 12.  lady threw 3 away after handles fell off.

story is:  bought from williams-sonoma few years back and was told dishwasher safe..........you can see the caustic soap has eaten away a lot of the material.......whatever the material.

i do not / have not do much handle work, so i am asking the best way to replace with new and how??.

my connection at williams-sonoma does has a call into their henckel rep.......maybe they will replace / maybe not.

please advise
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I’d like to get some input on how you guys sharpen serrated knives.
 
I’ve been using the edge of a very soft, thin cloth or a film belt.  It works pretty well and I like it because of the grit control of belts.  But I’m curious of how other people are doing it.
 
I’ve heard of people using a cotton wheel on a grinder with compound.  Anyone try that? If so, how well does that work? What compound?
 
Any other methods?

don't laugh......these little tickets generate lots  of conversation.

i put maybe a couple hundred all along the outside edge of the supplied 8ft table.
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i picked this ticket up today.
guy says he just buys a new one when the old one dulls.......will check with my restaurant guy tomorrow to find out cost of a new one.
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in the meantime........please respond with your thoughts on how to sharpen.........here is a video of it.......it is near the end of a few blades i worked on last day or so.........the tomatoes slicer comes in at:   10:39 so fast forward there if u do not want to watch first part.
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https://youtu.be/oThMr9FI2V4
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Hi All,
I am about to get to work on my new 2x72 Kally setup.  (As soon as the day job will let me)
The model I got was without the motor, which was fine because I sort of wanted to put a variable speed on it.

At this point, I have the grinder unit, a 2.65 hp DC drive motor (doubt it is that many hp in continuous duty), and a speed control board.

The motor and board were hacked out of a NordicTrac EXP1000 treadmill.  These are out there on the used market for $100-$400 that I have seen.  Which is a pretty sweet deal considering a replacement motor is $380.

Mine happened to be free because it was in the family and not being used.

The nice thing about this model is that the speed control board is controlled with a 0-12v input signal, which was a pretty easy circuit to rig up for cheap.  The control board is completely separate from the main board as well, so I can put 110v AC straight in without having to hack anything up.

One issue I already see with the motor is that it has an open face, as in the entire inside of the motor is pretty exposed to the outside world.  And given that this is a metal grinder, I am sure all of those metal particles would love to find their way to those magnets.

So, I have to build a housing around it, with a dust filter, and likely put a fan on the non drive end of the motor to keep it cool.

Would love to hear from anyone who has faced this challenge before.

Another thing I would like is to see some of the mounting methods used for the Kally itself.

My thought is that I would want the grinder protruding out some from the bench it is bolted to.

So, please post a pic or two of your grinder setup so I can get some good 'working' ideas!
Thanks,
TW.

Watching Maxtheknife's video on sharpening scissors, I caught Max' comment on the Viel scissors clamp, it is "adequate". This mirrors my own limited experience with it. It works well, but has a tendency to slip for me. Max mentioned having James Hammon of Ace Sharpening in Kansas City machine an adaptor for him. The adaptor fits over the nub on the Viel scissors support, allowing a Wolff Twice as Sharp holder to work with the Viel belt grinder.

Max emailed me contact information. I telephoned James yesterday. He was very helpful. I am looking forward to using my modified Viel.

Thanks, Max.

Ken

This post started in another thread: http://bessex.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=41 but the thread ended up covering a variety of subjects so I thought I would post the results here for clarity.

In short, MaxtheKnife shipped a knife to me for sharpness testing and evaluation.  Here are the results.
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Well, Mr. Max, your experienced and erudite fingers serve you well for feeling sharpness.  That Lasting Cut 8” chef’s knife is indeed a very sharp blade!  It uses x50CrMoV15 steel and is NSF certified.  I think the general hardness of for knives of that ilk is RHC 56-58, but who knows about this particular knife.
 
It is fairly light in weight, with a thin blade and very comfortable, fairly large and rounded, grippy plastic handle and made in China.  The spine is 2.1 mm thick in the middle of the blade and smoothly tapers toward the edge to .35 mm just behind the bevel.



I removed it from the packaging and took 4 measurements at the marked locations along the edge.  I was surprised.  The knife was very sharp and evenly sharpened.  In order, from the handle to the tip:
160g
200g
185g
190g
 
Here is an image at ~200X of the edge right out of the package.  The reflection along the edge is either a burr or a rolled or folded edge.  As you can see it was sharpened with a very coarse abrasive.  The bevel has deep scratches and the edge is excellently toothy.  I can see why it would work very well in the kitchen, and would be an excellent tomato slicer!  The edge is rather messy with burr and/or folding:



Seeing how messy the edge was, I gave it 10 strops on my blue jeans across my thigh at each of the points where I took sharpness measurements.  Strop one side + strop the other = 1 strop.  The results were even more surprising than the first.  .  In order, from the handle to the tip:
160g
120g
125g
135g

I was so surprised by those numbers that I took another measurement around the middle of the blade.  135g!

Here is an image after stropping.  If you look closely it almost appears to have an extremely small micro bevel.  I''m not sure that's what that is though.




It is a very, very sharp blade.  It melts through paper and even paper towel.  It easily shaves hair on my arm and easily passes all of the other home made sharpness tests.
 
So, Mr. Max, what you are feeling is a combination of an extremely sharp and very toothy edge.  A great reference for feeling other knives.  This blade is much sharper than your average kitchen knife.  A double edge razor blade is ~50g and your average nice sharp blade is 200g-300g.   I have no idea how the edge will hold up over time, but it’s using the same steel as Wusthof uses.  I can see why your customers like it.  IMHO, for $14.00 it’s an amazing deal.  For what you call a “banger knife” I think you have a winner!
 
Here is a link to the BESS sharpness scale:
http://edgeonup.com/image/BESS%20C%20BESSU.png

Beautiful day here in Louisiana -

Have given my Edge Pro Pro system to my son Henry.

My thoughts are that Henry will be doing mirror polished edges (art).  For the experience - who knows?

Have you used Mr. Ben Dale's polishing stone(s)?  Either 2300 and /or 4000 grit stone(s).   Or what ever to achieve mirror polished edges using the EPP.

As always,  thanks

Rupert