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+--- Thread: Using cotton buffing wheel for finishing (/showthread.php?tid=385)
Using cotton buffing wheel for finishing - SHARPCO - 09-26-2018
I've often seen many people use cotton buffing wheel for finishing sharpening. But you don't. Why?
RE: Using cotton buffing wheel for finishing - grepper - 09-27-2018
IMHO, the key to answering your question Mr. Sharpco is to understand the burr you are working with. I’ve had super flimsy burrs that stuck straight out from the edge that would move simply by blowing on them. Really. Some of those I could scrape off with my fingernail and they sprinkled in the light like falling tiny pieces of tinsel.
Other burrs are tough, with a wire weld line stuck to the bevel/apex of the blade that requires real work to get to even stand up. Some burrs fracture off with just a couple of bends. Other burrs are amazingly ductile and bend back/forth 30 times and still some burr remains. Maybe the burr is a combination of all of the above.
I’ve seen some burrs that, yeah, you could probably remove with a buffing wheel. For other burrs a buffing wheel wouldn’t stand a chance of doing anything other than making the blade shiny.
I’ve tried all sorts of materials and methods of deburring: Wood, soft and hard plastic, leather, scraping the burr off with a razor blade, abrasive belts, leather belts with special sauce, buffing wheels, brass brushes, sandpaper, blue jeans, fingernail, steel brushes and anything else that I could find sitting around the place.
If it exists, you have to get the wire line of weld junk off the edge and the burr to stand up and then the burr must either be ground of fractured off. There is not really any right or wrong deburring material, it’s more about does it accomplish the task.
I do know that doing things like dragging the edge down the corner of a piece of wood or any other procedure that just smashes the burr against the blade is an adventure in futility if not even detrimental.
IMHO, start by understanding burrs rather than blindly seeking burr removal methods and materials. I wasted a lot of time and money thinking there was some magic way, or method, or special sauce to remove burrs because I didn’t really understand what I was trying to do.
Without understanding burrs, their properties and how they are attached to the apex, seeking deburring materials is a lot like trying to purchase a shovel without knowing what you are going to be digging in. You could come home with a snow shovel only to find it works poorly for planting trees.
For me at least, really understanding and observing burrs and how they are formed was the key. It’s kind of difficult to seek a solution without understanding the problem.
RE: Using cotton buffing wheel for finishing - SHARPCO - 09-28-2018
(09-27-2018, 09:24 PM)grepper Wrote: For me at least, really understanding and observing burrs and how they are formed was the key. It’s kind of difficult to seek a solution without understanding the problem.
Good point grepper. Thank you.