Sharpening

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seendust

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Sep 17, 2008
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OK. Everyone says use a white wheel not a gray wheel to sharpen HSS.

I've also heard use only aluminum oxide wheels. Here is my problem, I have a craftsman variable speed grinder with two aluminum oxide wheels. Both of the wheels are gray. Do I need to purchase a white wheel or am I OK.

Thanks.
 
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Hi Seendust - It looks like you are new on here. You may want to go to the Introduction forum and introduce yourself. You may also want to add your name to your posts. There's an auto-signature feature on here if you want to use it. As friendly and helpful as eveyone on here is it is nice to know who you are talking to and you will probably get more responses that way.

As to your question... I've only been turning for 6 months and really don't know much about sharpening. I use a $20 grinder with grey wheels. I sharpen all my HSS tools on it. I have a home made jig for my roughing gouge and do all my other tools free hand.

There are people on here who know a lot about sharpening. I'm sure one of them will answer your questions.
 
Better wheels are preferable, but not required. HSS tools don't lose their tempering when they get hot, so you should be ok. It is much safer to turn with sharp tools, so however you sharpen... I used an oilstone and honed with leather and honing compound on my workdesk (no workbench yet, just a desk and my chest freezer) for my first couple of years.
 
Aluminum oxide wheels can be white, like these: http://www.hartvilletool.com/product/12888

They can also be pink, purple, blue, grey, etc. as far as I know. See: http://images.google.com/images?gbv=2&hl=en&q=aluminum+oxide+grinding+wheel

What I've been told is that the main difference in wheels is their hardness. The idea is that the harder the steel, the softer the wheel, and the softer the steel, the harder the wheel. Normal tool steel, lawnmower blades, etc. are softer metal than our HSS turning tools. The harder wheels do well on these non-turning items. The hard HSS wants softer wheels, that are friable, as wildman said. That means the wheel disintegrates as you go. The hard wheels that come on most grinders wont disintegrate, but will pick up steel in their pits and divots, and lose their abrasive quality as the wheels become loaded with steel. Think of sandpaper that's gunked up with dust. It generates a lot of heat, and won't eat away wood as it should. With inappropriate wheels, your tools heat up faster, and it takes longer to sharpen them, OR you have to dress the wheel more frequently to expose a fresh abrasive.
 
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