Sharpening with Paper Wheels

kwakster

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In 2009 i started sharpening knives with a set of Paper Wheels, bought from a German dealer, the only European source at the time.



This was my first set-up, with the Paper Wheels mounted on my old Creusen bench grinder.
The sharpening Wheel is on the right in each picture, and the deburring Wheel on the left.
No guards on the machine, which is used turned around so the Wheels spin away from me.



Side view of the slotted Wheel with it's warning label:



The Wheels are made from industrially compressed cardboard, and are used on an ordinary bench grinder.
A standard set consists of 2 Wheels: a sharpening Wheel with a glued-on coating of silicon carbide grit (which does the actual sharpening) plus a coating of wax on top of the grit (which protects your edges from overheating during sharpening)
The second Wheel removes the burr and/or does the polishing of the edge, for which you need to charge the Wheel surface for each knife by holding a small block of fine white aluminium oxide for one or two seconds against the spinning surface.
Instead of cooling wax this Wheel uses several slots cut in it's surface, which work like a strong fan and thus protect your edge from overheating during burr removal and/or polishing.
A few years later i also bought several "naked" Wheels from another dealer in England and charged these with various diamond compounds & powders, first to be able to sharpen ceramic knives and later various high carbide steel knives.
The combination of speed together with built-in overheating protection and overall good results is why i still use my Paper Wheels to this very day.

After a short learning curve practising on several cheap knives i did this second hand Spyderco Military in CPM-D2 steel, and it became one of many quality knives i sharpened on my Wheels over the years.
It had some blade play (fixed it), some discoloration on the blade (left that) and it wasn't quite sharp (fixed that with my Wheels)
The knife was part of my edc for several years.

If forum management has no objections i intend to post more pictures of knives that i've sharpened over the years on my Wheels, and i hope that others who use Paper Wheels do the same.
While i do sometimes sharpen knives for others in the Netherlands i have no commercial interest regarding Paper Wheels or any other sharpening method.
I just use them next to various ceramic and diamond stones, a Tormek T7, as well as various grits of waterproof sandpaper.









 
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Recovered some old pictures from Photobucket dating back to 2011, showing my vintage Puma 6383 Buddy made in 1972.
The first pics show the knife as it was before sharpening, still with it's original factory edge which was very obtuse and couldn't cut anything well.









This is the knife after sharpening on my first set of (standard) Paper Wheels, using the silicon carbide grit Wheel for reprofiling/sharpening, and the slotted Wheel charged with the white aluminium oxide for burr removal & semi-polishing.









Specs:

Overall length: 9.6 inch (24,3 cm)
Blade length: 4.8 inch (12,2 cm)
Blade thickness: 3,1 mm
Steel: New Stainless Super Keen Cutting Steel
Hardness: 57-59 HRC
Handle material: Sambar Stag
 
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Custom Sponaugle 154CM droppoint hunter Loveless style from a Dutch forum member & professional hunter.
The knife has been in use for some time, and it was kept more or less sharp by the owner with the help of a Spyderco Sharpmaker.
However, due to the original edge angle being somewhat too large (35/40-ish near the heel developing into 35/30-ish towards the point), and also being a bit uneven keeping it in working condition was becoming a nuisance, and the point becoming rounded was not helping either.

A new very slightly convex edge of almost exactly 30 degrees inclusive was made with just a standard Paper Wheel, after which i removed the burr on my Tormek leather wheel (the edge keeps a little more bite that way, which works better for hunting knives imo)
The new edge now transitions smoothly into the ricasso and there's a new point too.

Before sharpening:











After sharpening:







 
DPX Hest folder with D2 steel blade from a Dutch forum member.
This one was reprofiled to an ever so slight convex edge of between 25 and 30 degrees inclusive on a standard Paper Wheel with silicon carbide grit, then refined on a second Paper Wheel with 15 micron diamond paste, and finally i removed the very small burr on the Tormek leather wheel.





Close-up of the 15 micron diamond finish:

 
A Spyderco Paramilitary 2 in Elmax steel.
The factory edge had some light brown discoloration near the tip on one side, traces of some unknown black stuff that couldn't even be removed with acetone (visible in pic 1 & 3), and it could also barely cut copypaper.

This is how it looked before sharpening:
(pics can be clicked 2 x)



First i removed the apex of the old edge by cutting a few times in a silicon carbide stone, then resharpened it with a Paper Wheel coated with 15 micron diamond compound, followed by removing the tiny burr with a second Paper Wheel coated with 1 micron diamond compound.
This time i also polished the bevels a bit more with the same Wheel, just to see how the Elmax would do.
According to my Tormek angle gauge the new edge measures 30 degrees inclusive, can slice single ply toilet paper and easily whittle the hairs on the back of my hand from heel to tip.









 
A while ago i reprofiled & sharpened this Ontario Afghan Bush in (probably) 5160 steel for a Dutch forum member, who when he received it tested it quite rigorously to see how the the knife would hold up with it's new edge.
The pictures show the knife with it's new edge measuring 35 degrees inclusive, a 15 micron diamond compound Paper Wheel finish, and a treetopping sharpness.







This was the mail i got from him when he was done testing:
(translated from Dutch)

"Hereby i send you the results of the batonning test: my arm hurts and the knife just laughs at me.

I started with batonning through some standard firewood, which didn't cause any problems.
Then i proceeded to baton right through a hardwood pole with a big burl (?) in it (with a lot of effort from my side)
I then replaced the baton with a hard rubber hammer for a bit more comfort and hitting power, and with this i managed to drive the edge about half an inch crossgrain into another piece of tropical hardwood.
After this i cleaned the knife, and the edge would still pushcut through paper.

I almost forgot to mention that i also put the knife sideways with the point on a wooden block and gave it about 20 hard whacks with the rubber hammer on both sides of the knife.
Then i tested the point strength by stabbing it into hardwood and breaking it free sideways.
I think the knife already has endured more than it will ever have to in real life.

After all this i could still shave the hair on my leg on skin level, and after a bit of stropping it could treetop again."


The owner was happy with his knife,
 
A Chinese Ganzo 704 like i received it from Hong Kong:





A very nice knife for the money (i paid about 17 US dollars including shipping from Hong Kong to the Netherlands), but with quite an obtuse edge angle of about 35-40 (ish) degrees inclusive and also a bit blunt not a very good cutter.
On the blade it says 440C stainless steel, but it's more than likely it's Chinese cousin 9Cr13MoV.

Reprofiled with a standard Paper Wheel with silicon carbide grit to 30 degrees inclusive, refined it just a bit with a second Paper Wheel coated with 15 micron diamond compound, and finally removed the tiny burr with a third Paper Wheel coated with 1 micron diamond compound.
It cuts hair above the back of my hand and can slice single layer toilet paper.





This knife later became the subject of a giveaway on the Dutch forum and went to a Belgian member.
 
Some time ago i did this rather large Strider fixed blade for a Dutch forum member.
According to my Tormek angle gauge the factory edge measured 50 to 55 degrees inclusive and it wasn't very sharp either.

Grit progression: reprofiled on a standard Paper Wheel with 220 grit SiC, refined it a little with a second Paper Wheel coated with 15 micron diamond compound, and finally removed the tiny burr with a third Paper Wheel coated with 0,25 micron diamond compound.
The new & slightly convex edge measures around 35/36 degrees inclusive, and can both slice single layer toilet paper and treetop the hairs on the back of my hand.







 
Hello.
That is a nice idea.
I was not aware of such grinding wheels. (I know felt, lather and different fibres but not some from cardboard).
Are those wheels still available?
What is the speed of your grinder?
Is the cooling effect really enough?
I guess you use very low pressure on the wheel?
How long dose it take to polish a knife edge? (say 10cm edge for comparison)
 
wie ich auf den Bildern sehe klappt das ja ganz gut. Aus was besteht nun mal die Scheibe ?

dermike
 
Aus Pappe!
Die Ersten die er kaufte hatte eine Impregnierung mit Schleifmaterial und Wachs als Kühlung
und eine Scheibe ohne aber mit Schlitzen für eine bessere Kühlung.
Die er nun in England kaufte haben kein Schleifkorn, so das er Selber welches aufbringt.
 
AW: Re: Sharpening with Paper Wheels

Hello.
That is a nice idea.
I was not aware of such grinding wheels. (I know felt, lather and different fibres but not some from cardboard).
Are those wheels still available?
What is the speed of your grinder?
Is the cooling effect really enough?
I guess you use very low pressure on the wheel?
How long dose it take to polish a knife edge? (say 10cm edge for comparison)

Yes, Paper Wheels are still available.
There are in fact several companies producing them, each one slightly different from the others in base material and grits.
Mine are made by this US company: http://nextgen.sharpeningwheels.com/, and through their dealer page i found the German dealer where i bought the Wheels that i still use today.
Nowadays there is also a dealer in the Netherlands, but currently i have no need for more Wheels.

My old standard Creusen grinder ran at around 3000 r.p.m. which already worked well, but when that machine died i bought a slower speed version, the Creusen DS7500TS, which runs between 1400-1700 r.p.m.
The reasons being even less heat production, plus i wanted to experiment with the combination of diamond abrasives & oil, something that at that time nobody was doing.
This turned out to be a success, and i've been refining this method to this very day.

So far i think the cooling effect is indeed enough to create very sharp and also durable edges (tested by myself and others), as long as you adapt the amount of cooling wax to your particular style and speed of sharpening.
Too little wax combined with too slow passes still means running the risk of overheating your edge, although the actual effects of this can vary quite a bit among the different types of steel.
Low alloy carbon steels are affected by overheating much sooner than stainless PM steels, while high speed steel types have an even greater tolerance for overheating.
Using too much wax is also counterproductive, as then the cutting action of the grit Wheel will diminish, making the user think he needs to apply more pressure, which will only make things worse.
You have to make the Wheel do the work, and low pressure is indeed the key to best results.

The time it takes to polish a certain knife edge depends greatly on the type of steel, it's carbide type & volume, as well as it's hardness.
The steel that currently takes me the longest to do a full mirror edge on is S110V, and for instance a Spyderco PM2 in this steel takes me 2 hours.
That same PM2 in M4 takes me 1,5 hours, and a PM2 in S30V takes me 1 hour.
To put this in perspective, a full mirror edge in my book means polishing the bevels in a progression of 4 or 5 different Wheels, each one coated with finer diamond compounds, all the way up to the last one which is coated with 1.0 micron diamond compound (a proprietary mixture of professional quality diamond paste & a specialty oil)
But simple low alloy steel types can be polished very well in a matter of minutes on the standard slotted Wheel using only the supplied block of white aluminium oxide.
 
This brand new Endura ZDP-189 sadly had a less than optimal factory edge, and since this beautiful steel deserves better i reprofiled & sharpened it myself.

Before sharpening.
My guess is that these knives are belt sharpened and then have the burr stropped of on a buffer.
On this knife however it seemed like the buffer ran out of cutting compound (or the sharpener just did a sloppy job), as through my loupe i could see remains of a burr almost along the entire edge. (some of it is partly visible in picture 2)
Due to this the sharpness was of course severely lacking.
I also measured the edge angle to be 35 degrees inclusive, which i think is a bit too large for a folding knife in ZDP-189 steel.





After sharpening.
First i removed the old apex by cutting a few times straight into a silicon carbide stone, then reprofiled the edge to a slightly convex +/- 25 degrees inclusive angle with a Paper Wheel coated with 15 micron diamond compound, and finally removed the tiny burr with a second Paper Wheel coated with 0.25 micron diamond compound.
This leaves the scratch pattern created by the 15 micron diamond particles intact as much as possible, creating an edge that with the naked eye almost looks like a mirror, but which has the bite of a coarser edge.
I call this a "bling & bite" finish, and i have found it to work very well in EDC use on harder high carbide steel types.
It's also quite difficult to show correctly in pictures, as the lens of my cheap camera has a tendency to show more of the scratch pattern than can be seen in reality with the naked eye.

With the reduced edge angle & the much finer edge finish the knife will not only cut in a completely different league, it can now also be kept sharp on the 30 degrees slots of a Spyderco Sharpmaker or Lansky Turnbox.









Specs:

Length open: 22,2 cm
Length closed: 12,7 cm
Blade length: 9,6 cm
Blade thickness: max 3,0 mm (ricasso)
Edge length: 8,8 cm
Steel: ZDP-189 powder steel
Hardness: 64-65 HRC
Weight: 103 gram
Handle material: British Racing Green FRN on steel liners
 
Spyderco Southard with CTS-204P blade, which has been in use for a few years now with a Dutch scout leader.
It has already been sharpened several times by him on stones, plus two times by me on Paper Wheels (once up to 6 micron diamond compound, and once up to 15 micron diamond, the latter performing noticeably longer for the owner)

This time the knife was reprofiled from about 30 degrees inclusive to 25 degrees inclusive with a standard Paper Wheel with 220 grit SiC, then deburred with a second Paper Wheel with 0.25 micron diamond compound.
This produces a polished semi-coarse edge with an aggressive bite, as the knife is going to be used to cut a lot of 10 mm polyprop rope in the coming weeks.
You can click the pics 2 x for a bit more detail.





Update:

The owner just informed me how the edge on his Southard is doing so far.
He had used the tip of the knife to cut open about 50 dusty/dirty cardboard boxes filled with porcelain mugs, and this resulted in blunting that tip to a point that it could only barely cut copy paper.
But according to the owner this was most likely due to the fact that the tip hit the mugs every now & then.

After all 50 boxes were opened & emptied the Southard was used to cut down each box, which he measured to be a total of about 80 meters or 262 feet of cardboard.
Afterwards the edge was still able to easily shave the hair from his legs (except about 15 mm of the tip), and the owner feels that the knife isn't due for a touch-up yet.
He also noticed that the CTS-204P steel holds this edge noticeably longer than the S30V steel in his Spyderco Sage, which he had sharpened himself and used earlier for the same job.
 
Some time ago a knife collector asked me if i could sharpen the false edge on a Gerber Applegate Fairbairn folder.
On this knife the blade is completely shrouded by the handle when closed, so there is no risk of injury while carrying it.
The owner also wanted the new bevels to be a bit shiny.

This older YouTube clip by Nutnfancy showcases this mod:



This was the knife before sharpening:











And the result.
Ground the new bevels with a Rubber Wheel coated with 230 grit diamond powder, then refined all bevels with a Paper Wheel coated with 15 micron diamond compound, and finally removed the tiny burr remnants with the Tormek leather wheel & some 1 micron diamond compound.
The edges measure 35 degrees inclusive and are treetopping sharp.







 
The factory edge of this Spyderco PM2 in S110V steel was barely shaving armhair on skinlevel, and according to my Tormek WM200 the edge angle was near 35 degrees inclusive.
The old apex was removed by cutting several times straight into a silicon carbide stone, and then i used 4 different Paper Wheels coated with diamond compounds (15, 6, 3, and 1 micron) to create & refine the new edge.
Normally i don't take high carbide steel types this far, but in this case i wanted to see how the S110V steel would do.

The new & ever so slightly convex edge measures a hair below 30 degrees inclusive, and can easily whittle a normal chest hair towards the point along the entire edge.
Thinner ones will sever immediately upon touching.
My cheap camera is not really able to show full details, but at least it gives some impression.







 
A Belgian member of the Dutch forum who's also into sharpening sent me a USB-camera as a gift, and although i still have lots to learn about what it can do i managed to take a couple of pics of the current edge on the PM2 in S110V steel:

 
Did these chisel ground edges a a few years ago with a Paper Wheel coated with 15 micron diamond compound, and then stropped the burr on the other side off on hard leather with some 1 micron diamond compound.
Both knives were quite blunt, one even more than the other.
The knives are owned by two Dutch Special Forces guys who used & sharpened them while on tour in Afghanistan, and they wanted the new edges to have a little bling.



 
Below you see 3 different viewing angles of the edge i recently put on a brand new Sebenza 25 (which had a subpar factory edge)
The owner of the knife took the pictures with a very expensive Leica camera to capture the different looks this edge type can have when seen from different angles.
For obvious reasons i named this a bling & bite finish, and it performs very well on especially high (vanadium) carbide steels.

I first reprofiled the factory edge from 35 degrees inclusive to 30 degrees inclusive with a Rubber Wheel coated with 230 grit diamond powder, then refined it with a Paper Wheel coated with 15 micron diamond compound, and lastly removed the tiny burr with a second Paper Wheel coated with 0.25 micron diamond compound.
The new and ever so slightly convex edge could treetop the hair on the back of my hand (even whittle it a bit) and easily slice single ply toilet paper.
And this was after i tested the edge with a few firm cuts into the edge of a piece of laminated desktop.



 
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