Thread: Burninshing on buffing wheel

First off, NO quality strops were harmed during this experiment. Ok, so a while back I had made an impulse purchase on the bay for a two part SEARS & Roebuck strop that appeared to be in save-able condition, turns out it wasn't. So I just saved the hardware that was on it and threw it in a drawer. Fast forward about 6 months, there I was, again, wasting time on that auction site and came across some strips of Horween Horse Butt for a fairly reasonable price (left-overs from someone else's project I assume) remembering I had the hardware, I thought why not, so I bought the strips and a piece of 1950's fire hose flax linen and waited. When the pieces arrived I examined them carefully for any defects that would render them unusable for a strop, there were no major flaws and I was able to get a 2.5x24 inch piece from one of the strips with minimal trimming. I laid out my template and cut the piece out and lightly sanded the surface with 1000 grit w/d paper to remove small bumps and irregularities. It was at this point that a light went off and I wondered how using a buffing wheel on a bench grinder would work to burnish the surface for a smooth and glassy draw. Well the answer to my question was it works pretty dang good! If, like me, you enjoy a highly polished surface with minimal draw that is. At this point it makes strop number 4 and it works to smooth and prep the blade just a well as the other three (StarShaving English bridle, NOS Certifyd Red Imp, Kanayama #3) feel wise I would say it falls between the English bridle and the Kanayama with the Red Imp being the lightest draw.

It was a fun experiment that worked out quit pleasingly, I would be interested to see if anyone else had ever done this or hear any thoughts or opinions about this process. P.S. I used a NEW clean 8'' buffing wheel on a 2000 rpm bench grinder.

No compounds on the wheel? Hmmmmmm.....

Nope, never heard of that, but have heard of guys putting wood or nylon edge burnishing wheel on buffers and burnishing the edges with good results.

This is similar, you probably could dress the wheel with a bit of Bee’s wax for a slicker finish. Might try one of your scraps first.

Should be a nice strop with the firehose, have heard good things about the hose.

That's correct I didn't use any kind of compound, I hadn't thought about dressing the wheel with bee's wax, will have to pick some of that up to give it a try. Definitely scrap piece first. The fire hose is AWESOME!! It is just as good as the linen component of my Red Imp and only cost $8!