Quote Originally Posted by mainaman View Post
Power strop wheels are readily available 3.5" diameter will work well for larger blades and one can be resized with a rasp fairly easily I think.
I think Stefan has the right idea here. The pictures of the smaller diameter wheels that Hatzicho posted look a lot like the power strop wheels that Stefan is referencing. These can be purchased online easy enough, and would certainly save a ton of time vs. making something similar yourself. The only thing I didn't like about them (other than the apparent hardness or stiffness of the leather used to manufacture these) was the thickness of the wheels. They seemed to have a pretty thin profile to me...

The thing I like most about the wheel that I made is the 'give' of the softer bridal leather...that and it has a much wider profile. It has a really nice feel when polishing the steel. I've been using hard composition leather wheels and they are very hard and unforgiving if you are not careful.

This could be nothing more than a 'chasing your tail' exercise as Marty suggested. For me it is more about trying to replicate the old 'method' and 'look' of polishing rather than trying to prove that the end result is better than more modern methods...