Thread: size of the bufing wheels

7/8 or 1/2 which(thickness) one used most for straight razor's?

It depends...

You can stack the wheels on the spindle. If you have two 1/2 wheels you can use one or put two together and have a 1" wide surface. It gets a bit bumpy with sisal wheels if you don't get them to run concentric but the spiral and loose wheels don't have any issues after raking them out.

I prefer single wheel for greaseless, and stacked for buffing.
I use 1/2" but I do not see anything wrong with 7/8 apart from the higher price.

does it matter which kinda wheels to use for different compounds.
example
Spiral Sewn Cotton Wheel for greaseless or better will be to use sisal wheels?
etc?
thank you

For newbies, spiral sewn is recommended, because sisal are pretty aggressive.
I personally use spiral sewn for greaseless, sisal/spiral sewn/loose cotton for black emery in that order, then spiral sewn for stainless green compound, and loose cotton for white rogue and CrO compound. the loose cotton wheels have two kinds 40 ply and 80ply I like the 80 ply a lot. In my experience with loose cotton you can go 8" (may be even 10") and make the cutting more aggressive while achieving a lot of give to fit the razor curves.

Sham a lot of this is what fits your style and what you start with and learn on...

I don't use sisal at all anymore I use the sewn wheels until I get to the last few wheels then switch to loose buffs...

The size of the wheel also depends somewhat on the speed that you are spinning at, higher speeds + smaller wheels = less heat because the relative speed across the blade is slower..

There are a few threads on here that have the equations done for you but it is surface speed that really counts not just rpm...

Personally I like the 4" x 1/2" wheels because I can get into the hollows better, but I try and spin spine to edge most of the time,, I rarely go heel to toe, only on the really bad ones at 80 grit and at the polishing stage if I am going after a real mirror finish..

Like I said some of this is personal some is what razor you are working with...

Originally Posted by gssixgun

The size of the wheel also depends somewhat on the speed that you are spinning at, higher speeds + smaller wheels = less heat because the relative speed across the blade is slower..

Thank you Glen . it helps a lot.
i get confused with above statement.
higher speeds( we assume speed is same and just wheel changes)+bigger wheels= less heat?
this is what i was thinking.
let me explain why i think so.
arbor speed is 3600 x 6. will make buffer turning more faster then 8 wheel?
am i wrong?
8 wheel has more surface and touching speed to the razor should be less then 6 wheel because 6 will radius smaller and will touch more then 8 wheel/
Am i clear on this?

This link will explain better than I can about speed and other tips: Introduction To Buffing and Polishing - Caswell Inc.

In short, the larger diameter the wheel the faster the surface speed at the business part of the wheel. Faster surface speed, more heat potential.

Good luck.

Sham it's very simple, imagine you want to cover 10 feet distance in 2 seconds, this will require a speed of 5ft/s.
Now imagine you need to cover 20 ft in 2 seconds, that means you need to go with 10ft/s.
The same principle applies for surface speed which is nothing different than covering different distances at fixed amount of time as the above example.

i have to learn something different every darn day.
thank you guys.