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For the most part I never put any of my knives to stones or diamond hones. I’m even really reluctant to put them to sandpaper unless absolutely necessary. My first choice is stropping a knife on leather and then if I’ve dulled it up to the point that stropping on leather becomes ineffective, I’ll take my knives out to the shed and put them on an 8” cloth buffing wheel as recommended by both Mac Proffit at SMWC's and Allen Goodman. Except when I broke the tip off of a favorite knife I’ve yet to find the necessity of going to the sandpaper.
The buffer out in the shed is a simple Dremel variable speed motor with two kinds of buffing wheels mounted on it. I generally use a green compound that SMWC’s used to sell.
However, there are some occasions when going out to the shed in Florida is not possible….ie….inclement weather and 85F to 95F degrees days. The heat buildup and the temperature in the shed can get to well over 100F.
On these days I’ve use a mini-buffer that I have mounted to my carving desk in my den. One of the guys at our carving club gave me the idea some time ago and I recently decided to act on it. I purchased the mini-rotary tool from Harbor Freight for the ridiculously low cost of around $9.99 and I didn’t even pay that much as I used one of their 20% off coupons. If you want to use it as a regular rotary tool it comes with 80 attachments. I attached one of the small felt buffing disks on it and apply a small amount of the white compound sold by Helvi Knives.
The mini-buffer works wonders on small gouges and V-tools and small knife blades. Although the RPM of the rotary tool is about 16,000 and not ideal as far as heat build-up, it has still proved useful when putting a tool to it with deft hands. It doesn’t take more than a touch of the tool to the felt to restore a a tool edge.
The buffer out in the shed is a simple Dremel variable speed motor with two kinds of buffing wheels mounted on it. I generally use a green compound that SMWC’s used to sell.
However, there are some occasions when going out to the shed in Florida is not possible….ie….inclement weather and 85F to 95F degrees days. The heat buildup and the temperature in the shed can get to well over 100F.
On these days I’ve use a mini-buffer that I have mounted to my carving desk in my den. One of the guys at our carving club gave me the idea some time ago and I recently decided to act on it. I purchased the mini-rotary tool from Harbor Freight for the ridiculously low cost of around $9.99 and I didn’t even pay that much as I used one of their 20% off coupons. If you want to use it as a regular rotary tool it comes with 80 attachments. I attached one of the small felt buffing disks on it and apply a small amount of the white compound sold by Helvi Knives.
The mini-buffer works wonders on small gouges and V-tools and small knife blades. Although the RPM of the rotary tool is about 16,000 and not ideal as far as heat build-up, it has still proved useful when putting a tool to it with deft hands. It doesn’t take more than a touch of the tool to the felt to restore a a tool edge.
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