What is a leather wheel used for?

Since we recently released our new Leather Honing and Stropping Wheel we thought it would be a good time to discuss what a Leather Wheel is used for.  To start off, I’d like to go over some Important Safety Information to be aware of when using the Leather Honing Wheel:

-Always wear ANSI Rated Eye Protection

-Secure all loose clothing

-Follow all safety instructions on your grinder

-Make sure the top of the wheel is rotating away from you

-Always Hone Edge Trailing. NEVER point the edge of the blade into a moving wheel

To reiterate the last safety tip; you must hone Edge Trailing when working on a wheel. Edge trailing is when the blade’s edge is pointed in the same direction the abrasive or strop is moving. It’s also a good rule to remember that stropping is always done edge trailing, whether using a wheel or other strop.  

Now that we have that out of the way, let's talk more about the Leather Wheel itself. Much like our Leather Super Strop Honing Belts, our Leather Honing Wheels combine the effective stropping ability of our vegetable tanned leather and the speed of modern machinery. This makes finishing a sharpening or polishing job much faster and easier.  

Our Leather Honing Wheel comes equipped with adjustable bushings to fit the 3 most common arbors on 5 inch and 6 inch bench grinders and polishers.  We also offer a Wheel Sharpening set that comes with an abrasive coated wheel, this means with a bench grinder alone you can become an effective knife and tool sharpener.  By either using the wheel sharp abrasive sharpening wheel, abrasive belt on a sander, or even by using a whetstone you can begin your sharpening process. Once you create the new edge and are ready for the final strop, you can pop over to use the Leather Honing and Stropping Wheel.  One of the great parts of the Leather Honing wheel is it’s versatility.  You can strop knives, axes, and other tools on the curved ¾ inch side. The flat circular side is great for chisels or items you want to maintain a flat even edge.  You can even use the very edge of the wheel to hone in small curved spots such as chisels.  The wheel is incredibly effective at removing tough burrs because of it’s rigid design, great for axes and lawn mower blades. Since the Leather Honing Wheel works on even the toughest of burrs, you can easily sharpen blades in two steps. Instead of an abrasive progression to slowly break down a burr at each step, you can go straight from creating a burr with a single abrasive to stropping with the leather wheel. 

There really are a plethora of ways you can use the Leather Honing Wheel and we’d love to hear how you use yours. Feel free to comment below how you use yours. 

Happy Sharpening!

Kristie F