DIY honing machine for carving tools.

[William Wehner]

I was thinking about making a carving gouge honing machine similar to the one used by Chris Pye.



He uses cratex wheels mounted on a home made shaft and driven by a hobby grinder, and I was thinking I could make something similar with generic parts. Here's my idea



where each wheel (2-3" in diameter with 1/4" arbor) is mounted on a single 1/4" shaft and held in place with washers and shaft collars as so



The shaft is mounted between two pillow bearings and driven by motor connected with pulleys and a belt. Figured I'd see what input I could get before getting started, maybe's there's already much better options.

Thanks
-Will

 

[Michael Stiennon]

I just bought a 6" cloth wheel and a bar of abrasive paste from WoodCraft and mounted it on a grinder and it is fantastic. Just be careful to either reverse the rotation, or hold the tool above the wheel. The more complex systems, like the Koch, allow you to actually grind the edge but if the edge is in good shape you only need to touch it to the wheel for a few seconds and it is super sharp. You will be amazed at how easy it is to make your V chisels as sharp as when they came from Steihl.

 

[William Wehner]

The koch system is pretty interesting, but where is it actually available to purchase?

 

[Michael Stiennon]

The koch system is pretty interesting, but where is it actually available to purchase?

Looks like only in Europe. I found one bet can’t get them to sell the media to US. Nora Hall has a simplified version