If you are like me you hate throwing stuff out. A lady gave me a bag of leather and there was some fairly hefty pieces but they had some some cheesy tooling done on one side. I made this 4" stropping wheel to attach to a grinder. It runs fast but a light touch and it works wonders on an edge. Starting with scrap of 9/10 oz leather. Set the compass to 2". Wow, this is like school. Trace out 6 circles. If your leather is thinner maybe make a few more. Aim for about 1" to 1-1/4" thick when all stacked. On each hole I marked the centre where the point of the compass poked into the leather. Just in case I need the centre reference later. Now the fun part. Scissors! One down, five to go. Once the discs are cut out, get out yer favourite contact cement. Get some contact cement on the discs. This is strong stuff. I am getting buzzed just looking at it. After coating one side of all six discs liberally with contact adhesive, wait for it to get tacky dry. Line up the discs as best you can before sticking them together as once stuck they are stuck. This yields three discs. Repeat the glue and stick-together process until you have one disc. I pressed them with some clamps to see if any cement came out. It's like a solid block of leather now. Next I used the disc sander to true the edges. This is the shape with the edges smoothed. I found the centre with a ruler and marked it off, and drilled a 1/8" pilot hole on the drill press. Now opening up the hole to 1/2" so it fits on my grinder. The wheel works good. It's running pretty fast, so go lightly. It will take a wire edge to razor sharp in a few passes. Optionally you could charge it with some polishing compound. Stay sharp! Dan
Thats a great idea, load it up with a little green compound and it will put wicked edges on your knives.
