Thread: Norton Seeded Gel grindwheels

Has anybody tried them?

Derek Cohen has lauded them in the past, and AFAIK he uses mostly HC steel where a little blue will spoil your day.

Jim Davey is stocking the K bond, which is harder than the I bond, and better for steels like A2 and M2.

But with M2 of course the old Alox is fine and a little blue is no cause for aggravation ;-}

Here's a couple of user reports:

Canadian Woodworking Magazine eNewsletter

Norton 3X Grinding Wheels : Buying Advice | Tool Reviews - UKworkshop.co.uk

I bought one of the 3X wheels (46 grit for an 8" grinder) some years ago, partly out of curiosity and partly for their reputation in grinding the coolest of all wheels.

They certainly grind cooly - hard to burn a blade with one of these. And remove metal quickly. Both big plusses.

On the down side, the wheels are very friable and they wear quickly .. and this creates a lot of mess.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Thanks for the update Derek.

What bond is/was yours?

Hi Ern

No idea. It came from Tools For Working Wood (USA). I'd have to pull the wheel off to check, which I cannot do at present.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Thanks Derek.

I bond at a guess, given the mess and the supplier of the wheel.

So mounted my #46. First impressions doing a full bevel regrind on a Titan firmer ...

1. Bit off topic but as some folk won't touch the side of the wheel, this is the first Norton I've received with full instructions, and they say: no HEAVY side pressure.

2. Bushes: comes with a set of 3 starting @ 5/8".

This was the sloppiest 5/8 bush I've had and truing with both diamond point and T-bar took a bit of time. In retrospect I should have lightly clamped it and centred it with some gentle taps.

3. Cool? Yes, Derek is correct, it runs cool; not as cool as the Woodcraft #120 Diamond on the other end of the spindle but cooler than a std coarse Alox.

4. Clogging/glazing? Way less than any other std wheel I've tried. A revelation.

So I'm doing a full bevel regrind and the wheel now needed dressing.

Used a diamond t-bar.

Subsequent grinding was more prone to clogging.

So my guess is that this has more to do with the dressing than the wheel. That is, the dressing is reducing the coarseness of the effective wheel grit. Can feel the diff drawing a finger across the wheel side compared with the face.

This isn't the first time I've had this hunch.

Darlow in one of his w/t books recommended a star wheel dresser.

Forum members warned against this.

But I'm going to give it a go.

That aside, the wheel demonstrated another interesting property ...

Sparks were coming across the back of the chisel well before the two planes met.

Go figure.

Originally Posted by rsser

So I'm doing a full bevel regrind and the wheel now needed dressing.

Used a diamond t-bar.

Subsequent grinding was more prone to clogging.

Ern

Read your experiences with interest....have been looking for the 3X wheels for some time now but cant find an outlet in Brisvegas

Do you have access to a 'Devil Stone'...this is a very coarse carborundum block and is what I use to dress my white stones...very quick and easy and the block lasts for ages. Can't for the life of me remember where it came from....may have been the big green shed.

Have never noticed any appreciable difference after dressing...but there again, never realised until you mentioned it.

Cheers

John M

John, good point about the carborundum stick. I've found in the past that using one roughly leaves a coarser face on the wheel but that's out in this application since the wheel face has to be dead square to the chisel side (lined up with a mitre gauge).

The only supplier of the wheels in Aus that I know of is Jim Davey.

Ern....Understand where you are coming from...I move the mitre gauge across to one side slightly and then present the long axis of the stone to the wheel for the final true up, so providing the end face of the stone is perpendicular to the long axis the wheel face will be perfect.

Cheers

John M

I found that politeness (ie. mitre feeding) didn't pay with the devil stick. It needed aggressive application to unclog the wheel without 'polishing' it.

Star wheel dresser alignment may be no better of course. Maybe a new stick would be a way to go anyway, as the ends of mine are rounded off.

Thanks for provoking those thoughts.