Art

Got to love it....I gave you a link to a new cap at Grainger. It's 8 or 9 bucks. Just replace it to see if that works. The effect will be the same if the cap is short or open, it will spin in either direction because the start circuit won't work. Replace the cap. If you take the cap out, no matter if it is good or bad, it will disable the start circuit and the run circuit will turn it whatever way the motor is inclined to run. Read Tom's reply and just replace the cap. If that doesn't make it run correctly, take the new cap out and take the motor to the scrap heap. Take the new cap to one of 20 or more dealers in Florida who will have a pile of clutch motors that do work in their back room and trade for a used clutch motor that does work. Electrics are funny, if the start circuit doesn't work, you can take parts of it in and out and the effect will be the same, it will start using the run circuit in a rather random direction. Kind of like expecting a different outcome from the same input, what did they call that? Art

Yo, Short the cap terminals before doing anything. Art

I guess I and most everyone else is saying to themselves that you ain't got the chops to be fooling with this thing. I am not going to tell you what to do, it is over your head. The cap you see is part of the circuit that consists of the start winding in the motor (Aux on schematic) and the start capacitor, and is switched in by the start relay (box with dashed lines), the start relay only switches in the start circuit for a short time then goes to the main windings directly. The following is usually the problem, start relay (box with dashed lines), start winding (not usually), or the start cap. On this model the cap is a 7.5 µF used as a start cap (if the schematic is correct) available at Grainger. This is as much as i can provide for you. If the start relay is toast (probably) then it will never switch in the start circuit, and just leave the mains switched in and the motor will go whatever way it goes. Sound familiar? Art

The grain is usually what cracks, doesn't matter what it is, but veg tan is more of a target than chrome tan. Art

Almost everyone has cracked the grain at this point at least once in their career. Dry top grain will crack on acute bends, just a fact. Generally, I don't relieve the bend in anything but thick leather. I do skive down the ends where the rivets or sewing goes. Get the fold/crease good and wet, like everyone says, then put a buckle on it so it wet forms. After it is good and wet, you can hammer on it if you want. If you recut the end, you probably won't lose much more than a couple of inches. If that is a problem, make a ranger style belt, or a stranger/ranger that has a buckle on the belt, but closes with a ranger billet. Art

It does, but the speed reducer multiplies torque by 3. Art

What is "large volume" to you? If you really have large volume, you can have 10 sides drum dyed to your custom color and penetration. If you only use backs, you can buy that way too. Large Volume talks. Airbrushing and spraying generally give shallow penetration, shallow enough that you can scratch the dye off easily. Drum dying however can penetrate all the way through if necessary. In finishing, dyeing is usually done in the drum and finish is applied by spray. Art

The Green Micro-Fine will pretty much cut and polish any steel used for a knife, and .5 will polish to a mirror. .5 micron is about equivalent to a 15,000 water stone for comparison. Art

The Micro-Fine is a pretty solid block, get a thin coat on the strop then strop to move it around. It will look blotchy for a while, then it will become black over time. Ditto for a wheel. I don't use any oil to prep a wheel though. To answer a prior question, there are two things of importance with buffing compounds. One, is the grit hard enough to cut the metal? Two, what is the grit size. The smaller the grit, the finer the finish. For really technical shears, I use diamond all the way, diamond wheels and diamond paste or spray on leather buffs. A 45 micron wheel can be very aggressive, but doesn't leave a really smooth finish, however a 9 micron wheel leaves almost a mirror. A 3 and .5 micron diamond loaded leather wheel will actually bring up a burr where a chrome or aluminum oxide paste might not. Art

I condition a new strop with Pecard's (Vaseline would probably work too) let it set for an hour and apply Formax Micro-Fine. Back in the day (sorry I'm Old), they used animal fat as the binder in the bars of buffing compound. Somewhere along the line, that changed. The old formula went on a little greasy, and Brownell's Polish-O-Ray more so. If you can imagine losing a 2 lb bar of compound and searching the shop for it and having to order more, only to find out that the dog loved the things. Came in one day and he was pigging out on a bar. I called the vet and he said it might clean him out a bit, but the occasional bar might not hurt him too bad. So there was grease in the bar, which has now probably been replaced by some petroleum product. The Formax is pretty dense and is hard to get onto the strop, hense the Pecard's. After that first application, I pretty much haven't needed anything. Art

No. Not much in the way of support for that machine. Here is Campbell demoing a Fortuna, best I could find. Call the Cobra folks, maybe they can help. Art

Here again, they are all over the board. That is why I say to go with Formax. There are 4 or so grades of "white" formax, most of them just a fine alumina, chrome and stainless being their primary targets. Green is usually Alumina and Chrome Oxides, usually on stainless. Black compound will actually cut quite aggressively on a wheel and might cut "a little bit" on a strop, so watch out when using it to maintain the desired angle and don't "roll off" at the end of your stroke. Your finer stones will do the same as this compound. Red jeweler's rouge is not going to do much for steel, as it is made for softer metals, however, on a strop, it will set the edge back up, which is the whole idea, but the bare leather will do that too. There is also an animal out there called Herb's Yellowstone, which cuts a bit. It can actually sharpen or unfortunately de-sharpen an edge if improperly used. Not a stropping aid per se, but will bring back some remarkably dull edges. So the order of attack would be (wheel or strop): Black (be careful) Green Green Micro Fine White For strops, all I ever use now is Micro Fine. Art

The composition, effect, and packaging of buffing compounds is really all over the board and has been for years. A good buffer (technician) can make anything work on darn near anything. A felt buff with anything on it can be used to cut anything, but obviously the right compound will make the job easier. When you are talking the compounds on your list, these are meant to be used on buffers, not strops. Jewelers tend to use compounds from jewelry supply houses they know and deal with e.g. Rio Grande. Fore working with tools, you use stones, and you strop. For stropping, you just need something fine enough to polish an edge, 3 micron diamond paste will work fine, but I use .5 micron green compound from Formax. If you use a small jeweler's buffer, you can use the red jeweler's rouge to buff and color any of the soft metals like brass, gold, and silver (including nickle silver which is basically brass). You can also use buffs on a Dremel or Foredom to accomplish the same. You might see white compound also, it is .25 micron and in my opinion too fine for stropping. If you really get into restoration and buffing, The Brownell's Polish-O-Ray series of compounds is great for felt wheels and very consistent. If you want to buy something with 4 or 5 different compounds in it, Try to make sure it is from Formax, as their stuff is very consistent, EnKay would be my second choice. Art

You can make one of those with a piece of drill rod, or just a large old drill and a grinder. Art

I love George Hurst, but every time he narrates one of these things, I just nod off. I watched his airbrushing video once and the wife said they need to bottle it. Art

Well, a new 867 will run you $4k to $5k, so there's that. Art

Hi Dwight and Joet, Brettuns Village still stocks them, OTB stocks them on page 7 of the P216 catalog along with the T-1244 setter, Zack White also, and they are all over eBay. Bruce at OTB did a video on setting them. Art

Hi Rick, I have nothing against rocks, obsidian knives are wonderful cutting instruments, I think some ophthalmic surgeons still use them. A big obsidian hunter is also a thing of beauty. Actually, my early schooling and subsequent training was in metallurgy, particularly in applied chemistry and metallurgy. I worked briefly in that field, but got into other things, but I digress. I would write a book on knife steels, but others have done a thorough job in an online wiki here. It's just a list of steels (some of them actually used in knives) and their properties. There is also the Lexicon of Blade Steels in the Pocket Guide to Knives which you can work through, and which I can answer most questions you will come up with. Basically Steels are a mixmash if Iron and various other elements like Carbon, Vanadium, Chromium, Tungsten, and other denizens of the periodic table that make-up what we may call tool steels, blade steels, knife steels, and then some names that are more 5th Avenue that descriptive or realistic. Read and enjoy, ask questions as your curiosity demands. I have a hard time explaining anything in less than a page or so, so bear with me. Art

I would say to buy from the guy closest to you. Bob at Toledo, or Gregg at Keystone will provide a great machine and even greater service. Gregg also has Adler, Pfaff and Highlead if you want a little more quality, but the Ferdco 2000 will do you just fine. Both of these gents have been around since the Camel wore Sandals, well at least Bob has, and can be trusted with getting you going. Art

We can get as technical as you want, and there are a set of properties for each steel. I have heard the term "knife steels" bandied around and it is a crock. Steel is made for industry, manufacturers don't really care what knifemakers want, they care what industry wants. Knifemakers have always chosen a steel or whatever that closely matches the properties they want for their knife. More Often, marketing comes into play and a steel is used because it is in vogue, more than if it is the best steel. Everything is a tradeoff when additives come into play. I like to know what steel I'm working with when I sharpen, but is it THAT important? No, I just sharpen it. I pretty well know what I'm working with when I get through a few passes on the grinder or stone, and hey, I have to sharpen it no matter what. Now, if I am making a knife, I would use 1065, 1075 or O-1, O-6, or L-6 for non stainless. I'm old school on that and I know exactly how these steels work. For stainless, the choices are a little more difficult. D-2, 440C, A-2, and BG-42 are my favorites, but the particle steels (CPM) are, while über technical, darned good knife steels also. Knifemaking (custom) has changed a lot in recent years. When I make a knife, I select the steel I want to use, and beat and or grind on it until it looks like what I want. I do about 90% of the finish work before heat treating it and testing for hardness (yes I have a tester). I do it all. Now a days, they select a steel and send their profile.file to the shop that waterjets or lasers their blanks. Then they send them out for heat treating, and when they get back, they finish them up. I talked with a current maker at a show about profiling his blanks, and he had no idea what I was talking about. Different business now. Not saying it is a good or bad thing, but what I am getting at is you are at the mercy of the maker when sharpening. You get one of those really hard steels and you just have to sharpen it, buck it up and get to work, I'll sharpen anything excepting maybe rock. Art

Hi Bob, The Burr is the thinnest part of the edge rolling over onto the side of the edge opposite the stone. It has to go to the side away from the stone as the stone will cut and remove anything on the side it is grinding. The stone moving toward or away from the edge makes no difference. The thinnest part of the edge, unable to remain upright, will be rolled over. It is not gravity, but the burr simply has nowhere else to go. Even if you use forward and backward strokes on a stone, if you are properly positioned with the stone grinding the edge, when you have ground as much as needed and go that fraction of a bit further, the burr will come up. While the burr is indeed good edge metal dieing, it lets us know that we have gone as far as we can on this bevel. As long as be don't bring-up big gnarly burrs, we can flip to the other side and the stone will remove the burr, of course the burr will come up on the other side, and then you are finished with that grit. The burr will always have grit all over it. Before going to a new grit, you have to remove the burr and the old grit. There is no problem with wiping the knife down (getting the grit and most of the burr off) and then stropping it to remove the burr before going to a finer grit. You will generally have bigger burrs with coarser grits. On final passes on say 1200 grit (everyone has their own grit system and it is confusing as hell), which is 3 micron or about an 8000 stone, the belt or stone is smoother than a baby's cheek and polishes more than removes more than a few hundred molecules, the burr will be indistinguishable for most, still, with the right angle, I can bring-up kind of a micro burr, I might need to look through a 30x loupe to do it, but it will be there. We seldom need this kind of precision for a head knife, but precision scissors are a different story. There is a problem with burrs though. It is easy to bring-up a "false" burr by rolling-up onto the edge. This is why I recommend jigs, and use them myself. This isn't easy with a head knife, so you have to realize when you are doing it, or that you can be doing it. As I have said before, there is some science here, but also a level of art. When the stone has sharpened the edge to the point there is complete contact between edge and stone, there is no place for the burr to go but to the other side, complete contact keeps anything from getting between the stone and the edge. Complete contact is what we want, the edge is sharp. So, it really doesn't matter which way the stone goes, unless the stone is less hard than the edge. Yes, the strop has to go over the edge, and away from it. Put power into the equation and the knife becomes part of a splitting machine. After one of these knowledge dumps, I have to ask simply, did I answer the question? Art

I have received several requests to do a writeup on my experiences and thoughts about the WS 3000 grinder. Please read-up and watch on youtube for information on this unit and if you need some real use info, I can provide it here. This is a $200 item in stock format, which is pretty useable for what it does. You can use sandpaper for different grits on the glass wheels (two provided, each side useable). You can use the peel and stick disks or just use good (read 3M here, I'm a 3M bigot, the stuff has never let me down) wet and dry paper and use the Type II Feathering adhesive to stick it down, then trim with a utility knife or whatever. Glass wheels are $20 if you think you need more. It has lots of other options and accessories that you can buy into if you get bored, but the best one is the knife sharpening attachment. Youtube it, if you are very careful with it and practice, it will put a very good edge on a knife. You can use multiple belts ad nauseum going carefully up through the grits, but the 120 belt us very aggressive on this little machine. The belts are a little pricey considering they are 1" X 18". Micro-Mesh belts from Micro Surface are an excellent choice other than Work Shop. DMT makes a replacement diamond disk system for the Work Sharp that I use. I don't recommend this to everyone as the cost is high and is not necessary unless the job dictates. My only use for this machine is for small parts that need grinding or dressing. From looking at it, you would think this thing would be handy for a whole bunch of stuff. It has a 1/5 HP motor that is geared down by a factor of 6 or 7, and the glass lap wheels (that you stick the paper to) are pretty flat, not optical but very good nonetheless. However, that small wheel is really small for doing knives of most varieties; and small means ackward, a lot more so than bigger laps or grinders. This is compounded by the knob that holds the wheel on sticking up in the middle of the whole thing. While you only use one side of any flat wheel, taking away the center section makes positioning somewhat impossible with a longer blade, or bigger blade as in a 5" head knife. The glass wheels mount on the machine and sink down to just above a collar that runs around the wheel. I am SURE this is a safety feature, but the damned thing gets in the way if you have a longer tool with a handle. It also takes an inordinate amount of time to get a wheel off the machine. The collar mentioned before blocks getting a hold on the edge of the wheel and lifting it off, no problem if the collar wasn't there. I been thinking of taking a coping saw and cutting about 2/3 of that collar off. We'll see, one day it will tick me off to the point of surgery. I'm going to tell you NOT to get the leather covered wheel for stropping. You always need to strop away from the knife edge to keep from shaving your strop, which happens in a remarkably short time under power. There is just no comfortable or even practical way to do that on a small diameter wheel with a big knob sticking-up in the center. Just use a strop on a piece of wood that you can control. For what I do, a precision lap is overkill, and changing grits is a pure PITA, but this little grinder seems to fit the bill quite well for me. Short edged tools is what this machine is made to do. Art

Your motor probably has a bad start capacitor, not worth fixing, get new motor. Now please understand that Chinese mainland motors are crap. There is no other way to put it. The dealers here in the states (most are at the top of the page) warrantee them and the quality is not a problem other than one of convenience. US motors are great, German motors are great, Japanese Motors are Great, Taiwanese Motors are pretty darned good, and mainland Chinese motors are good also....while they work. The cost differences pretty much follow that progression also. I haven't seen a Chinese motor catch fire yet, but I have seen them just start running at full speed, only way to stop it was to unplug it. Most cases are it's dead, it's done, stick a fork in it. The basics seem to be there, but the electronics, not so much. But you are getting a motor for $130 or so, and if the dealer stands behind it, then you are good to go. Art

You are the Devil Dougster, the snake. You tempted Woman and she bit your twenty dollar apple. Get thee out Satan. Art

Let's talk a little about included angles. I like 20°, that is 10° per side. I will look at a knife and see if that is possible. On Bill Buchman knives, he used thin steel that I sharpen at 20°. I have a few of these knives and that is how I sharpen them. Note that the thicker the steel, the greater the angle they must be sharpened at. An old Rose or Osborne will need a lot more angle than a Buchman. I can never tell 'till I get the knife in my hand and see what steel, how thick, and very importantly, what the guy who came before me did to it. Remember all those wedges I told you to make? I wouldn't tell you to make a whole bunch of them if you only were going to need the 10° one. While I have and use vernier and digital protractors in the shop, I find this thing gets a lot of use. While a lot of sharpening and edge mechanics may tell you they freehand it or eyeball it, the good ones don't. Art