Bamboo Tips - Extreme Rodmaking
Sharpening Wheels Problems

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I tried to sharpen a plane iron on a leather wheel with the wheel rotating toward me one time.  Leather flew everywhere.  The plane iron bounced off the bench, to the ceiling, and left a pretty fair gash in the wall behind me.  Only scratched my thumb, but it coulda been really ugly.  Imagine that razor sharp plane iron as a projectile, and you'll get the picture.

But it did scare the &%$* outta me.  (Harry Boyd)

Oy...  I've had projectiles in the shop before, back in the days when I was manufacturing model airplane kits, and cutting wood on a table saw.  That was before I invested in a band saw to do the production cutting.  Even with feather boards, with the feed rates I was using I would get a piece to fly out every once in a while.  Learned very quickly to stand off to the side of the work piece.  Wit a planing iron launching off of a rotating wheel, I could see it would be just a tad more dangerous.  Having the plane blade ricochet off nearby surfaces makes it a bit harder to stay out of the way.  Danger lurks in the shop when we are the least bit inattentive.  (Mark Wendt)