Scary Sharp – Adhesive and How Do You Apply It?

[ossieosborne]

In order to stem any rioting I don’t want to know about grinding/honing angles, honing guides v freehand or any other such malarkey.

I use various grades of abrasive paper for sharpening, temporarily glued to a slab of granite (blagged from local fireplace company) and also a smaller thick lump of slate.

The adhesive I am using at the moment is a spray-on Contact Adhesive (Toolstation I think). I find that, more often than not, I end up with slight ripples in the abrasive surface. It’s either my technique of applying the glue; too much, too little. I don’t know what.

I will admit that I haven’t tried using a spreader after spraying the glue onto the slabs.

Questions:

Is there a better type of adhesive I should be using?

How do you apply your adhesive to achieve a ripple free finish?

Cheers

Oz

 

[deserter]

Normally the spray adhesives benefit from a couple of minutes standing time before you apply the paper to it.

 

[mbartlett99]

I usually just use a bit of water as a lubricant - sticks things down nicely. You could use spraymount from the local art shop. Contact adhesive is a bit lumpy at the best of times.

 

[Dodge]

I use the scary sharp from WH which is self adhesive - just peel off the backing!

 

[AndyT]

Same as Dodge - it's much cleaner and easier to get totally flat. It's also hard wearing and comes in the right range of grits. It's really not worth messing about with anything else.

 

[fluffflinger]

+1 for the self adhesive stuff from Matthew at WH.

Shame the 100micron isn't self adhesive as it's curlier than a curly thing with curls. If you do use the self adhesive stuff take care not to get air bubbles trapped when you apply it to your substrate.

 

[Steve Maskery]

+ another 1 for WH, although it's not idiot-proof. Just be more careful than I was the first time I used it.
S

 

[ossieosborne]

Thanks for the replies.

I don't really want to buy the self-adhesive films as I have a quantity of Micro Mesh (cloth backed so water won't work) that I would prefer to use up first (tight git), so i'm looking for the adhesive solution. :wink:

Oz

 

[woodbloke]

I use the scary sharp from WH which is self adhesive - just peel off the backing!

Same as Rog and others. Provided the glass (or granite) that you stick it to is free from dust and other contaminants, it's dead easy. The 60 and 100 micron 3M grades aren't self adhesive in which case I just use a couple of strips of ds tape - Rob

 

[deserter]

I use WH 3m also the self adhesives are fantastic, but the 100's are not adhesive that's where I use spray adhesive mounted to plain old MDF I don't think it has to be perfectly smooth with the really hash grits anyway.

Out of interest which grades do the others use I stick to the 40, 30 and 5 at the moment but keep thinking of trying some of the finer grades is there any real improvement from them?

 

[Teckel]

Dab of super glue on each corner. Does the job for me.

 

[jimi43]

I find MicroMesh cloth more useful for round things but if you insist on using it for honing, try wide double-sided tape.

I have two sets of MM from 1500M to 12000M and I have washed them in the washing machine a number of times to rejuvenate them so I wouldn't use them taped down...a bit wasteful IMHO. I too use adhesive backed stuff from Matthew at WH...it's not really that expensive and well worth the money.

Though I am on a natural stone kick at the moment...just for fun!

Jim

 

[woodbloke]

I use WH 3m also the self adhesives are fantastic, but the 100's are not adhesive that's where I use spray adhesive mounted to plain old MDF I don't think it has to be perfectly smooth with the really hash grits anyway.

Out of interest which grades do the others use I stick to the 40, 30 and 5 at the moment but keep thinking of trying some of the finer grades is there any real improvement from them?

Current set up is 30,15, 5 & 1 micron, but it works well enough without the 15. For sharpening the single bevel on my Jap chisels, I've got a separate piece of glass with 60 and 40micron, one on each side. To keep it off the sharpening table, I use those rectangular sticky pads that glaziers give you when you buy a bit of glass. I have tried the .3 micron (equivalent to 36,000g :shock: or so Mrs WH has estimated) but I reckon that's a bit OTT - Rob

 

[bugbear]

In order to stem any rioting I don’t want to know about grinding/honing angles, honing guides v freehand or any other such malarkey.

I use various grades of abrasive paper for sharpening, temporarily glued to a slab of granite (blagged from local fireplace company) and also a smaller thick lump of slate.

The adhesive I am using at the moment is a spray-on Contact Adhesive (Toolstation I think). I find that, more often than not, I end up with slight ripples in the abrasive surface. It’s either my technique of applying the glue; too much, too little. I don’t know what.

I will admit that I haven’t tried using a spreader after spraying the glue onto the slabs.

Questions:

Is there a better type of adhesive I should be using?

How do you apply your adhesive to achieve a ripple free finish?

Cheers

Oz

I use 3M 77 spray mount. It's not super sticky, but given the surface area of the abrasive, and the low forces involved (and their direction) it's easily adhesive enough.

http://www.vikingtapes.co.uk/3M_Product ... _mount.htm

The benefit is that it goes on in a nice fine spray, that is almost impossible to make blobs with.

BugBear

 

[Argus]

I use the scary sharp from WH which is self adhesive - just peel off the backing!

On the odd occasions that I use this stuff, so do I............

But........................

It's very good for its limited purpose, in my opinion, but the adhesive is the most tenacious stuff to get off the glass afterwards.
A solid film of adhesive stays on the glass and the abrasive sheet comes off clean as whistle.
Sticks like merde on l'enfant's blanket.

Most solvents available in the workshop won't touch it, and Cellulose thinners that will normally eat most plastics struggles with it. MH admits to me in an e mail that it was developed for another industry and its use in woodworking is therefore a compromise. He recommends Orange oil, but that is yet more expense and either way you end up with a pile of goo that gets eveywhere....

However, I have found that it comes off eventually with the judicious (but time consuming) use of a heat-gun/paint stripper.

That's probably why I mostly use diamond stones free-hand.

Twice as quick and less hassle.

.

 

[deserter]

I take the glue off with an old 1" chisel scrape gently and it's all off in a minute or so.

 

[woodbloke]

It's very good for its limited purpose, in my opinion, but the adhesive is the most tenacious stuff to get off the glass afterwards.
A solid film of adhesive stays on the glass and the abrasive sheet comes off clean as whistle.
Sticks like merde on l'enfant's blanket.

Most solvents available in the workshop won't touch it, and Cellulose thinners that will normally eat most plastics struggles with it. MH admits to me in an e mail that it was developed for another industry and its use in woodworking is therefore a compromise. He recommends Orange oil, but that is yet more expense and either way you end up with a pile of goo that gets eveywhere....

However, I have found that it comes off eventually with the judicious (but time consuming) use of a heat-gun/paint stripper.

Yep, it does stick to glass quite well :shock: but it's easy to get off. Use white spirit and a nylon scourer, then wash the glass with hot water and dry. Finally clean and polish with glass cleaner just before the new stuff is rolled on. Cleaning off the old goo takes me less than ten minutes - Rob

 

[Noel]

Why use adhesive in the first place? I've been using scary sharp for years, just a small bit of masking tape holds everything in place on any glass, cast iron or whatever. If the paper is rippled or creased then it's not stored properly.

 

[bugbear]

Most solvents available in the workshop won't touch it, and Cellulose thinners that will normally eat most plastics struggles with it.

I had a strange run in a while ago with a sticky label. The glue wouldn't budge with hot soapy water or alcohol, or acetone.

Strangely, white spirit made is dissolve almost instantly.

So there's not a simple sequence of solvents in increasing order of "power".

BugBear

 

[SteveB43]

+1 more for Matthew's 3M lapping paper, and I'm also using it on a big slab of granite offcut...
I find the higher microns paper wear quite well, but the 5 and 1 can tend to rip.
I know these are polishing grades, but it does seem the more you polish, the more you sharpen, the higher the ripping incidents become, and Yes that is using the paper as Matthew suggests in his Narex chisels set up YouTube video...
Cleaning off is a pain, but sticky solvent remover, white spirt etc will clean up off granite...
I've been using a 30, 15, 5, 1 set of papers and the results are fantastic...
I also make up a solution of honing water with the additive as suggested, in a spray bottle as a lubricant..

Cheers!