Making Felt polishing wheels

Does anyone know how Felt polishing wheels are made? Maybe a
leadf or good reference on the process? Thanks John

john - just like the catalogs say, ‘x’ number of layers of
muslin or flannel or whatever. 1. use the yellow pages to find a
sailor’s canvas sewer set: a strong needle & a reinforced glove
thingy that keeps you from skewering your hand, 2. a couple of
yards of unbleached muslin (or flannel) & some dental floss. 3.
stack up layers of fabric until you have 30-40- how many you
want. 4. use a compass to locate the center of the size wheel you
need & draw out the circle, 5. get a small (1-1 1/2") piece of
wood, put under the center of the stack of fabric & hammer a nail
through it to hold the whole thing together while you’re sticking
the needle thorough it. then sew concentric circles - not a
spiral because the hand stitching will come out. it might be
easiest to lay the stack on an old surface & drive a waxed brad
(skinny nail) around each circle every 1/4" , then stick needle
through, turn over & repeat. voila! for only twice the cost of
rio grande’s muslin buffs, you have your very own …, very own,
er, 30 sq. doilies with blood spatters all over them.
don’t drop your insurance - ive

Ive, (and John) John asked how to make FELT wheels - not muslin,
so, what he needs to find is a source of raw felting fibers, a
couple dozen round forms ( You don’t really want to make just
one at a time, do ya, John??) and a Press capable of exerting a
ton or so of pressure for however long it takes for felt to dry.
And, as Ive so succinctly put it, for only twice(or three or
four times) the cost of Rio Grande’s felt buffs … Think it
over again - do you want to spend your time/energy/inspiration
making jewelry, or making buffs? Mike

Mike & Ive, Thank you for your consideration. Actually I don’t
want to make polishing wheels, but to use it as pads/files for
ultrasonic and hand polishing. I did find a source for
different shapes of felt at www.bostonfelt.com using the
Google.com search engine (much better results). For curiosity’s
sake, Mike, Do you know do they use a binder for the wool to make
it harder? There is something interesting here as there is a
point where the felt is too hard (like with super hard split
laps) and actually starts to scratch the metal. If it is too
soft it will lose it’s definition quickly. Speaking of which, I
am also looking for lap material for my GRS power hone. I use
the 50,000 grit on their ceramic wheel, but it seems to add it’s
own scratches. Right now I finish my gravers with polish on the
back of sandpaper, but I lose some of the sharpness this way and
the grit from the sanpaper fouls up what ever flat I put it on.
Maybe someone knows of a source for this kind of paper without
the grit as it is much more durable for polishing with
than anything else I’ve found. John

John, My friend makes felt hats, I asked her how she did this,
here is what she told me: You need pure wood fleece, (NZ maybe)
any way you wash it in really hot water then put it in the
clothes dryer and it shrinks up really good and hard, Remember
the old wool sweaters, what happened to them if you washed them
in really hot water? (shrink up really bad) I suppose you could
get some 100% wool yarn and wrap it around some popsicle sticks
then put then in boiling hot water and dry them with the hair
dryer for the same sort of effect. Susan Chastain