LDR wrote:
To some extent it is that. The problem is, I think, the sandpaper wears
unevenly and quickly, and that's the source of the "out of square"
problems. (The sandpaper is not cheap and so far as I know you can only
buy it mailorder.)

I think the higher grits, 80x, 120x, etc. are just 8" Klingspor PSA
disks with a center hole punched out. The back of the nut in the
center can be used to punch out the hole in the middle. It looks to me
that that is the intended purpose of that little post. The finer
grits appear to be 3M micro-abrasives. In any case, you can buy from
sources other than LV, but the abrasives seem to be pretty expensive
everywhere.

I can't blame Lee-Valley for not making a $20,000 surface grinder for
almost $400, but if I could do it over again, I would buy a Tormek.

I think if I were to do it again, I would shape the bevel using either
a 1" belt sander, a course silicon carbide bench stone, or maybe good
quality sandpaper on glass. Then I would finish up with scary sharp.
I've come to believe that it is unrealistic for a machine to do the
whole thing. The machine should just be used to speed up the primary
bevel shaping.

Mark