sharpening tungsten

by Eric
(Henderson, NV)

Here's a helpful tip for sharpening your tungsten. If you want a quality arc that you get from diamond wheel just use an electric drill to chuck up your tungsten and spin it while you grind. Best start is to keep short tungstens so there's not a lot of stick out from the drill.

I've sharpened tungsten "against the grain" on a rough sanding belt while spinning it high speed in a portable drill and had excellent results, not to mention the convenience. Another helpful reason to do this is you can easily, quickly and consistently sand off any dirty leather you leave on the tungsten while removing it while its hot. This may not be the most professional way but i've compared it to using a diamond wheel and this was just as good. The spinning of the drill leaves very fine grind marks on the tungsten which hardly affects the arc and leaves the point sharp, consistent, clean and shiny. You can use this method on belt sanders, rough, fine or diamond wheels. It really makes for a more concentric point. Plus let the drill burn its fingers when that thing gets hot.