Look here to see how to build your own low cost, safe, and effective "grinding buffing station" for your carving studio. You will be pleased to know that a person does not have to spend hundreds of dollars to set up a grinding/buffing station for use in relief woodcarving. In fact, the emphasis of this system is:
a) low cost
b) safety
c) simplicity
There are a lot of "hi-tech" solutions out there for getting your tools razor sharp. But my tools are razors sharp without the "hi-tech" cost. Not only are my tools sharp, but they perform exceptionally well: that is, they glide through the wood and are very easy to control.
For your grinding centre, find yourself an old washing machine motor, preferably one that is free and one that rotates at 1725 rpm, and is mounted to a stand. Buy a "work arbor", and fasten it to the shaft (work arbors come in 1/2" and 5/8" sizes). Attach your grinding wheel to the work arbor, securely of course.
The grinding wheel can be an all-purpose wheel, with a fine grit, commonly found at hardware stores for under $10.00 (Canadian). But you can also get a "white" wheel (aluminum oxide) which grinds at lower temperatures so it is a little easier to avoid burning the edge of the tool during grinding (see your Lee Valley Tool catalogue).
Make sure the wheel rotates down and towards you. This is not so much a safety concern, as it is proper grinding technique. The wheel should always cut INTO the tool edge, NOT off the tool edge. This way it removes metal cleanly from the tool's edge.
Keep a little water close by to "cool" the tool from time to time.
Be smart! Wear safety glasses.
Build a switch into your workbench which will allow you to switch the motor off and on easily. I use a simple light switch mounted into a metal receptical box. Get a friend to wire it for you if you are not confident about doing it yourself.
And what about a buffing station? Again "cheap" is the rule here. Get a mandrel with two threaded ends and bearings on the shaft. Make some pillow blocks out of scrap hardwood to raise the manfrel to the proper height for your buffing wheels.
One of the buffing wheels needs to be a hard felt, about 1.5" X 6", which you can purchase at any lapidary shop (ie; a rock shop where they work with stones) or jewelry supply store or carving supply store. The second wheel needs to be a stitched cloth wheel, again, about 1.5" x 6". These are easier to find. Make sure the stitching is tight.
The hard felt wheel allows you to buff a tool quickly, without rounding the edge, even allowing you to shape the tool to a small degree. The stitched cloth wheel allows you to put an even finer edge on the tool, and to clean it up a bit before you put it into the wood. It also allows you to polish the inside and outside of gouges (round tools).
As far as polishing compounds go, green compound (Tripoli) or a "stainless" compound will do all you need them to do. Unless you are a purist who wants to get the extra 5% sharpness that "hi-tech" compounds allow you to achieve, stick with the tripoli or stainless compounds. I've used them for 20 years, and can still sharpen any tool so it shaves the hair of a woodworker's arm.
The Rest of the Story
A grinding/buffing center is not all you need for sharpening your carving tools. You will need a bench stone and some slip stones. The bench stone (I use a "fine" Norton India Oil-stone) is used after the griding wheel, to put the final "shape" on the tool, and to refine cutting angles. Slip stones (usually hard Arkansas oil slip-stones, in a variety of shapes) are used after the bench stone, to reduce/remove the "wire-edge" or "burr" that is left from the bench-stone. When you have finished with the slip stones, you go to the buffing wheels to put a polished edge on the tool.