plane iron sharpening on Tormek T7

[Rob]

It helps (I find) if the time spent in the workshop is on building something the boss has specified....very difficult to be negative when ownership of the design is involved :-)

[mike40]

Very true Rob, nothing better than honey-do projects (once in awhile). I've just returned from dumping some cut down trees and it's raining pretty hard now, so it looks like I will be able to set up my Tormek in the shop today and hopefully give a test run. Now, if I just had a dull chisel, lol.

Actually I will have to resharpen all of my chisels and my plane irons too, except for the new planes because I have been using what most might think an unusual hand sharpening/honing technique. I learned it on the net from Paul Sellers, an english master woodworker with about 50 years experience. Instead of being concave, the bevel is convex. The method is very easy to do compared with the normal honing procedure and leaves a wonderful edge. You see his technique on Youtube if you are interested:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6ykVzL2VAM and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6ykVzL2VAM. I expect some folks will think his method is heresy, but believe me, it works!

[Ken S]

Mike,

Thanks for posting the link to Paul Sellers' sharpening.  I for one would certainly not call it heresy.  It looks very straightforward and effective to me.  Like many on this forum (probably including you) I used oil stones for many years and then water stones.  Diamond stones seem a big step forward.

What he did not show was reforming an edge with a large nick.  I'm sure he would have just spent more time sharpening.  In my opinion, that's where the Tormek shines.  I'm not certain how practical the Tormek is above 1000 grit.  At that point, the hard work has been done.  The polishing is just a few strokes, either on the leather honing wheel or a fine stone.

Ken

[Herman Trivilino]

Paul Sellers seems to be basically doing the same thing the Tormek does, except he's doing it by hand.

I'm sure the chisel he started with was already sharp.  He was just demonstrating.

Some of the old chisels I've found or inherited hadn't seen a proper sharpening in years, or in some cases decades.  Each prior sharpener had simply created a new micro bevel, so a lot of steel had to be removed to restore the bevel to its proper angle.  Without the Tormek, I would have had to use a dry grinder to get started before I could follow Seller's technique.  And then it would take quite a bit of expertise to get the bevel at the correct angle.  Fortunately, I do have a Tormek so I can do the whole thing in just a few minutes and get the edge angle where I want it, too.

[mike40]

Before getting the Tormek I repaired bevels on my 6" grinder which leaves a noticeable concave shape. When I switched to Seller's method I was surprised at how fast I got a convex bevel on my blades using

diamond plates with 600 grit first and then finishing with 1200 grit. The old chisel I sharpened on my Tormek still had a very good bevel on it and it didn't take very long to get the new bevel on the Tormek. I

think it would be easier to use the bench grinder for a first pass to grind away nicks, although I rarely get them and when I do it is because I ran into a knot. I never use my chiselsI as screw drivers or

paint can openers, probably because I have other tools that do the job better stored right beside them. I am fairly confident using my bench grinder after years of practice with my turning  and other edge tools. I

do plan to use the Tormek to renew unclipped bevels though. I might change my mind on this after getting more experience with the Tormek. I tend to like whatever works best in practice, so I am changing my

mind quite frequently as I learn new things.