Wear and tear on the stone using Stone Grader SP-650

[Rob]

It also occurs to me that perhaps part of the reluctance to free hand is the desire to justify the money spent on that expensive piece of equipment.  There is a certain amount of guilt associated with free handing when all those indulgent jigs are languishing unused....its just too much to bear.

Once a certain amount of time has passed and the "honeymoon period" has worn off I think you need to give yourself permission to leave the jigs in the drawer just one time and simply go ahead and "try" free handing.  Just flirt with it for a while, no commitment, no harm done :-)  I certainly wouldn't free hand my Globals but I do my penknives, my secateurs, all my cheapie kitchen knives, a couple of hunting style knives I have lolloping about the garage etc. 

[Ken S]

Maybe that is the real reason the marketing people sell the T4 without  any jigs. Maybe they want new users to first become fluent with handheld sharpening before buying any jigs........

I agree, we have become far too dependent on jigs.

Ken

[Jimmy R Jørgensen]

I hear you.. we do "need" stuff to help us make sure we don't f.. up.. But before i go all hippie and become barefooded knife freehand sharpener.. WHY is it that you use a jig doing you expencive knifes, and not when doing the "cheape" knife.. my logic is saying that even you don't belive in it then?..

[Herman Trivilino]

By the way.. i do have a feeling that is it me doing something wrong, and that i soon will have a AAA HA moment..

Jimmy, I recommend sharpening with the universal support in the vertical orientation so that the grindstone turns towards the edge. Rob is free-handing, and so he has the grindstone turning away from the edge. But he is an accomplished turner and has developed the skill to hold the blade at the same angle. He doesn't need the jig. I do. When I free-hand I don't get satisfactory results.

Watch the YouTube videos.

[Rob]

I hear you.. we do "need" stuff to help us make sure we don't f.. up.. But before i go all hippie and become barefooded knife freehand sharpener.. WHY is it that you use a jig doing you expencive knifes, and not when doing the "cheape" knife.. my logic is saying that even you don't belive in it then?..

Quality is the simple answer.  As I said before, free handing gives "function over form" which means the blade is sharp but the bevel may not look that pretty ie it wont be absolutely uniform....it wont have a single facet on each side because try as I might I'm not that steady.  With the Global knives I don't just want sharp, I want pretty too. so I use the jig.  To me Global knives are a bit like a Mac is to a PC....they both compute but the Mac is art as well.

[Ken S]

Good posts. One of the things I find fascinating about the Tormek is its versatility. It can be used with the grinding wheel moving either toward or away from the tool. This allows the user the option of setting up however seems most appropriate. One way may produce more rapid grinding; another way may produce more control. It is nice to have the choice.

We have other choices. With knives we have the three Tormek jigs. We have Herman's HK-50 (HK-40 for the T4). Or we can freehand with or without the universal support. My personal testing indicates we may also be able to do very rapid touch up sharpening using only the leather honing wheel. (I do this with two rapidly interchanged leather wheels. One is loaded with valve grinding compound for rapid cutting. the other uses the standard Tormek honing compound for a final polish.)

A turner will probably leave the gouge jig set to gently restore his gouge to sharpness following the gouge shape exactly for " touch and turn" sharpening. The turner has the choice of using the same jig to create numerous shapes.

The DBS-22 drill bit jig can be amazingly versatile or consistently reproduce the same shape depending on how the operator chooses to use it.

We can establish basic proficiency with the Tormek. We can also expand our range of skills if we so choose.

Ken

PS Rob, I agree with you comment about the Mac.......at least until they changed the operating system to Yosemite. The hardware is still artful, but it functioned better before Yosemite (explitives deleted by poster).

[Rob]

completely with you on Yosemite Ken :-)

Reminds me of the cartoon Yosemite Sam..... Dagnabbit!

[Ken S]

That's exactly the reason I havenot downloaded the latest software update on my T7......

[Jimmy R Jørgensen]

I hear you Rob. I was only trying to be a little funny and to provoke you a bit. not in a bad way.. sorry if you did misunderstand my intentions.

Ofcause there is a big difference in how and where the knife is to be used.. the knife i use to cut open sacks of pellets for the furnace is not a knife that is welcome in the kicthen with the wife's knife ha ha. so yeah.

Love this forum, and the Tormek. Now i just need to become skilled barefooede hippie knife sharpner.. I have made planes to buy monkey for when i hit the road with the hole show.