Narrow stone for Tormek

[Herman Trivilino]

I would suggest you just use a set of Norton Slip Stones and Hand Sharpen the blade.  Available for $9 bucks from:  http://www.sharpeningsupplies.com/Norton-India-Round-Edge-Slip-Stone-P180.aspx

Would you recommend these for sharpening the scallops on a serrated bread knife? They look like they'd be well suited to the task.

[Herman Trivilino]

How about a concrete cutoff saw? 

This gets me thinking about the saws that geologists use to slice stones. Maybe one of those could be used to slice up an old Tormek grindstone.

[Ken S]

Jan and Grepper's suggestions both seem promising. Lee Valley sells a set of wooden pieces with different radii. They might be a  possibility. However, don't overlook the larger dowels with diamond paste. As I recall, a kit of three tubes of different diamond paste sells for around thirty dollars (Lee Valley carries the kit). A good hardware store should have the larger dowels.For around forty dollars, you should be in business.

Just a side note: I lean toward the Sloyd approach (a traditional Scandinavian craft instruction approach which begins with learning to sharpen and use a knife). Are the students taught how to maintain and sharpen their knives?

Ken

[sharpnails]

How about a concrete cutoff saw? 

This gets me thinking about the saws that geologists use to slice stones. Maybe one of those could be used to slice up an old Tormek grindstone.

Sure, these are, in the lapidary world, called "Slab Saws"





it is interesting,.. but tools for lapidary are virtually un-used and virtually unknown to us folks in the world of "sharp blades" .. I have never understood why that is, as polishing, abrasives, flat surfaces, diamond pastes, etc, etc, ..are, in Lapidary,  very well developed technology.  We would do well to have a look around there 



-Dan

[Ken S]

Fascinating post. Thants, Dan.

Ken

[grepper]

Forget the wimpy little lapidary stuff... Here's what you need!  15.7 inches of raw, industrial strength concrete cutting power!
http://www.barrysgravely.com/shop/industrial-equipment/stihl-gs-461-rock-boss/+

The little cutoff saws listed below it are half the cost though.
       
                         

The thing is that the grindstone is 250mm, so at least about a 125mm cut would be necessary to whack the thing in half.  I suspect finding anyone locally with a 250mm water cooled, diamond tipped band saw might be difficult unless you live near a quarry.   But any local contractor doing sidewalks or driveways would have a cutoff saw, and might be willing to chop a stone in half for some reasonable fee.

[sharpnails]

Forget the wimpy little lapidary stuff... Here's what you need! ..(..)

Very Funny    !

Wimpy Lapidary?  Check this out.. an Agate Round about 4 Feet in Diameter 



and here's the big brother of the one I posted yesterday:



-and-



- Dan

[Herman Trivilino]

Forget the wimpy little lapidary stuff... Here's what you need!  15.7 inches of raw, industrial strength concrete cutting power!

There's a name given to a certain "type" of carpenter. It's "chain-saw carpenter". Let's just say they don't make the cleanest of cuts.

The thing is that the grindstone is 250mm, so at least about a 125mm cut would be necessary to whack the thing in half.

I was thinking more along the lines of cutting up an old one that was pretty well worn down. Slicing up a new one is an expensive proposition.

[grepper]

Wow.  Now, THAT's some lapidary!  Beautiful too.  And, totally not wimpy! .   I had not thought of lapidary on that scale. Very cool.

Slicing up a grindstone is sort of interesting to think about though.  Say you actually wanted to get a clean, accurate slice, how could you do it?  Short of a homemade solution with something like a concrete cutoff saw, it is difficult to solve.  There's waterjet cutting services.  Very accurate, but I'm sure the setup fees alone would be prohibitive, even if you could get them to do a one-off job.  There are places that specialize in slicing up stone.  I even found one here in Michigan.  But again, I'll bet they would charge too much for a little one time job. 

http://www.thestonemillinc.com/index.htm

Fun to think about, but it all seems like overkill and impractical to me.

I think the best suggestion so far is  sharpnails' suggestion about using a heavy grit diamond past on the Tormek profiled leather wheels. It might also be the best idea yet for sharpening serrated knives!  Someone please give it a try and let us know!   

I have a set of high speed paper wheels that came with glue and extra abrasive power.  After the original abrasive wears off, you just smear it with glue, covert it with abrasive and it's good to go again.  I wonder if the same thing would work on the leather wheels, or even necessary.  Maybe just smearing it with compound is all that is needed.

[Ken S]

As much as I like all you guys, when it comes to sharpening my favorite kitchen knives, I think I'll stick with Dan's Nordic Track sharpener. It seems a little  "kinder and gentler" than concrete saws!

Ken

[stevebot]

With these inside curves I just use the corner of the Tormek wheel, then I finish them on a Spyderco SharpMaker or a modofied F. Dick RS-75 sharpener with narrow wheels for serrated knives.
http://sharpeningmadeeasy.com/dick.htm