knife setting tool

[Ken S]

I have designed a very simple knife setting tool ( using Dutchman's tables). It has always been my intention to share it with the forum. However, I have difficulties posting photos.

I have emailed the instructions to several members and mailed paper print outs and the actual tool to a few members. I would be most appreciative if one of those members, with more computer saavy than I have, would post the instructions with the photos for me.

This setting tool is quite easily user made. Like the Tormek, it can be stone simple ( and quite accurate). By making up several it can also be very versatile. I have named it KS-150 (Knife Setting tooi 150mm long). Like Herman and his jig, I do not offer this for sale.

Thanks in advance for posting the instructions.

Ken

[Jimmy R Jørgensen]

Send the stuff to me, and i'll post it, og send you links so you can make your own post.

[Ken S]

Thanks, Jimmy.

No luck sending it through forum PM.  Please check your PM for a message.

Ken

[Ken S]

Here is the link to my knife setting tool instructions and photographs. Special thanks to Jimmy Jorgensen!!!!

Ken

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bye-818SN85DdzB3bU9aUU81eTg/view?usp=sharing

ps One late development: placing a small square of 6mm think baltic birch plywood between the tool and the grinding wheel changes the bevel angle from fifteen degrees (two combined fifteen degree bevels making one thirty degree bevel) to twenty degrees (two times twenty, making a forty agree total bevel angle.)

thanks, again, Jimmy

[Rob]

Wow...nice work Ken...you've put a lot of effort into that (and the careful use of backgrounds in the photography wasn't lost on me either).

[Herman Trivilino]

That's a nifty jig, Ken. I can see how that would save a lot of time and bother setting up the knife jig. It would be especially useful to beginners. One less variable to worry about.

[Ken S]

Thanks for the kind comments, guys. Rob, the photos were made in my $1.98 (or two and six) "studio". I tried to keep the background distraction distraction to a minimum.

Herman, like you, and many of us, I have a "sharpening hobby". I also have a machine shop layout hobby. Machinists (and tool and die makers) use gage blocks, which save a lot of measuring time. These are hardened and ground steel and very precise, some in millionths of an inch. While the Tormek is much less demanding, the principle is the same. A carefully planned gage block can save a lot of measuring time and errors. I definitely had beginners in mind with this simple tool. I also thought it would be useful for those who sharpen knives only occasionally and those who sharpen a lot of the same kind of knives frequently.

I claim no credit for originality. The tool is a combination of the projection length part of the TTS-100 lathe tool and the wooden spacing blocks mentioned in the handbook. Please note that I do not consider the usefulness of this tool limited to knives. Many tools which are resharpened could benefit from making simple tools like this for them. My goal is to reduce the tedium of remeasuring.

Again, thanks for the kind comments.

Ken

[Jimmy R Jørgensen]

It is indeed a job well done Ken.. And please don' t thank me, i just did like ½ a minute of work, nothing compared to the job you did. It looks very good, i'm sure it will help lots of people, maiking sharpening a breeze

[Ken S]

Jimmy, a 1/2 minute for YOU ended a lot of frustration for me. I do appreciate your help. One of my frustrations with the digital world is the focus on all the latest bells and whistles at the expense of the basic operations. With my photo editing and word processing programs a more skilled person could easily have honed my article to look like it was from a slick magazine. Getting that article posted on the forum, which should have been a simple operation, proved a stumbling block for me.

I realize the article is a lot of reading. One of the skill sets I need to develop is shooting video. A short video, like the one Herman did with his jig, would have explained my jig very quickly.

KEN

[Rob]

I think short video uploads onto youtube from all of us where the topic requires it would be a real step forward for this forum. I've thought along these lines for a long time. The explanatory/educational/clarity factor of 3 dimensions that move rather than 2 that don't cannot be overstated.  Why is it we all lament the passing of the "Jeff Farris" videos so much...because they were so useful.  Similarly, we all ask Tormek to produce more for the same reason, they short cut our learning to a better solution.

Little mini films of individual procedures that build into a library of capability would be immensely valuable to the user base.  No money exchanges hands, it's just folk helping each other out because we have a shared interest.

I will cite my journey into turning as a cracking example of how useful youtube has become as a learning/tutorial aid.  I must have spent several days all told in the first few months as I learned the basics of tool control, sharpening, mounting methods, different procedures etc.  I ended up joining a turning club about a year in and that took it in new directions too.  But video as a training aid.....fabulous.

[Ken S]

I agree that you tubes have great learning potential. I have also found that the potential benefit can vary quite a bit. Some are excellent.

I do not think you tubes take the place of well done expert DVDs. Free information exchange is a  nice idea and often quite productive. An outstanding professional DVD often rivals the benefits of private study, and can be watched as often as desired.

I have especially enjoyed the(free) you tubes Jeff did. His turning DVD, sold through Tormek is outstanding.

There is no surplus of good training videos.

Ken

[Rob]

I have also found that the potential benefit can vary quite a bit. Some are excellent.

Ken

Quite so Ken, precisely why a community like this one is so useful: First, it's membership can act as a filter, only volunteering the ones where the quality is good from existing stock.  Second, we could directly contribute, even if it's a 30 second "tricky" procedure like keeping the edge square on a chisel in the SE-76.  How helpful would that be to a noob?

That 30 second burst could add to a sub-forum called "you tubes of members methods" or some such and would quickly build into a valuable resource.

Like it or not folks, in the internet age, online video is already taking over the world.  It's usefulness as a learning tool is well documented. On another forum I belong to about wood turning, members contribute all sorts of bits n pieces.  People quickly establish quality tracks and rather like Matthias Wandel, before too long their output becomes required reading.

[Herman Trivilino]

I do not think you tubes take the place of well done expert DVDs.

I hate to be the one to tell you this, Ken, but well done expert YouTube videos are replacing DVD's. They are much easier to distribute and acquire.

[Ken S]

I agree, Herman, I have no problem with that, as long as the you tubes are of good caliber. I suspect the revenue from purchased DVDs and books is being replaced by ad revenue, for better or worse. I have mixed feelings about this, just as I have about the for profit online universities which I believe will largely replace our traditional brick and mortar universities with tenured professors.

My Problem with you tubes are the ones with loud bumper music, slick computer video effects and a host with a turned around ball cap who has made several unrelated you tubes that month and who has less than an hour experience with the Tormek. Before I started my T4 review on the forum, that was the only online review I found. Tormek eventually had Al Holtham do a good video review, but they were slow leaving the starting gate.

As part owner of sharptoolsusa, Jeff had a good profit motive for doing his videos. I am sure the original site was Jeff's website. In return for being able to watch these very done videos at no charge, existing Tormek owners benefitted and many were pursuaded to purchase. It was a win win situation.
I think posted forum recommendations would be valuable. My choice would be to have Tormek produced videos directly accessable from the forum. The present videos are a good start; I would like to see more depth.

Ken

[Jan]

Here is the link to my knife setting tool instructions and photographs.

Congrats Ken, it is really very nice tool! 

I wondered what to replace/supplement the groove for setting the distance between the universal support and the grinding wheel by a drill hole of ½" diameter? It may be a little bit more slowly in operation, but without the risk of falling down by adjusting the universal support.

Jan