About to buy a Tormek

[Stevo]

Hi All,

New member here.I am about to purchase a tormek because I have just bought a set of chef knives. I think I will get the best results sharpening with it because I won't have to do it freehand and probably bugger them up I might also try to sharpen all my wood chisels to. I currently do them on a old belt sander turned upside down and clamped to a bench. Not good

cheers Stevo.

[Stevo]

I was wondering why I can see some photos but some are just small squares with no image?

Stevo.

[Ken S]

Welcome to the forum, Stevo. I will be out of town today, but wanted to offer a couple suggestions to help you start your journey.

Before you start grinding your new chef's knives, pick up a couple inexpensive (not cheaply made, aim for the ten US dollar each range) knives. Santoku knives work well for this. Around four and eight inches are two good choices. They are an easy size to manage. Look for flat knives with no bolsters; they are easier to sharpen. Think of these as sharpening practice knives. Go through the learning process with these before touching your good knives.

Work slowly. Practice and learn.

Start with the 3/4" bench chisel mentioned in the first imbedded topic (tips and techniques). I highly recommend purchasing an Irwin 3/4" Blue Chip chisel for this., another sharpening tool. Incidentally, I practice what I preach; I have nine Irwin 3/4" chisels! At the risk of intentionally being repetitious, start with this chisel. It will help you learn the basic Tormek skills with the most basic tool.

Enjoy, and keep posting.

Ken

[Ken S]

Your chances of seeing the photos increase dramatically after you log in. If the online photo process is somewhat baffling, welcome to the club!

Ken

[Stevo]

Thanks Ken. I will take your advice on the cheap knives to start on. I have a lot of old chisels that are pretty banged up. I will probably get them close on my old belt sander, then practice on the Tormek with them.

A lot of Jans photos don't show up for some reason.

cheers.

[grepper]

Stevo,

The little square images are thumbnails.  You can view a thumbnail full size by clicking on it, but you must be logged in for that to work. If you are not logged in, you should be able to see the thumbnail, but clicking on it won't enlarge it. 

If you have further questions just let us know.

[Ken S]

Stevo,

I do not recommend getting your chisels close with your belt sander and finishing them off with the Tormek. I mean no criticism of your belt sander, however, the purpose of the chisel drill I suggest is to familiarize yourself with the Tormek. You want to develop a feel for the touch and sound of the Tormek grinding. You can not do this by using a belt grinder or any other sharpening system. Give yourself the chance to get to know the Tormek. Put your belt grinder away for the duration of the test.

By using banged up old chisels, you are interjecting potential problems into the exercise. The choice is yours. My specific recommendation is for new 3/4" Irwin Blue Chip chisels to provide a maximum of training with a minimum of problems at a reasonable cost. (They should cost around $8 US each.)

Also, please note that I recommend inexpensive knives, not cheap knives. I think the quality of today's inexpensive knives is remarkable. With quality reasonably priced, there is no need to go cheap.

My only reason for sounding so specific is that I want to see you get off to a good start with your Tormek.

Ken

[Elden]

I was wondering why I can see some photos but some are just small squares with no image?

Stevo.

   I will speak of what I think, not what I know for a fact!    Before Tormek added the current picture posting capability to the forum, one had to post a picture on a host site such as Photobucket or other sites. I assume that some have either removed their pictures from those sites or canceled that account. As stated, this assumption on my end of it. Some examples of this is in the following thread.

https://forum.tormek.com/index.php?topic=1658.msg7547#msg7547

   I found these pictures were missing when doing a search for them. I was wanting to show my son some of Rob' s work. It was disappointing that the pictures were gone.

[Stevo]

Thanks Guys advice taken.
I think your right Elden that's whats going on with the photos I cant see .

[SharpenADullWitt]

For practice, hit some thrift/goodwill type of stores and garage sales.  There are inexpensive knifes, that work amazingly well, just don't look as pretty.  (Dexter Russell low end ones, then they have higher ends, Update international for example around $6-12 for a chef's knife, Sam's club branded knives, etc)  These will cost more then the thrift store ones.