New member presentation.

[Fernando]

My name is Fernando, and I am new to the forum.
I speak Spanish so I hope this translation is understood.
I will comment on how I came to this point, stuck in the sharpening world, it's not my profession but it did not come from nothing
It will be a long story but I hope not to bore anyone

Basically everything started with my father and the taste inculcated by hunting and fishing, which is why I eventually became a collector
of many knives the great majority the knives Victorinox, on the other hand my mother taught me to close a cycle or reach a proposed goal
things like "if you start something, finish it".
and as it is logical any cutting tool at some time for the use, it loses its cutting capacity.
and for me it does not make sense to have something that does not meet its objective, if you have a knife this should be able to cut and do well.
Initially, as it could happen to many of us, I began to do it myself, without experience or technique or methods or more tools than a stone for this purpose,
and it was fulfilled with the objective of a good edge, but with any number of scratches on the blade, a point that led me to look for a more optimal solution ...
I think that many of the things we do, start from a need that can not be met and this is one more case ...

For wanting to do the best for one of my favorite knives, which I did not want to sharpen by hand to avoid future scratches due to lack of experience
I decided to take him to a sharpening center.
It is easy to suppose that there are suitable personnel, and I do not doubt that this is so, I still believe that there are specialized places and competent people, but it was not my case
I took it to a professional sharpening center, of the few that the city has, but this was a place specialized in industrial cutting tools,
I speak of wooden saw blades, metal tapes for cutting wood, round cutting disks for processing birds, etc.
I would say that they had everything, except the sharpening of knives as for the world of culinary and related issues, they also told me that they could do the job,
without generating the scratches, and that for me was already an advantage in relation to my process.
They asked me to come back in an hour, but I was far from anywhere and I decided to wait, for my unpleasant surprise I could see how they carried out the process,
and I do not know what I felt when I saw the person in charge using a bench grinder "that's right, one of those 3400 RPM 6-inch and silicon carbide stone" by hand to cut my knife
"I speak of a place that had sophisticated tools of rectification, machining, cutting cut, sharpening in general and many more services"
and I see behind a sheet of glass as my knife made sparks and parts of the sheet turn blue, violet and iridescent colors.
Immediately talk to the manager and I told them, they have damaged my knife, they called the person in charge who said he was anxious because he had a lot of work pending and that he would guarantee that the knife would be cut well and the blade would not have scratches, I would I said, it is not about the current edge, but about the time that the knife will maintain that edge from now on, you finished with the thermal treatment of the steel.
the man only answered "if it is because of the colors of the metal now I pass it through a polishing machine and it remains silver again". that was the drop that spilled the cup

Since then more than 10 years ago I decided to document and find methods that would allow me to achieve what I wanted, a process of correct sharpening, without scratches, without tarnishing the steel and without losing a lot of steel in the process.
So I began to dominate the typical rectangular stone, eventually I got some angle sharpener controlled and so I was climbing, initially it was something that only made for me, over time some friends, family and acquaintances saw my work and asked me to I did the sharpening to them, "I remember that one day my mother-in-law told me I would never ask you to sharpen a knife, I cut my hand"
but this was because he did not use a chopping board, vegetables such as onions or tomatoes would sting him directly in his hand out of habit.

for me this was always a hobby, and although many times I was paid for the work, many others did it just for the sake of sharpening, "many will know what I'm talking about",
the point is that one day one of those people with whom one makes friends because he sold me victorinox regularly, I wonder who sharpened the knives that I used daily,
and I told him myself and the reason why he did it, he told me I've never been able to sharpen one correctly I can do it for a long time and at one point I go back to the beginning,
and I wonder if I could do him the favor, so I decided to sharpen it, it was just one, and I told him to be patient because I would do a weekend off.

a week I handed him the knife, and to my surprise, he was happy, I thought he had a defective knife that could not be removed, and now he cut like a factory and had no scratches,
He made me see that this was a vacuum in the world of knives, and that if he had a business vision, he insisted on offering this service,
I told him that it was a hobby and the moment I saw it as a job I would lose the taste for sharpening,
Besides that it was not my profession and I could not dedicate a fixed time to do this task, he told me that there was no problem, that it would only be for the clients of his business
with the premise, that this would take a while and I would put the limit of pieces that I could work.
so accept, and he said I'll take care of everything, send cards and other things, he was not interested in making a profit, but he asked me to give them a reduced price for his customers, and we both benefited, the his part offered a service of selling knives and his frequent clients gave them the sharpening as a courtesy and I set the prices for time and work
at that time I said ... this will not have much movement because ... I thought that like me, everyone will want to sharpen their own pieces, or not let their valuable knife be in unknown hands.

and again I was surprised, there was not a single week in which they did not call me about this topic, I had to put a limit of 20 pieces per week,
I lasted between 20 and 40 minutes working each piece and I only had my spare time.
one thing led to the other, after knives I included knives, and one of the people who asked me the most sharp asked me if I would sharpen scissors .....
which I never did, so I said, I do not sharpen ... but if you're willing to lose one, I'll experiment ...
to summarize now I sharpen knives, knives, tailor scissors, stylist, gardening etc.
With this came an alternating hobby as the restoration of knife handle and other arrangements.

I was learning a lot about steel, types and industrial processes of quenching, tempering, normalizing etc.
and I have managed to make even my own knives, and this is what I meant by completing the cycle.
Now I do them, I restore them and sharpen them.

There was only one thing left to do ... and it was to do just as well, but in less time.
and this is where my tormek T-8 will enter

About my tormek, I still will not say anything, although I have only been here for a little more than a decade, in the world of tormek I am new, and as they say Ken, wootz, cbwx34 and many others, in many of their publications,
This requires a learning curve, when I manage to feel that I have achieved some experience with this, and that I have had results that I consider good, I will give my own opinions based on the results.
tormek is a whole world and I have been reading the forum for days and days, watching videos and documenting myself.


I am very grateful that there are places like this where I have noticed that there is a high level of professionalism and commitment to the subject.
I think that in my next comments I will be shorter and straight to the point. 

[Elden]

 Welcome Fernando. ¡Me gusta mucho su historia! Your command of English is great. If you used a translation program, it did well!

[Ken S]

Fernando,

Here is a saying you might place on the wall by your sharpening area: "No se ganó Zamora en una hora." (Zamora, the last Moorish stronghold in Spain, was not gained in an hour.) A more commonly used English saying is "Rome wasn't built in a day". I think Zamora and hora flow more easily.

I believe many of us have had similar experiences to yours. One of my photographic instructors had  a favorite saying for the general state of too many things, "Those who could be greater are content to be lesser". He attributed it to Ortega y Gasset. A six inch 3600 rpm grinder, generally used with the standard issue gray wheels, is usually an inexpensive tool. Sharpening a knife with one of these can be very fast, however, much skill is necessary to avoid burning the steel. More careful users might use a power grinder for the initial rough sharpening and finish up using bench stones or other methods. A mediocre sharpener can ruin many tools.

The good news is that you will never overheat a knife or tool with your Tormek. We have all been where you are now. You will find that with careful study and work, you will soon be producing fine sharp edges within a very few minutes. Cutting food will become pleasant. You will feel in control and self sufficient.

Enjoy the journey! Do not hesitate to ask questions or share your observations. We all learn from sharing both.

Ken

[Ken S]

Fernando,

Do not ever become so involved with the technical side of sharpening that you lose the joy of restoring tools to sharpness, and back into usefulness. Making a good tool useful again not only honors the tool itself, it honors the maker and those who have used it before.

Never be in such a rush to complete sharpening that you neglect to feel nourished by the sharpening or settle for a job half done. There is satisfaction in a job well done. While always striving to advance, be not fail to enjoy the state of your art today.

Ken

[jeffs55]

Welcome Fernando, your command of English by any means is wayyyyyyyyyyy better than my Spanish!

[Ken S]

Although English is my first language, I was also fluent in Spanish many years ago. I remember a smattering of German and a miniscule amount of New Testament Greek. We have members with quite a variety of language backgrounds.

Ken

[Fernando]

Welcome Fernando, your command of English by any means is wayyyyyyyyyyy better than my Spanish!

English is the universal language, it is easier to learn than Spanish, or German,
that's why it's easier for me

[Fernando]

Welcome Fernando. ¡Me gusta mucho su historia! Your command of English is great. If you used a translation program, it did well!

I try to use simple words that are easy to understand, but I still have to search for one or another technical word in the dictionary, I do not know all of them, LOL

[Fernando]

Fernando,

Do not ever become so involved with the technical side of sharpening that you lose the joy of restoring tools to sharpness, and back into usefulness. Making a good tool useful again not only honors the tool itself, it honors the maker and those who have used it before.

Never be in such a rush to complete sharpening that you neglect to feel nourished by the sharpening or settle for a job half done. There is satisfaction in a job well done. While always striving to advance, be not fail to enjoy the state of your art today.

Ken

I appreciate your recommendation, thanks