Thank you Stig

[RichColvin]

About a year ago, Stig told me that I should not just sharpen my lathe tools on the SB / SG stone, but I should also hone them on the leather wheel.  He said that a number of professional turners do this and it speeds up the resharpening.

Well, that took a while to sink in, but it finally did :  in a different way though.

Yesterday, I turned a wooden vase from ash, and performed an experiment.  All my tools are already shaped correctly, so I sharpened them using only the SJ wheel.  This worked far better than I'd expected it would. 

The tools I sharpened are all high speed steel, and include :

• Spindle Roughing Gouge
• Skew
• Bowl Gouges (multiple)
• Scraper Blade

I am really happy with how it turned out, and my wife loves it.  So Stig, thank you.

With kind regards,
Rich

[Ken S]

Rich,

Good post. Add me to the group thanking Stig. He has helped inprove my knowledge of the Tormek in many areas.

I located a pocket notebook this week. I made notes in it when I was testing the three CBN wheels with the Tormeks. (All D-Way; two ten inch wheels, one 80 grit, one 180; one eight inch 180 grit.) I am not an active turner, however, I have a group of turning tools and all the Tormek turning jigs.

From my sketchy notes:

Half inch spindle gouge HSS; directly off the CBN wheels, I had BESS readings of 500 with all wheels. For a gouge with a substantial bevel angle, that's neither too bad nor  stellar. As an experiment, I tried going directly from the CBN wheels to the leather honing wheel. I spent a generous amount of time with the leather honing wheel. The BESS reading improved to around 100. (My BESS readings were not as accurate back then as they should have been, my error, not the machine. BESS 100 is a very acceptable score for a quality kitchen knife or chisel. I was impressed!

Honing turning tools may not be as macho as "right from the grinder", however, I'll take sharp over macho any day. Initial reviews from top turners, Nick Agar and Glenn Lucas, are glowing about the new diamond wheels. I look forward to the turning reviews from Columbus!

Ken

[Ken S]

Rich,

Ionut, a longtime poster, told me that he finishes off with the SJ when he sharpens his planer blades. Ionut is a perfectionist.

Ken