First Farmer's Market

[Jan]

Rick, I like to read about your success on the Farmers Market! 

I have a question, the 8" Norton 3X 80 grit grindstone was mounted on Tormek and water cooled?

Jan

[RickKrung]

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[RickKrung]

Rick, I like to read about your success on the Farmers Market! 

I have a question, the 8" Norton 3X 80 grit grindstone was mounted on Tormek and water cooled?

Jan

Thanks, Jan.  The Markets have been more fun than I thought.  Still, my primary objective has been achieved and now I get to decide how much more Market work I want to do.  It has provided a couple of good learnings for me, one about how to get the primary bevels faster and the other about being able to get knives sharp fast using coarser grinds and just the leather honing wheel. 

I know I am still a novice and learning all the time, but I also have learned that I'm a decent sharpener when I give people knives sharper than they have ever seen on knives before.  That goes for many who think they know how to sharpen using more conventional methods and many of them say they cannot really get their blades sharpened right.  The restaurant guy that brought the twelve knives said afterwards that he has never seen knives sharpened so well and compared my work with sharpening to that of Chris Reeve, a well know custom knife maker in Idaho, USA (https://chrisreeve.com/). 

Yes, on the Norton 3X wheel.  I received two from Ken S. long before I got the diamond wheels.  Ken wasn't using them and offered them to me as a means for doing the rougher grinding, in lieu of the diamond wheels.  They are 1" arbor so I machined SS bushings to fit the 12mm Tormek shaft.  Unfortunately, one of the bushings turns out wasn't SS and it rusts enough that it is a pain trying to get it on the shaft so I don't use it (46 grit).  The other, I thought would go by the wayside once I got the coarse diamond wheel, but I have found the diamond wheel doesn't cut fast enough (or I am just too chicken to use it more aggressively, given Tormek's admonition to use only "very light pressure"). 


I machined a couple of flanges for mounting on the Tormek and take up the additional shaft space. 


Mounts on the Tormek like any other wheel, just a lot smaller diameter. 


And trued them using the Truing Tool. 




At this last Market, I used the 80 grit and ran though all twelve of those knives first, changing out knives in jigs until they were all done.  Then switched to the SB stone and then the leather wheel.  All of work with the latter two was done in the last half-hour in fading light as the Market closed, showing that sharpening can go very quickly if there is a decent bevel to start with. 

Using such a coarse grindstone works well, but it still has that extra wheel change, which I am in the search of a way of avoiding.  My next effort will be in getting a variable speed motor for my 1x30" belt grinder and if that works I may spring for a Viel from SteveB.

If I were to continue seriously with the Norton 3X type grindstone on the Tormek, I would try to find a comparable 2" wide by 10" dia. grindstone.  I've looked at them online but cannot tell which ones would are comparable, so have not bought anything.  That would require machining a much larger bushing as they have up to 2" arbor holes.

For those not interested in or not willing to afford the coarse diamond wheel, the Norton 3X type grindstone is a really good option which I am glad to have in my arsenal.  It made the day for me at this Market and will be there with me when I do more. 

Rick

[cbwx34]

I tried to read your earlier post, but can't seem to get past "taco feed". 

Congrats... glad it's working out!

Maybe show a before/after of your tip repair?  I'm sure people will be interested in how you go about it.

[RickKrung]

I tried to read your earlier post, but can't seem to get past "taco feed". 

Congrats... glad it's working out!

Maybe show a before/after of your tip repair?  I'm sure people will be interested in how you go about it.

Not sure.  Try again.  I edited it.  Maybe it works now. 

I'll do that with the before/after.  I repaired tips on a several of the knives yesterday but no time to take photos. 

The folding knife with the broken tip turns out to be almost exactly like the Kershaw I got from you, CB, except for the serrated portion. 


Should serve as a nice guide for the repair.  I talked with the owner about bringing the back/spine down to meet the bevel rather than bringing the bevel up to meet the spine.  I am thinking now, looking at both that a bit of both may be the better approach. 

Rick

[cbwx34]

...
I talked with the owner about bringing the back/spine down to meet the bevel rather than bringing the bevel up to meet the spine.  I am thinking now, looking at both that a bit of both may be the better approach. 

Rick

Never hurts to draw on it what the end result will look like.  You probably already know this, but make sure the tip doesn't stick out above the handle when closed... one reason I suggest at least some removal from the spine side.

Here's an old picture of a knife tip I added to a Kershaw "safety knife"... working both sides of the blade...



Thanks!

[Fernando]

...
I talked with the owner about bringing the back/spine down to meet the bevel rather than bringing the bevel up to meet the spine.  I am thinking now, looking at both that a bit of both may be the better approach. 

Rick

Never hurts to draw on it what the end result will look like.  You probably already know this, but make sure the tip doesn't stick out above the handle when closed... one reason I suggest at least some removal from the spine side.

Here's an old picture of a knife tip I added to a Kershaw "safety knife"... working both sides of the blade...



Thanks!

I totally agree with you cbwx34, it is better to remove material from the spine, so that when the leaf closes it does not protrude and is dangerous, then there is no way to reverse it, and I have already seen it before, remove matrerial from the edge to find the spine, change a lot the silhouette of the blade, and the point of the knife protrudes.

[cbwx34]

...
I totally agree with you cbwx34, it is better to remove material from the spine, so that when the leaf closes it does not protrude and is dangerous, then there is no way to reverse it, and I have already seen it before, remove matrerial from the edge to find the spine, change a lot the silhouette of the blade, and the point of the knife protrudes.

Thanks!

[RickKrung]

Here is what I proposed to the owner.  He thought it looked good.  I checked with the knife closed and the spine at the broken tip does not protrude out of the pocket.   


Rick

[Ken S]

My original inspiration for the 3X wheels was a long forgotten post where the member mentioned using a "cheap" grinding wheel on his Tormek with good results. He never posted again. I thought that if a cheap wheel worked, how would a good wheel like the 3X work? I already had a 46 grit 3X wheel on my six inch grinder. It cuts like a trooper. It would not work with my T7; the wheel was too far from the water.

When I got my T4, I tried the six inch 3X with it. A six inch wheel on an eight inch Tormek is not ideal, however, the wheel reached the water. I used a bolt to test the cutting. It worked really well! I purchased the 3X eight inch wheels in eighty and soon after forty six grit. Both work very well on the T4. They work as well as any grinding wheel worn to eight inches on the T7/8. Either one will do; you really don't need both grits. Especially the 46 grit wheel can serve as the coarse wheel Tormek has not made.

The 3X wheels are not as convenient to use as the Tormek diamond wheels or CBN. I used them wet with the Tormek, cool and dust free. At fifty dollars US for either one, I think they are a viable inexpensive option for anyone who reshapes a turning tool only occasionally.

I rarely need to do that much coarse grinding. Rick was getting into heavy duty drill bit sharpening, so I passed them along to him. An 80 grit 3X mounted on a T4 would save a wheel change. The T4 weighs half the weight of a T8 and costs less. The T4 would also serve as an emergency backup in the most unlikely event that anything happened to the T8.

Ken

[cbwx34]

Here is what I proposed to the owner.  He thought it looked good.  I checked with the knife closed and the spine at the broken tip does not protrude out of the pocket.   


Rick

Looks good!👍🏻

[RickKrung]

I sharpened knives for the second time at the Farmers Market in my home town, Halfway, OR, yesterday.  Another fine day.  Did two kitchen and two filet knives at the market, all using the 80 grit Norton 3X, SB, SG and leather wheel honing.  Sharpness ranged from 119-206 BESS, ave. 150 and only slightly improved with the Sharp Pad, range 112-161, ave. 135 BESS.  I feel like I'm developing a groove for using the SB/SG/LW combination and am actually finding that the Sharp Pad definitely is not necessarily needed.

I also "dealt with" two serrated knives for the first time.  I say dealt with because I do not have diamond hones yet (on order) for actually sharpening them (https://www.sharpeningsupplies.com/DMT-Diafold-Serrated-Knife-Sharpener-P14.aspx).  I really just did some removal of major burrs using a very fine file and some round stones from my father's toolbox.


I had a yard sale Fri. and Sat. and did pretty well.  NO CLOTHES!  It was really a Guy sort of event.  Tools, hardware, camping gear, etc.  To the point, a local guy I know is getting ready to go hunting and brought by a couple of his knives for sharpening.  Both appear to be well suited for skinning.  One I found very curious with its exaggerated curvature. It was actually a trick getting it all the way around.  I tried using my Pin Pivot Collar but that didn't really get all the way.  I used a platform/freehand and even that was a trick. 


The shape of the the other, a bit more of a classic hunting knife, shows up in a search for "skinning knives".  This one sharpened to 98 BESS with just the SB/SG/LW combination.  I did not want to touch it with the Sharp Pad. 


Rick

[RickKrung]

The Kershaw tip repair.  When I got to the point of putting a bevel on the new tip edge, I thought it was a perfect case for the Pin Pivot Collar. 




But in practice, it didn't turn out as true as it looked.  I didn't like the bevel angle at the tip, so finished the tip bevel by lifting more than pivoting. 

Here is what I proposed to the owner.  He thought it looked good.  I checked with the knife closed and the spine at the broken tip does not protrude out of the pocket.   


Rick

The repaired tip.  Turned out quite good for the most part.  I think there could be a bit more of a fair curve to the spine coming down to the point, but, what the hey, I think the owner will be quite happy. 


I ran it through all three diamond wheels and the SJ stone, then honed and Sharp Pad-ed.  I fought with it a little, but finished with light honing on the leather wheel for 128 BESS. 

Rick

[Jan]

Rick, thanks for sharing your successful tip repair story. 

I my thinking the most important is that the newly shaped tip of the blade reliably fits inside the handle.

Jan

[cbwx34]

...
The repaired tip.  Turned out quite good for the most part.  I think there could be a bit more of a fair curve to the spine coming down to the point, but, what the hey, I think the owner will be quite happy. 

...
Rick

Looks great to me!  👍👍😎