The Knife Sharpening Must-Read Threads Thread

[wanderingwhittler]

I've been impressed both by the quality of discussion and the level of knowledge and experience shared on this forum. As a newcomer, both to the forum and to the Tormek, it is my privilege to read and absorb the information contained here and my aspiration to be able to contribute to the trove in due time. My challenge for now is finding the must-read gems in the archives so that I can learn from them.

As an example, I came across the Middle overgrinding problem thread from 2016 a couple of days ago while searching for information on dealing with full bolsters and learned (1) about a problem that I am sure to face and (2) how to mitigate it.

There's a lot of great information like that here on knife sharpening and I'd really appreciate it if those who have been around here for a while would chime in with some of their favorite "must read" threads. What are the ones you really learned from? What threads represent your hard-won experience? To which threads would you point a beginner or someone looking to improve their skills? There's still a lot that I don't know that I don't know. I'd love to hear about your favorite threads for learning and why you think they are important to read.

In return for you generosity in searching your memory, I'll offer to collect these threads into an annotated bibliography of sorts, edited into this first post for easy discovery, so that others in the future can reference them.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to seeing where this leads.

Edit: sometimes the gems are the full topic, sometimes the gems are individual posts. Please feel free to highlight both.

[Ken S]

Greg,

A very good starting point for reliable Tormek advice is the postings on this forum by Jeff Farris. Jeff demonstrated the Tormek for many years. Few people on the planet can match his Tormek knowledge and experience.

If you click on his name, you will bring up his personal place which includes show posts. He posted more than thirteen hundred posts. The post numbering system changes the most recent post to number one. This is frustrating with active members. Since Jeff no longer posts, his numbers remain static.

must dash; will return.

Ken

[wanderingwhittler]

Thanks Ken. I browsed a couple pages' worth of his earliest replies and learned a couple of things along the way. I'll try to make a habit of periodically reading a few pages of his posts.

Thirteen hundred posts will take quite a while to wade through. Do you have any favorites that you like to return to or find yourself referring others to them?

Thanks,
Greg

[GKC]

As another newbie, I do like Greg's idea of a thread that collects some of the more central knife sharpening discussions.  I am prepared to put in my miles of searching to come up to speed, but any assistance would make that a more rewarding exercise.  I find that Farris was a gold mine of advice, but his commentary is spread out over hundreds of posts, many of which are answers to very focused questions.  I am happy to contribute to Greg's list as I come across useful core threads in my learning process.  Some of the more experienced members probably already have their favourites.

[Ken S]

Occasionally one of us will add a reply to a topic the computer considers ancient. I am guilty of this, but only because the old topic still rings tyrue and has value for our members today. I encourage all of us, from the old vets to ¨the veriest tyro¨(an expression popular with old British writers meaning beginner), to follow that practice and revive our best topics.


I also post links to videos and documents I consider of value to Tormekers, a practice common here. Please be kind. If the video is thirty minutes long, and the referenced part of at ten minutes, please note it.

I believe we have seen some notable evolution in the topics and posts. I also think it is sad that so many valuable topics have become lost in yesterday´s pixels.

Ken

[Dutchman]

First of all, the search possibility within the threads on this forum should be greatly improved.
If I search for "adjustment" then the result is: "Your search query did not return any matches." 

[wanderingwhittler]

First of all, the search possibility within the threads on this forum should be greatly improved.
If I search for "adjustment" then the result is: "Your search query did not return any matches." 

Oh, interesting. It appears that the scope of the search box is hierarchical and relative to what is being viewed when the search is submitted. I had not noticed that before, but your reply prompted an experiment. I tried your search from a few different locations in the forum:

• Top level: 180 results spread across all of the areas
• General Tormek Questions: 30 results spread across just the General Tormek Questions area
• Top level: 41 results spread across just the Knife Sharpening area
• This thread: 1 result (your reply) spread across just this thread

That's useful behavior now that I know about it, but is not entirely expected. I wonder how many searches I've done and inadvertently limited the scope by where I did the search. I'll keep that in mind in the future. Thanks for prompting the experiment.

By the way, I'm glad I saw the link to the Simple adjustment of the grinding angle topic in your signature. I'd seen references to "Dutchman's tables" before, but I hadn't read the actual post yet. I'll add that one to the list.

[Dutchman]

Thanks for your experiments. It explains and helps a lot 

[Ken S]

I have Dutchman´s grinding tables loaded onto ibooks on my ipad and have also printed them. I have found them an invaluable reference. They are the support behind the kenjig.

I recently needed to make up a kenjig for my Chinese cleaver. With Dutchman´s tables, a piece of cardboard, pencil, and scissors, I had a specialized kenjig in less than a minute.

Ken