US-430 Update

[jeffs55]

I don't think you understood me. A "one off" is easily the most expensive thing you can buy. I am saying that Tormek has the jigs and equipment. I have not seen the 430 so I do not know what it looks like. In my mind I would simply have extended the horizontal bar as well as the two vertical bars. Then you use the same set up with a "quarters" worth of extra metal. Same weld points and even same grind points on the flat for the adjustment nut. You are not going to grind the vertical bar all the way to the horizontal one. I can't remember how much the English fellow made them for, can you? He was English, wasn't he? Robin perhaps was his name. He made or had made how many, maybe 100? Scale of economy should be present here I would think. I am not going to buy one because I have no need for it but if I did, I would.

[Ken S]

Jeff,

You and I are not far apart in our thinking. Tormek was planning to reissue another small batch of the US-400 due to customer requests, at least one being from one of our forum members. Tormek, like you state, had already done all the engineering and production set up. With all of those expenses already incurred, production costs would be efficient. Not cheap, but favorable enough to consider going forward with a low demand project. In my opinion, this was an example of Tormek putting customer desire ahead of maximum profits, a commendable decision.

I emailed the CEO of Tormek suggesting the added benefits of extending the two vertical legs. This would allow the precision of Tormek jig sharpening of cleavers for the first time. (The previous recommended method was handheld sharpening.) I realized that altering the design of the US-400 would increase production costs. As the only parts being altered were the length of the two vertical legs, I believed the modified version would have a beneficial ratio of increased usefulness to increased cost, even for a small target market.

Let's make no mistake about this, producing the US-430 will not cause Tormek to raise its dividend for shareholders. If it is well marketed and included in Tormek's classroom and video training, I believe Tormek can generate enough sales interest to at least break even. Hopefully the US-400 will generate modest profit. This is a case of Tormek deciding that a customer request could be fulfilled at a reasonable business cost. I hope it also proves to be profitable enough to encourage other low volume customer requests.

Ken