Using the Japanese Water Wheel to create burrs.

[Ken S]

(Just my opinion.)

Tormek originally used natural stone grinding wheels. When Tormek switched to the aluminum oxide (SG-250) manmade wheels, they cut faster, but more coarsely. I believe the stone grader was introduced to make the SG cut less coarsely, like the natural stones.

Later, Tormek introduced the SB blackstone and the 4000 grit SJ Japanese wheels. In my opinion, the stone grader fulfills its purpose better with the SG than with either of these newer wheels. The SB is harder and responds better to diamond. The SJ is softer and works better with a rubberized abrasive or nagura stone.

As the buying public does not like to purchase multiple stone graders/dressers, the original stone grader is marketed for all three.

Ken

[RichColvin]

I use the original stone grader on the SG and SB grindstones, but I am like Rick :  I use a Nagura stone on the SJ grindstone.

Kind regards,
Rich

[edgefarm]

I love mine. It's an extra step that really makes people say "wow."

[Ken S]

I use the original stone grader on the SG and SB grindstones, but I am like Rick :  I use a Nagura stone on the SJ grindstone.

Kind regards,
Rich

Rich,
I remember you were using a diamond bench stone to grade/dress your SB-250. Are you still using it or have you switched back? (curious, not critical)
Ken

[RichColvin]

Yes sir.  I use a DMT D8X 8-Inch Dia-Sharp Continuous Diamond Extra-Coarse.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001DZOKNY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It works extremely well.  I was just using it this week when resharpening a number of drill bits.

Kind regards,
Rich

[casher50]

To RickKrung,
     The Sabitoru Rust Erasers are amazing. They are very gentle on the JWW and are VERY fast as well. I have found that cleaning every few minutes, before the metal particles get imbedded in the stone takes only a minute or two at most. I, like you, don't know how they work, but boy do they! Thanks again for the tip.

[John_B]

In the first post Chuck describes using the Japanese stone to bring back an edge that has just started to go dull.

I have been going down another path and empirical evidence suggests there are perhaps other ways to restore the edge. I recently bought a ceramic honing rod that has two grits available. It is rated at 2000 and also 3000.
My steps with my kitchen knives have been as follows.

1. Initial grind on SG-250 at 13° per side wheel graded as fine as possible for final passes.
2. Hone on the Tormek leather wheel LA-220 with Tormek paste at 14.5°
3. Hone on plain leather strop.

At this point the knife is extremely sharp. I do not have a BESS tester so I am not sure what value to use. Knives sharpened like this will cut thermal receipts easily. I keep forgetting to buy cigarette papers as Wootz suggests.

With the knife in normal kitchen service I have been doing the following with great success:

1. Before each use (or more often when I am butchering a large amount of meat) I will steel the knife with a smooth steel.
2. When I notice that this is not restoring the edge I will move to a finely ribbed steel.
3. When cycling between 1-2 no longer produces the desired results I have been going back and re-honing on the leather wheel and stropping.
4. My next step is to use the 2000/3000 grit ceramic rod on the edge, leather wheel then strop when the leather wheel is not producing a fine enough edge.
5. Finally when these steps are not working I will return to the finely graded SG-250 and start fresh.

These steps are not practical for customer's knives. For the most part I am lucky if they even use the steel between visits. My knives, however, are maintaining an edge for a long time and my frequency of trips to the Tormek have been greatly extended.