Newbie saying hello.

[Keith B.]

Hi all,

Been lurking for a while. New T4 Bushcraft on the way. No extra wheels, no extra jigs....although I did buy a neodymium magnet to replicate the metal removal from the wheel of the T8. Looking forward to honing my skills on this machine.

I am a knifemaker hobbyist and, if I'm being brutally honest, I move in and out of the hobby regularly!  I have created some beautiful knives, but, like others, I dread the sharpening.  I have tried (and own) so many systems. The latest is my KME system, which works very well and does get my knives very, very sharp, but it takes sooooooo long. 

So, I'm hoping the new toy cuts my sharpening time down and allows me to not dread shrapening the long knives!

Thanks,

Keith

[Ken S]

Welcome to the forum, Keith.

When you say "sharpen" do you mean restoring a sharp edge or creating and sharpening bevels? (Sorry, I am not a knifemaker.)

Ken

[RickKrung]

If you mean creating a complete bevel, you may be disappointed.  Standard stone can take a long time.  There are many ways to speed that up, a slow speed belt grinder being one of the best, in my opinion.  I tried a medium speed bench grinder with the white grit wheels.  Works well but I found it still hard to control the heat.  My favorite, prior to getting a variable speed Viel belt grinder was a traditional 80 grit Norton 3X grindstone fitted with a bushing to fit on the Tormek.  It is 8" and would fit nicely on a T4.  Run wet, just like other grindstones on the Tormek. 

Do some searching here.  Lots of alternatives discussed. 

Rick

[Keith B.]

Hi all,

Thanks for the welcome! Right now, sharpen means sharpen. I'm talking about knives that already have a bevel. I have and industrial belt sander that can create bevels in a rediculous amount of time, but my precision needs work.

Knife making has been a great little hobby for me but my skills are pretty raw. I have created some beautiful knives that an expert maker would think is serviceable, but certainly not elite. "Normal" folks seem to think they are special and they are certainly better than a store bought knife, but I can always see the flaws. Grinding and finishing knives is a unique blend of art and skill.

Turns out though, that sharpening is a blend of art and skill as well. After spending 20 hours or more creating a knife, I took for granted the sharpening part and thought that would be the easy part. I did not find that to be true at all though, because everything was free hand.

Perhaps the greatest lesson for me with the Tormek and a couple of other systems, is that free hand sharpening is quite a challenge. Using a jigged system is a really, really good idea when it come to precision.

[RickKrung]

Welcome, Keith.  Given that your knives already have a bevel, I think you are going to really like what you can do, relatively quickly, with a Tormek.  You may like to freehand, but I think you will get much better results when you have learned how to use the angle control available through the Tormek jigs and process. 

Please post some pictures of the knives you've made and let us see your progress when you get to that. 

Rick

[Ken S]

After spending twenty hours making a knife, the somewhat surgical pace and precision of the Tormek may be therapeutic. Enjoy getting to know the versatility of the SG.
Keep us posted.
Ken