Starting Knife Sharpening Business

[keo]

Hello. Looking to the community for thoughts and comments on using my T1 to start a small knife sharpening table at a local farmer's market. What would you charge per knife? Do you think it worth it. Goal is to keep it small. No interest in growing big. Thank you.

[John Hancock Sr]

The T1 is an excellent choice for sharpening your standard kitchen knife. The diamond wheel and composite hone will give you more than satisfactory knives of any hardness.

On the down side it will not handle specialty knives. You are pretty much limited to standard shape knives. You may find you loose custom to sharpeners who offer a wider range of services. You will also not be able to repair chips or breaks. These take additional equipment.

If simply sharpening your standard kitchen knife is what you are after then the T1 is ideal.

As for price google knife sharpeners in your area and see what the going rate is.

[Royale]

Hello. Looking to the community for thoughts and comments on using my T1 to start a small knife sharpening table at a local farmer's market. What would you charge per knife? Do you think it worth it. Goal is to keep it small. No interest in growing big. Thank you.

Copied directly from the Tormek T-1 user manual

"Automatic overheat protection
The Tormek T-1 has a recommended maximum operating time of 30 minutes per hour. The motor has an automatic overheat protection system that will shut off the motor if it reaches a certain temperature. Note: If the motor shuts off, always turn off the machine by pressing the power button as the motor will resume operation once it cools down."

I think a key consideration specific to the T-1 is the duration of knife sharpening you plan to conduct at the farmer's market in a workday. I don't personally own a T-1, but I got myself the T-8 largely because of the longer runtimes (on top of its versatility)

You may run into issues if you get a surge of customers and the T-1 keeps shutting down to cool off.

[John Hancock Sr]

You may run into issues if you get a surge of customers and the T-1 keeps shutting down to cool off.

That would definitely be inconvenient!

[Ken S]

[quote author=Royale link=msg=41451 date=173005867

Copied directly from the Tormek T-1 user manual

"Automatic overheat protection
The Tormek T-1 has a recommended maximum operating time of 30 minutes per hour. The motor has an automatic overheat protection system that will shut off the motor if it reaches a certain temperature. Note: If the motor shuts off, always turn off the machine by pressing the power button as the motor will resume operation once it cools down."

I think a key consideration specific to the T-1 is the duration of knife sharpening you plan to conduct at the farmer's market in a workday. I don't personally own a T-1, but I got myself the T-8 largely because of the longer runtimes (on top of its versatility)

You may run into issues if you get a surge of customers and the T-1 keeps shutting down to cool off.
[/quote]


I am not convinced. For many years, the T4 and T2 (same motor) were constrained by the same "thirty minute limitation". This finally ended when Tormek paid for retesting, a very substantial fee. Keo originally posted that he wanted to keep his sharpening business small and had no interest in growing it. Is anyone aware of any actual overheating shutdowns? I am not. Nor have I read any accurate temperature cut off specifications. With the T1's diamond wheel, efficient grinding is done with light grinding pressure, which also means at lower temperature.

I am not saying that shut offs never happen, only that we have no actual evidence of tham happening. I would make two suggestions: First, realizing that the T1 is primarily designed for home use, try it. Try to keep your business small.

Second, and slightly more expensive, consider a T2. The T2 is now rated for continuous duty. Overheating should not be a problem.

Ken

[Royale]

Unsure how the latest Tormek OEM manual is not convincing, but okay.

I'll stick to referencing my OEM manual printed by Tormek, a company that I can hold accountable.

[John Hancock Sr]

I am not convinced.

In my experience motor overheating is affected by several factors. One is the load on the motor. If you are sharpening a lot of generic kitchen knives which only need a freshen up then the load will be low and unlikely to overheat. If you are doing some heavy lifting such as cleaver or reshaping or removing chips then the pressure will be higher and place more load on the machine. Another one is ambient temperature. If you are in the tens or teens then the motor is unlikely to overheat but if you in the high thirties then you are much more likely to overheat.

While the average home sharpener who is in a airconded or cooler environment mat never have an overheating issue. A professional in a warmer climate may run into issues.

[Ken S]

An addition to my earlier reply:

Granted, using the T1 instruction manual as a supporting source seems logical. However, I favor a different method of forming an opinion. I look for related topics on the forum. If I find several related topics with the same or similar difficulties, I conclude that there may be a problem, either with the Tormek product itself of with the way it is being used. If, on the other hand, I cannot find related problem topics based on actual first hand intended use, I become doubtful.

Personally, I doubt there will be any actual, in the field overheating problem. if I was a customer, I would be more concerned with having very sharp knives than possibly having a minor delay. I don't see much difference between sharpening your knives at home than with a very small side sharpening business. Understand that the primary market for the T1 is the home chef. If it appears that your sharpening business is growing faster than you expected, consider investing in a T2, T4, or T8 depending on how large you want to become.