Hello - New Tormek member

[c-level]

I'm the lucky recipient of a free Tormek SuperGrind 2000.  I went to pick up about $2000 worth of Lie-Nielson planers from a local OfferUp seller for $900 and he had a bunch of items for sale.  I saw this large green machine with two wheels and asked, what is that, a knife sharpener?  He said, i have no idea and i'll never use it.  Since i picked up a large lot of Planers, he said, you know what, i'm going to give that to you.  We looked around and found a few items labeled Tormek and he threw them in, along with 4 stones, 3 whetstones and 1 2-sided black course stone and a new hard cover book.  He said he'd have no use for them and handed them all over to me.  We plugged it in and were both amazed how slowly it worked.  I've owned more than 5 knife sharpening systems and probably overlooked the Tormek all these years due to the price.  I've been researching like crazy for the last 2 days and found that it's an older machine with the upgrade kit.  I have the knife accessory, original diamond stone flattener, and chisel mount.  That's all i need and, after my order comes in for the angle guide, i'll be donating my other systems to friends.  thanks for the add and reading this long post.  Looking forward to posting my results.  Every once in a while, if you keep looking, you'll stumble upon a deal like this.  For me, that's once every decade.

Thanks again,
Carl

[Ken S]

Welcome to the forum, Carl.

What good luck; I am happy for you.

A couple suggestions for you:

1) Go to the Tormek website (tormek.com) and register your Tormek. The warranty period is long past; however, once you register, you can download the latest edition of the online handbook. I downloaded it in the books program of my ipad and refer to it often. It is a very useful reference.

2) There are some very useful youtubes. The standard "go to" videos most of us older members used are by Jeff Farris.
Jeff was Tormek's US agent for many years and the founder of this forum. Most of Jeff's videos were made using a vintage Tormek like yours. Do a google search with "Jeff Farris youtube channel".
Do not miss the "Tormek youtube channel". The Tormek online classes are an outstanding learning tool. They will serve you well.

I hope your good luck continues. Keep us posted.

Ken

[cbwx34]

3) and check out an app to set the angle (links in my signature!)   

[c-level]

Thank you both - just practiced on a few older knives, results not so good yet.  That said, i'm getting familiar with the touch and my leather wheel seemed pretty crusty.  I used my normal strop rouge and it was just scraping off black crud.  I'm guessing the paste is probably the best way to go?

[cbwx34]

Thank you both - just practiced on a few older knives, results not so good yet.  That said, i'm getting familiar with the touch and my leather wheel seemed pretty crusty.  I used my normal strop rouge and it was just scraping off black crud.  I'm guessing the paste is probably the best way to go?

You can hold the spine side of a knife against the wheel, like a scraper, and clean off the "crud".  Then, depending on the condition, maybe a light coating of a light oil, followed by the honing compound.  (If it doesn't seem dried out, you can probably skip the oil, the honing compound has some in it).

[c-level]

Can I use my old strop rouge (green and white) or does everyone recommend the liquid?

[cbwx34]

Can I use my old strop rouge (green and white) or does everyone recommend the liquid?

If it's a quality compound/abrasive, I don't see why not.  The Tormek compound has a bit of oil in it, so if you use something else, you may need to add a little oil separately.  (Doesn't take much).  I've used "Flexcut Gold" on a wheel, seemed to work just as well.

If by "green and white" you mean two different abrasives, you can't really mix abrasives on a single wheel.

A bit of info...  https://forum.tormek.com/index.php?topic=3385.0