Secondary Bevel

[Segovia123]

Hi

In the context of chisel sharpening, do you use the Tormek for your secondary bevel or move to waterstones and honing guide ?

What are you preferences and why ?

[RichColvin]

I use the Tormek for both the primary and secondary bevels. 

[Ken S]

I have a different point of view. The idea of creating a secondary or micro bevel has been around for decades. The purpose of it is to save labor when hand sharpening. The primary bevel is generally created with a grinder. By creating a secondary bevel, only a small part of the primary bevel needs to be sharpened with bench stones. With subsequent resharpenings, the secondary gradually gets longer until it becomes so large that it is no longer a short cut, and the tool needs to be reground. At this time, the primary bevel is reground. When sharpening with bench stones, this is a definite time and labor saving.

When using a Tormek, secondary bevels save no labor. The electric Tormek does the heavy lifting. With the water bath, there is no danger of overheating the tool, and the apex of the bevel can be ground.

If the "hollow grind" bothers you, follow the advice of my longtime woodworking teacher, Ernie Conover and add three degrees to the Anglemaster setting. (for example, set the scale for 28° instead of 25°.

You will generally want to start with the SG graded coarse, and then regrade to fine. Finish with the leather honing wheel. The middle step is key to grinding out the scratches. I do the entire process usng my Tormek.

Ken