Thinning down kitchen knifes with the Tormek.

[Merlin]

I am very new with the Tormek.
My Tormek T8 arrived last Friday.

curieus I am how your folk are thinning down kitchen knives with the Tormek.
Please tell me your strategy, how your people doing it.

Greetings,

Merlin

The Netherlands.

[Drilon]

Hello Merlin,
for a start I would watch in YouTube "Common Tormek mistakes in knife sharpening" by Knife Grinders Australia and the "Tormek Live Sharpening Classes".

Have fun!
Drilon

[Merlin]

I indeed did.

Hope to gain more information with my question above...

[HaioPaio]

Merlin
One more question.
Do you know a person who successfully thinned out a kitchen knife with a Tormek?
This would be a starting point, at least.
I'm using a series of flat diamond flat whetstones for that purpose and at the end the task of providing a nice finish is due.

[Sir Amwell]

Unless I'm missing something I don't think it's possible to thin knives on the top of a Tormek grinding wheel : you would hollow grind it and would not be able to grind at a low enough angle if the knife is in a jig. The jig would bite into the stone.
Theoretically you could use the side of a diamond or CBN wheel but I think it would be extremely difficult, either free hand or using the MB 100(?), this would require a knife jig to hold the knife and it would still catch on the stone.
Someone else may be more enlightened than me and suggest a way to do it.
I just can't see how a Tormek can be used to thin knives.
Once I tried to flat grind a scandi knife on the side of a diamond wheel free hand. It was a disaster!

[Merlin]

Yes that MB 100 option might be a start.
I do know that Japanese Knife grinders use water wheel with huge diameters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=aU6u80Hyw5Y

[Merlin]

 All Right let's change the question in: Who successfully thinning kitchen knives on the Tormek ?

[Merlin]

I just found this video on the Tormek channel.
This knifemaker seems to thin out (makes the shape) of his knives on the side freehand with diamond wheels.

[aquataur]

All Right let's change the question in: Who successfully thinning kitchen knives on the Tormek ?

I am. Look up my recent threads.

[Merlin]

All Right let's change the question in: Who successfully thinning kitchen knives on the Tormek ?

I am. Look up my recent threads.

I will ! Thanks !

M

[tgbto]

I also dit it for several knives where I wanted to to it very carefully. There is usually less metal to be removed for thinning down a knife than for repairing a damaged chisel, so I don't see why not.

The angle issue might arise for short (pocket ?) knives with a very low thinning angle.

As for the hollowness, even though it will be more pronounced than for the edge, I don't think it would be an issue for standard (not too thick) kitchen knives, it will even help slightly when restoring the edge with a rod. It will be for thick knives.

[aquataur]

Plenty people have terribly cheap kitchen knives.
Very often I get some in my hands that must be ultra cheap warehouse knifes. I don´t have a picture of one of them, but they are immediately recognizable by their huge relief bevel. I suppose this is meant to give the illusion of a much higher quality Japanese style knife.

This relief bevel is hollow, maybe not as pronounced as a 200-250mm wheel would give, but still clearly hollow.

Those don´t have a bolster, but end up towards the handle with a ca. 1cm portion that is blunt.

Don´t believe that you cannot get them to a useful sharpness - you can.
Unfortunately the first time you re-sharpen them the cutting edge gets inevitably hollow near this blunt portion and you have to think about a solution for that.

So those are sharpened on the circumference of some wheel and thus hollow.
I tried this procedure on some of my knifes but the sharpening angles are so low that you very quickly run into the jig´s holding brackets.

Grinding free-hand is a desaster, because you cannot hold still enough to get a nice bevel line. At least I cannot, somebody may have mastered this.

I have seen a guy (was it schleifjunkie?) who has made a special jig for this using magnets, but I abandoned the notion in favour of face-grinding (on the side of the wheel). This works very well for me basically (despite what our quasi-standard "Wootz" encountered), but opens up another pandora´s box. I have written about that galore on my recent threads.

I still adhere to that, because on some point, particularly after repeated re-sharpening, you have to thin the knife, until further perspectives appear.

[LeU]

@merlin:

I am also trying to thin knives on a Tormek at the moment

I started with knives which had a standard "scandinavian" grind (like Mora knives), in carbon steel, and did that with the blade held parallel to the wheel (i.e., not perpendicular, as when sharpening it), little by little, by hand

That sort of worked, the problem is the area close to the ricasso for which I had to rotate the blade 90 degrees, and then somehow "smooth" the transition (and finish with sandpapers)

I now plan to do something similar with a Japanese style knife which does not have a ricasso at all, so in principle it should be easier

[Merlin]

@LeU

My intention is also to thin done my Japanse kitchen knife on the side of the diamond wheel.
But first q bit more research.

I sharpened for many years on bench stones that works but takes, depending on the steel at least an hour, polishing not included.

M

[LeU]

@Merlin

Sorry if I was not clear: I do not use the sides of the wheel but the usual circumference after having made sure it was perfectly true (using the Tormek Truing Tool TT-50)