New user; Japanese waterstone wheel

[MerryMadMick]

Hello,

I recently purchased a T-8 and after sharpening a few of my plane irons and chisels I discovered that I was obviously terrible at sharpening by hand.  Considering the number of new bandages on my finger tips, the Tormek works well.

I suffer from the condition known as Gear Acquisition Syndrome, which I'm sure many of you have experienced.  The outward manifestation of this condition is wondering how to make something that works exceedingly well even better.  To that end, will the Japanese water stone allow me to produce an edge that will perform fission on a hydrogen atom? 

I joke only slightly, but is the edge produced by the Japanese stone even more terrifyingly sharp than the what can be made by the graded stock wheel and strop?

Thank you.

[Ken S]

Welcome to the forum, MMM.

My advice may not be popular with the forum or what you want to hear.

Don't short circuit your sharpening skill education by starting out with too much gear or too many grinding wheels. Stay with just the SG until you thoroughly master it. Give yourself the opportunity to learn the craft. Study the handbook and the online classes. Spend time sharpening on learning tools.

Keep us posted.

Ken

[MerryMadMick]

Thanks for the advice Ken.   Mainly it was a question of what results one could expect using the Japanese wheel vs the stock wheel.

The book is great.  I couldn't figure out how to sharpen my larger timber framing slicks on it so I ended up making a jig to ride the universal bar.  Seems to work.


All the best.

[RickKrung]

I agree with Ken, with a slight amplification.  Yes, focus on nailing the process, developing muscle memory, etc. for the grinding process.  But, I think he didn't go far enough to emphasize the importance of deburring.  You can get most excellent results with the standard stone as long as you do an effective and complete job of deburring.

I believe that is best done when the deburring operation is done using guided angle maintenance, rather than free-hand.  To this end, I think the first piece of additional equipment a beginner should get is the Frontal Vertical Base (FVB).  But...  rather than buying a single purpose "FVB", I think the updated Tormek Multi-Base (MB-102) that incorporates the vertical holes so that it functions as an FVB is the way to go. 

You cannot view this attachment.

Rick

[Ken S]

I agree withRick about the importance of honing. I would also recommend the MB-100.

Several of the online classes mention making the lastpass ofthe grinding processes with verylight grinding pressure. Do this on bothbevels of knives toreduce the size of the burr before using the leather honing wheel.

Ken

[tgbto]

I will also concur with the advice to stick to the SG for knives : the SJ has a tendency to leave an edge with much less "tooth", so you might achieve nuclear fission for the first few femtometers of the stroke, but after a few contacts with the cutting board you might endup with more of that dreaded slipping feeling on softer vegetables. In my experience, the ungraded SG (or fine graded SG if you want a more refined edge) followed by a thorough honing on the leather wheel with PA-70 compound will work wonders.

Moreover, the claims by Tormek that a knife sharpened with the SJ won't require honing is simply untrue, at least on standard soft to mid-hardness knives. The SJ will leave a burr, that might not be visible even under a microscope, but there *will* be soft metal at the APEX that you will want to hone anyway.

I would also second the MB-102 as being the single most important accessory. That or the longer USB if you want to properly sharpen anything longer than 8".

[MerryMadMick]

Thank you all for the good advice.  All the best.

[RickKrung]

I agree withRick about the importance of honing. I would also recommend the MB-100.

...snip...
Ken

Do you mean MB-102 (new model with FVB function) rather than the original MB-100 (without FVB)?

Rick

[RichColvin]

Hello,

I recently purchased a T-8 and after sharpening a few of my plane irons and chisels I discovered that I was obviously terrible at sharpening by hand.  Considering the number of new bandages on my finger tips, the Tormek works well.

I suffer from the condition known as Gear Acquisition Syndrome, which I'm sure many of you have experienced.  The outward manifestation of this condition is wondering how to make something that works exceedingly well even better.  To that end, will the Japanese water stone allow me to produce an edge that will perform fission on a hydrogen atom? 

I joke only slightly, but is the edge produced by the Japanese stone even more terrifyingly sharp than the what can be made by the graded stock wheel and strop?

Thank you.

As you mentioned sharpening chisels, I recommend you read thru this thread:  https://forum.tormek.com/index.php/topic,4971.msg35710.html#msg35710.  The overriding idea I started the thread with is that I wanted to get pretty darn sharp, and resharpen often in a speedy manner.  

If you buy into that approach, then the TTS-100 is a great add-on, along with the 3D printed jig outlined here:  https://sharpeninghandbook.info/indexJigs.html#ProjJigTTS100.  

I take that approach, using the SG grindstone, and find it works wonderfully.  My edges are certainly not as sharp as they would be if I used a 13,000 grit stone, but I find that the cutting edges work well for me.

Good luck,
Rich

P.S., I have all 6 grindstones (SG, SB, SJ, & the 3 diamond stones), yet I find with woodworking bench tools that the SG grindstone is easiest to use. 

[MerryMadMick]

Thank you for the great information Rich.  I have an MB-102 on order.

All the best.