Why honing wheel is smaller

[Lazarek]

Hi folks
T4 user here.
Want to use USB for guided honing with a jig, but why on Earth is honing wheel smaller than grinding wheel?
Thinking of getting a 200mm wheel made of wood, glue leather strop on it and use 1nm diamond paste.
But why is my Tormek honing wheel smaller in the 1st place? Any justification?
Thanks

[Ken S]

Welcome to the forum, Lazarek.

Good question, with several reasons. Tormek's traditional technique has been jig guided sharpening with handheld honing. In this case, a larger honing wheel would not be a problem. When using a flat honing wheel handheld, the knife can be angled, thus clearing the grinding wheel. The problem occurs when using the jig for honing, which must be used with the knife straight. There are several solutions:

1)The grinding wheel can be temporarily removed with the EZYlock. When used with an FVB and a US-430 support bar, this provides clearance with longer knives. I have used this method to jig hone my 10" chef knife with my T4.

2) The tapered composite honing wheel for the T1/T2 in interchangeable with the T4. Here is a link:

https://www.sharpeningsupplies.com/products/tormek-honing-wheel-for-t-1-t-2

This solves the clearance problem, although it keeps the same smaller diameter.

3) Various third party vendors offer larger leather honing wheels. These can be mounted on either end of the main shaft with adaptors, which should also be available from the same vendors.

I do not think Tormek will offer same size leather honing wheels. The customer demand for these would be too small to be profitable. The market would be primarily knife sharpeners. Woodworkers, turners, and carvers would have little use for larger honing wheels. The most practical solution may be a US-430 and either several grub screws or a USB, the Grub screws being much less expensive; the USB working better.

Ken

[RickKrung]

I'll leave it to others to speculate as to why the honing wheel is smaller.

The problem it presents is that the jigs encounter the USB in the front/horizontal USB mount such that it is difficult or impossible to hone the full length of the edge on some blades.  Vadim of Knife Grinders introduced the Frontal Vertical Base (FVB), in (2018) to solve this problem and allow for precision angle control for both grinding on wheels and honing on the honing wheel from the front side of the machines. 

His introductory post on this forum is here.  Much discussion ensued and many of us in the Tormek sharpening world quickly adopted this device and many of his techniques for this and other sharpening tasks.  Many of us made our own, home-built versions of the FVB as soon as it hit our screens. 

Eventually, Tormek itself incorporated the FVB functionality in their modified MB-102 device.  Aftermarket FVBs are available from a few vendors, but if you have or will ever have diamond wheels and work on the sides of those wheels, the MB-102 might be a smarter purchase as it provides the FVB functionality along with others. 

Study those links and do some other searching and reading about it.  There is much to learn by reading the long history of topics of interest/concern on this forum.

Rick

[tgbto]

The smaller honing wheel prevents it from getting in the way when sharpening long knives. Else the handle or heel of the knife may interfere with the honing wheel.

[Lazarek]

Thanks, this is very much in line with my thinking.

Another thing that comes to mind is that if you only sharpen using SG wheel then you get to grit 1000 (1100-1200 if you cheat) then you are left with compound paste with 3nm (6000-8000ish grit) and you'd only want to touch the edge with that. Smaller honing wheel helps that perhaps? Using the same jig/USB setup you change the sharpening angle to just touch the edge.

Tormek says no honing when using SJ wheel, but i'd like to go beyond 4000 grit it offers, into 1nm paste (12000 grit territory), so will either make my own or look for 3rd party.

Will check the old discussion, thanks for the link.


Cheers

[tgbto]

Tormek says no honing when using SJ wheel, but i'd like to go beyond 4000 grit it offers, into 1nm paste (12000 grit territory), so will either make my own or look for 3rd party.

Cheers

My experience is that deburring is needed even after polishing with the SJ stone. Else there is still a length of soft metal along the apex.

[RickKrung]

Tormek says no honing when using SJ wheel, but i'd like to go beyond 4000 grit it offers, into 1nm paste (12000 grit territory), so will either make my own or look for 3rd party.

Cheers

My experience is that deburring is needed even after polishing with the SJ stone. Else there is still a length of soft metal along the apex.

I agree that honing is necessary after using the SJ wheel.  However, in my use of the SJ wheel, it is always at the same angle as grinding, so naturally there is still a burr.  I've not tried using it at a slightly higher angle, such as I use for honing.  Wonder if/how much of a difference that would make.  Even so, I cannot imagine that more honing at finer grit(s) wouldn't improve the edge. 

[HaioPaio]

Even so, I cannot imagine that more honing at finer grit(s) wouldn't improve the edge. 

Agreed