Messages

Jeff,

Welcome to the forum.  After buying a T8 about one year ago, and sharpening over 600 knives on it now, I'm more convinced than ever I bought the best knife sharpening machine available. Really did not have much good experience, or success trying to sharpening before I bought the T8...I still consider myself a rookie even after sharpening 600 knives. 

The TORMEK online videos are excellent, if your like me, you'll probably find yourself watching the same video a few times.  Another great online source for sharpening and honing information on different makes of knives is Knife Grinders Australia.  The gentleman that made these videos ( Dr Vadim Kraichuk) is no longer with us, he passed about year ago, but was highly regarded on this forum as one of the best authorities on knife sharpening.  Vadim took sharpening to a genuine scientific level with his research on how to make the very best edge on any knife.  Highly recommend watching his videos too.

Enjoy!
 

3D...65 on the BESS is pretty impressive! I like the Levi denim strop too.

Very interesting subject, looking forward to this class. I wonder how they will measure how much pressure to use? Light, to medium pressure varies quite a bit depending on who is applying it.

The tray on my less than 1 year old T8 also started vibrating loudly this summer.  I was trying to do knife sharpening at local farmers market but had to shut the machine off if I needed to talk to a customer, vibrated in my shop at home just as bad...driving me nuts.  Contacted TORMEK support, they were good, but wanted me to send the machine back to them for repair or replacement.  This would have cost me some business right before the holiday so I declined.  I ended up putting strips of electrical tape on the bottom of the tray, right where the lift arms go and a couple of strip on the case of the T8 where the tray slides up and down.  Problem is pretty much GONE.  The machine is as quiet as new.  Almost 2AM here, I can't figure out how to attach a photo of how I applied the tape.

Ken,

I'm sure you are correct. I must have missed the fact that Vadim was using water with his CBN's in his videos. I don't think he mentioned it in his deburring book I'm reading.  The vendor I got my CBN wheels from makes it really clear in bold type, all CAPS to not use water.  Use of water will void the lifetime warranty on the wheels. Also the CBN wheels that Vadim was using have the solid aluminum core, probably nickel coated on wheel   where the CBN is attached and using the TORMEK anticorrosion solution in the water, nothing but the best.  The wheels I have are made with a high density nylon plastic hub, pressed fitted? into a metal ring about 3/16 thick that is coated with CBN. About half, or less the cost of the wheel Vadim used, but they do run very true laterally and horizontal. 

When I contacted TORMEK about my very noisy water tray, even sent them a video, they asked me to ship my TORMEK back to them for evaluation before they could take any action. A very reasonable request but I'd have to shut down my sharpening for a couple weeks before I got my repaired T8 back, or a replacement.. .  I put a small piece of piece of electrical tape on the bottom of the tray on each side where the little lift arms contact the tray and then another strip along each side of the vertical lift slot. The tape had just the right amount of density to totally isolate the contact vibration that was going on.  That was more than a month ago and it's still working great, not a peep out of it.

Hey 3D, I've resorted to my RIKON 1x30 belt gringder with a 220 cubitron belt on it when I have to reprofile blade with broken tip or large chip in the edge. I keep a towel soaked with cold water right next to me and give the blade a wipe after a stroke or two to cool the blade and take off dust.  Once I have the blade fixed up, I'll set the edge on my TORMEK for final sharpening with the 600 > 1200 > SJ250 and then strop.  I did this on two Wüsthof knives that my customers son had used to open bottles with, broke a good 1/4" of the tip off on one and big chip out of the near center of the blade on the other.  They came out great, looked new, probably sharper too.

Perra, both jigs are pretty sharp, cheap pun, but I really like the jig you came up with to measure from the top of the USB to the wheel.  Making those slots helps locate it on the radius of the wheel. I wonder how much of the radius of the wheel will protrude into that slot opening though?  You might be losing that 0.1mm accuracy your looking for?  Have you tried making comparison measurements using the protruding end of a caliper from the top of the USB to the wheel?  Again, I do like the concept and really admire the creativity.

It's getting close to Christmas so I ended up buying a 400 and 1200 CBN wheels.   The vendor offered me a discount if I bought both and free shipping so I went for it.  The 400 is flat across the surface, the 1200 has radiused edges, which I prefer but it adds over $100 to the price.  I've bought a couple other CBN wheels for my T8 from this vendor and have been very happy with the quality of the wheels, price and service. 

There's some very good videos by some well known woodturners (Glenn Lucas) on YT showing how they use the TORMEK to sharpen their own tools.  I have the SE77 square edge jig for chisels, that takes some practice to get it tuned in using the two small knobs so it sharpens evenly across the front of the chisel.  I've sharpened a few gouges using the SVD186R with very good results.  I'd also recommend getting the Profiled Leather Honing wheels to hone the concave side of your gouges, works great.   I've just started using CBN wheels for sharpening knives and love em!  Not having to re-adjust the height of the USB when changing wheels, not having to re-grade the SG250, no water tray, mine was vibrating very loud, CBN's run surprisingly cool. and they will outlast stone wheels by many years.  I would say the only down side to them is they do generate some dust, nothing like a belt sharpening though and without the water it's harder to see where the knife is making contact with the wheel.  I know TORMEK prides in the water cooled system of sharpening but Vadim proved the benefits of CBN.

Sir Amwell, going for the 400 to clean up, or set the edge does kind of make more sense to me after a little more consideration, and having a 1000 grit CBN does seem a little redundant.  According to Vadim, the 400CBN is also better at setting the edge on lower end knives with softer steels before moving onto felt with Autosol on buffer > FVB 1u diamond> then paper wheel with .25 diamond..  I also think the 1000 CBN will smooth out a bit after a break in.   I have a SJ250 I use to finish the edge up with before final honing with a leather belt on my RIKON 1 x 30.  I'm currently reading Dr Vadim Kraichucks book Knife Deburring and trying to set my shop up with the same equipment so I can duplicate the sharpening/deburring procedures he used with well documented results to back them.  I still have to get a rock hard felt wheel, or two, and some diamond paste.  Learning a lot from his book.

Hi Group,

I'm considering adding a 1200 grit CBN wheel to my arsenal of wheels for my T8.  I have a 600 & 1000 grit CBN wheels already.  Do you think the 1200 would add another level of sharp when doing knives, or would I be better off with a 400 to use on edges that have a lot of damage?

Looking forward to your input

+1 on BeSharps comments and thanks!  After less than a year of getting into the sharpening world, I still consider myself very much a newbie/rookie.  Learned so much from the generosity of knowledge and experience from this forum and Ken is right at the top.  Thank you!

Hey John,  wow...you really pack a lot of stuff up.  I just started sharpening knives last Feb~Mar, got invited to the local farmers market this summer.  I don't pack nearly as much stuff as you do though.  Takes me and my wife about 30 minutes to pack up the car, about 20 minutes to set up at the market.  The business at the market is okay, no taco's, but the exposure I get, letting people know there is someone who can really do a good job on their knives, scissors and gardening tools is way better.  Once they see how a knife is sharpened on the TORMEK and the results, they are pretty much hooked and they contact me within the same week with knives to sharpen.  It's like planting seeds.. .   

Agreed...I just watched this video the other night after my brother dropped off his collection of wood turning tools for me to use the SVD-186R , TTS-100 and those yellow labels to mark all the settings on.   This is probably my favorite sharpening video..watched three times now.  Glenn does a outstanding job of showing you the sharpening techniques he uses for his gouges, parting tools, skewed chisels, how he uses them, along with detailed explanations of how the different angles are used to shape bowls, information that was not gone over in other videos.  Of course I had to buy the SVS-50 Multi jig right after I watched the video. .   

Thanks guys!  I saw a Vadim recommending to use the rust eraser in one of his videos but didn't see how he used it.