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Anyone else have this problem?

Yes and I agree, I too should wear an apron. I have one hanging right next to the machine and every time I end up soaked I remember that it is right there next to me.

Hi,

Beginning sharpener here. I'm curious about some other differences in the T1 and T2:

• What is the pros/cons of a conical wheel vs cylindrical wheel?
• Does the T1 have other wheel options like the T2?
• Are there benefits to wetting the diamond stone like you typically would with T4 or any whetstone?

Thanks,
Stay Sharp

My 2 penneth worth ...

In order;
The only difference in the wheel shape is due to the "jig" design of the T1. In essence the T1 is a single purpose jig designed all in one to perform knife sharpening. It is aimed squarely at kitchens to sit on the bench and sharpen knived quickly and effectively. Using the T1 you can bring a dull knofe back to sharp in seconds.

No other wheel options - just the one. As I said above it is an all in one "knife jig".

Yes, wetting the stone would help extend the life and reduce the dust but you need to be careful since it will rust. You can use anti rust agent in the water but it becomes messy. To be blunt I would not really bother. It is designed to run dry so that is how I would use it.

As others have said if you want to *only* do knife re-sharpening then get the T1. If you see yourself doing other types of sharpening and need a more general purpose machine *or* using it for a business then consider the T4 (personal use) T8 (pro or semi pro use).

When I sharpen my 15" thicknesser blades I get water all over the wheel. This will be very handy

There are drive pins in the honing wheel. Make sure that they are sitting into the drive wheel or it will wobble..

The drive wheel should simply pull off with not too much force. If it is stuck then it may be damaged.

I consider a US-430 and the brand new MB-102 (which combines the MB-100 and an FVB) essential tools for knife sharpeners. I would purchase them before purchasing other grinding wheels.

Absolutely. I just bought the US-430 for this very reason.

My wife has far too many friends

My sister in law brought over 15 knives yesterday for me to sharpen. All were in various stages of extremely blunt to needing reshaping! I think it gave me a taste of the life if a professional sharpener. They were all pretty ordinary supermarket knives so nothing special. One was a vintage carving knife with the rectangular bone handle that grandma used for her Sunday roast.

The wife keeps suggesting that I take my setup to the local market. After yesterday's marathon I think I will leave it to the professionals. Not that I was tempted, but it just confirmed my thought that it is not something I want to make a living from.

I have noticed that increasingly YouTube channels I liked for good information are becoming more like infomercials. I find this trend at least as disturbing as lack of facts, especially when the sales pitch is based on questionable information.

Yes. Particularly when they declare that they were given the product that they are demonstrating but that won't influence their opinion. As we say here in Australia "yea right!" I prefer people who say that either, they bought all of the products that they are reviewing with their own money, or as one of my favourite woodworkers said recently, "this was given to me and although I will try to be honest you will have to take into account that I am obliged though common decency  and unconscious bias to be less critical that I would otherwise be."

Maybe I make a fixed stud bolt on the wall to store the wheel, so the machine is less high so that I can store it elsewhere..

I made a video here doing the same thing. Hope you find it useful.

https://youtu.be/X1YdJeEAAFI?si=p2JCH7V2Wvm_pDnA

In short, the type of minutia we are discussing only becomes relevant when you are chasing an ideal edge.

Pretty much. Sure edge retention - again it depends. Some blades such as scissors and to a certain extend vegetable knives require a level of tooth to function as intended. Whilst other edges such as on a scrub plane can be left at coarse and function perfectly well. (Scrub planes are all brute force and ignorance and the say in the classics.)

In the case of say paring chisels you want a nice keen edge and that warrants more attention to detail and so you would probably spend more time chasing a better edge.

So yes it all depends. I am a hobbyist but I end up sharpening for friends and family as well. But for me it is the speed and function of the system. I don't see sharpening as an end in itself. For me it is in order to get more pleasure  out of the making functional objects or producing functional tools rather than the actual process of sharpening.

Certainly, edge retention is important but if I spend an extra 15 minutes per tool only to get an extra 5 minutes of use there is not much point. So for me it is a trade off and it boils down to a time/result equation. Getting back to the original question, this is where the science cones in. It will inform my approach to sharpening to get the the most out of my sharpening system with as little expenditure as practical.

This is not to decry those for whom the experience of sharpening is an end in itself. I see the joy in refining an edge to get the lowest BESS score and the prettiest edge. However my needs are more pragmatic.

Genius of you don't mind me saying. My son has a 3D printer and he whipped up these for me, as well as the screw knob you referenced. I had to get the heat nuts which came earlier this week. I bought a kit of heat nuts, well two kits, one for my son.

It worked as advertised and produced a perfect edge. The router was an old Stanley from about 1910 and belonged to my dad an has his initials on a knob. I am guessing that he bought it new when he was an apprentice. I am so pleased that the blade is now looking as new thanks to your jig.

One thing I have discovered over my life is that sharpening is simple yet complicated. Sometimes over complicated. If you want sharp all you need is two flat surfaces meeting at a line. However, when you throw in grit, abrasives, the behaviour of your sharpening grains, the behaviour of the material being sharpened, the geometry of the edge it can escalate quickly.

My observation is that we can overcomplicate and overthink. Sure the science is interesting and can feed into practice to improve our technique but when you look at professional sharpeners such as knife sharpening businesses or professional woodworkers they want in and out in the quickest time whilst getting good results.

Example. I bought a jointer plane Wednesday and the iron was non too smart. The edge was chipped and the bevel was not a bevel. It took me 15 minutes for a perfect edge. Ten minutes on the DC to re-establish the bevel, 30 seconds on the DF to remove the old scratches then 30 seconds on the DE to polish. Finally about 30 seconds to a minute to hone to remove the burr. It then took perfect shavings. It will take less than 5 minutes to re-sharpen and that I think is the point. I use the Tormek (and I have wanted one for a long time) to quickly re-establish sharp without any faffing around. I now have that. It took some time to establish my process and I am yet to become as confortable with the drill jig and the turning tool kit (I need more practice there) but chisels plane blades an knives are now a cinch, super easy, barely an inconvenience.

Agree. He seems like a top bloke. He is in the same city as me and next time I am down that way I will drop in for a chin wag. He has some great ideas and does a top job on his knives. Also his technique has evolved from his early days. You can tell how much sharpening he has done by the wear on his old wheels and old dressing stone. He is very Australian and very Adelaide.

To be honest I think that watching him has given me a lot more confidence in my own sharpening and improved my technique considerably.

A couple of thoughts. If the machine was abused (dropped et al) before getting to you then square is not guaranteed.

Tormek recommend that when removing and  placing the wheel always do that with the label up so that you always put the stone on in the same orientation which can compensate for out of square.

The key parameters for square is the USB parallel to the wheel. So long as the outer surface and the USB are parallel your jig should give you a square grind. To do this Place the wheel on the machine label oriented up then true the stone.

For this next step use a relatively narrow blade, but not too narrow, since it will be a quicker process to test your setup. Say a 1/2" or 12mm would be ideal. Place the blade into the SE-77 hard against the stop on the right (viewed from the rear of the jig ie. the chisel handle side), slide the second securing screw upto the chisel and secure the screws so that the top of the jig is parallel to the bottom. Check from both sides of the jig that the tool is tight against the square edge inside the jig. I sometimes find that after I place the tool and tighten it it slips marginally and I have to untighten slightly, readjust then retighten. At this point you should be able to use a small square to check that the the of the chisel (all this assumes that the chisel has parallel edges of curse) is at right angles to the face of the jig. If not then that may be your issue.

Now start sharpening. After the edge starts to form use your square to check for square. if you find that it is sharpening out of square then you can use the "Two smaller adjustment screws" to adjust the angle either way. In theory if you have done everything above then you should be into the semis without dropping a set. But if there is any skew this this will adjust for it.

The issue may be that either the shaft is slightly bent, the case is distorted or the stone is out of square. In any case trueing the stone will compensate for all of this.

Another check you can do is after trueing the stone lower the USB until it almost touches the stone, draw a fine line across the stone parallel to the USB then when you put the jig onto the USB with the chisel in it check that the edge of the chisel is parallel to the line you drew, assuming that the chisel edge is square to start with.

When I first used the Tormek I fund that I had issues getting edges square and I think it is because I was not meticulous enough with the setup I outlined above. Even now I get the odd chisel or plane blade that is ever so slightly out of square. But In my experience if you are careful with your setup then you should get square grinds even on problematic machines.