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I also use PA-70 with leather belts.  Perfect for kitchen knives and low-carbide folding knives.  For wear-resistant steels I start with a leather belt using 2 micron or .5 micron diamond and then finish with PA-70.  But I almost always sharpen on the Tormek first.  With CBN or diamond wheels I find it to be just as fast as the Worksharp, with better results and no chance of overheating.

Great idea!  I use the same machine with leather belts for deburring and honing.  That system depends on one's ability to hold a blade perfectly level, which is not so easy if you're trying to hold an angle with less than 1° variation. 

Here's a pic of my machine with two wheels mounted.  I use a second Tormek water trough on the drive wheel side, with an inverted drawer organizer used to raise it to the appropriate level. 

I use CBN wheels, but I think it's the same thing as far as cleaning.  I use a rubber eraser stick, which works well and is inexpensive.  This is the one I use: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000H69U7G?psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&ref_=chk_typ_imgToDp

As far as running two wheels on the machine, I believe you can use the axle from the Tormek Profiled Leather Wheel to attach a second wheel, but I'm not sure about that.  I use this adapter from Schleif Junkies: https://schleifjunkies.de/en/product/adapter-for-2-wheel/

This adapter screws into the threaded shaft that sticks out from the drive wheel, and you can use it with or without the leather honing wheel mounted.

I hadn't thought of the patent issue.  OTOH, there are certainly quite a few Tormek clones using jigs similar to Tormek's basic knife jig.  Maybe they're paying royalties?

If you're familiar with the Twice as Sharp scissor machine, you know that it employs a clamping mechanism that attaches to an articulating arm.  A similar system is used for flat hones. 

The benefit of that system is twofold, as far as I can tell.  One, it fixes the height of the clamp in relation to the wheel to prevent angle changes, and two, it allows you to rotate the knife on the vertical axis so you can maintain the same sharpening angle on the belly portion of the blade as you have on the straight portion of a blade, which is sometimes impossible with existing Tormek jigs.

For Tormek, I can think of two ways to approach this with respect to setting the sharpening angle:

1.  The clamp pivots up and down and there is a scale on the jig to indicate the chosen angle. 

2.  There could be an indexed height adjustment on the articulating arm itself.

In either case you would have to account somehow for varying stone diameter, unless it was only compatible with the diamond wheels (or other fixed-diameter wheels).

Who knows if it will ever happen, but I think it would be a worthwhile addition to the system.  I think it would be quicker to set up than existing methods, and it would eliminate the problem of variable sharpening angles on curved blades.  The clamp could also have variable stops to allow for proper convexing of shears or knives.

If you're not familiar with these systems, this is what it looks like:

I'm sure most of you know this already, but there is a pretty easy way to measure the angle of the primary grind.  It requires an electronic angle cube, which can be had for around $15.  All you have to do is zero the angle cube on a table, place the flat of the blade on the table, and then place the cube on the blade to measure the combined bevel angle.  Divide that angle by two and subtract that amount from desired edge angle and set the angle master to that number to get the desired angle.

Example: if you want an edge angle of 15° per side and the angle of the primary grind is 2° per side, set the Angle Master to 13° to get an actual edge angle of 15°.

Having said that, I don't use the Angle Master for knives anyway, because it's a bit of a blunt instrument even when you apply the correction.  I can't think of a good way to compensate for the location of the plastic bit on the blade.  It needs to be *directly* on the edge bevel to be completely accurate.

Hmm ... appears to have a diamond or CBN wheel.  Other than that, no idea what it could be.

Neat!

I believe even solid sterling flatware sets have knives with plated blades, because silver is too soft to use as a cutting implement.

I agree with Rich.  The abrasive in the stone is actually aluminum oxide.  The aluminum residue on the stone is too soft to have an impact on sharpening.  If it bothers you, the first thing I'd try is the coarse side of the stone grader.

Sounds like this is going to be flatware?  If so, I'd take into consideration that people are going to be using these knives to cut on ceramic plates, which will make any knife dull very quickly.  I'd maybe go with an edge angle of 20-25° per side.  I don't think the silver plate will be an issue.  Just be careful not to scratch the flats, and dry them off right away so they don't tarnish.

Hard to say from the quote.  As a rule, the different rating systems are fairly close at the coarse end, but differ considerably at the fine end.  For example, a FEPA-F 600 grit is equivalent to FEPA-J of around 1,350.

https://www.gritomatic.com/pages/grit-chart

Are you looking at felt wheels for your Tormek, or for a buffer/grinder?  There's a huge difference between the two in terms of heat production.  A 2" wheel on the Tormek is no problem, but a 1" wheel on even a half-speed grinder heats up the blade VERY quickly.

I believe knife thinning has been standard practice among Japanese chefs for centuries.  Murray Carter studied knife making in Japan, which is probably where he picked it up. 

You can reduce the thickness behind the edge on the Tormek by sharpening at the lowest angle you can get without grinding the jig (probably around 10 dps) and then putting a standard cutting bevel on it, which is 15 dps in my case.  Or you can use the convexing feature of the KJ-45 to similar effect.  But to thin the lower third, or the whole primary grind, I think the old way is still the best way: a coarse whet stone and lots of elbow grease.