Hi all.
After a couple of weeks with the Tormek T8 and the stock SG-250 wheel I'm finding there to be one frustration I didn't have with the Work Sharp 3000 and that's the wire edge.
On the T8 I sharpen my gouges with the direction of rotation which gives is a substantial (>0.5mm) edge that's super hard to detect by hand until I use the gouge and it chips within a few cuts. Looking at this http://bessex.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=372 amazing thread has helped me understand the problem much better, but I still have some questions.
Currently I'm finding that to finish a gouge I'm regularly alternating between fine metal removal with the 1000 grit and power stropping (with my homemade tool as the leather on the Tormek is too slow) the inside and outside edge at 1-2 degrees to get rid of that wire. This works well, but I feel I'm not gaining maximal sharpness here due to the very slight rounding of the edge you get with a strop.
On the WS 3000 my trick was to raise the blade at about 2 degrees and hone with a 3000 grit perpendicular to the direction of rotation. This achieved an extremely small but incredibly sharp micro-bevel that subsequently didn't need stropping with the leather and so kept its wedge profile. So I wonder:
After a couple of weeks with the Tormek T8 and the stock SG-250 wheel I'm finding there to be one frustration I didn't have with the Work Sharp 3000 and that's the wire edge.
On the T8 I sharpen my gouges with the direction of rotation which gives is a substantial (>0.5mm) edge that's super hard to detect by hand until I use the gouge and it chips within a few cuts. Looking at this http://bessex.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=372 amazing thread has helped me understand the problem much better, but I still have some questions.
Currently I'm finding that to finish a gouge I'm regularly alternating between fine metal removal with the 1000 grit and power stropping (with my homemade tool as the leather on the Tormek is too slow) the inside and outside edge at 1-2 degrees to get rid of that wire. This works well, but I feel I'm not gaining maximal sharpness here due to the very slight rounding of the edge you get with a strop.
On the WS 3000 my trick was to raise the blade at about 2 degrees and hone with a 3000 grit perpendicular to the direction of rotation. This achieved an extremely small but incredibly sharp micro-bevel that subsequently didn't need stropping with the leather and so kept its wedge profile. So I wonder:
- Could I (should I?) add this micro-bevel with the SJ-250 as my final finishing operation (as well as using it to polish the rest of the edge as the smoother the surface the better for carving gouges)
- would the DE-250 be an alternative or is it too coarse?