Messages

Hi,
Try again, but further back on the blade and with less pressure on the black knob.
Also check if the blade if perfectly flat.

Best,
Stig

Hi,
Looking at your pictures I see that the knife is not mounted correct in the jig. Instead of having pressure in the opening of the jaws, the knife is locked into place in the jig and that will not lock the knife properly. So the Square in the picture is where you have locked the knife into place and it should be clamped so the jaws are in contact with the blade in front, the cirkle in the picture.
When the knife is mounted in the jig like your pictures, the blade is twisted in the jig which causes your problem.

Sincerely,
Stig

Hi,
Please check that your Universal support bar is straight. There should be no problem using it as you write.
Doing as you are writing, the stone will then be wrong trued if you should sharpen a chisel towards the stones direction after you have made your adjustment with your diamond dresser.

Best,
Stig

Hi,
I would purchase equipment thats already in the market for this. I do both downhill and cross county and have some knowledge about it and It would be hard to get tip and heel of the skies sharpened correctly.

Sincerely,
Stig

Hi,
Welcome to the Forum.
Looks like a nice kit at a good price.
A short reply to your question ragarding the nylon bushings.
We have tested differnt bushings and the best solution in the long-run is our standard bushings.
Just wanted to save you some time and effort which you in the end will save many hours on.

All the best,
Stig

Hi,
I use a thin layer of compound on every tool I sharpen.
There is probably not something wrong, you just need to use more compound.
As I have written earlier, I have the machine running when I apply honing-compound, pressing the opening of the tube gently against the honigwheel and then apply compound carefully. Learning to do this is maybe the easiest way to apply compound and it works every time.
As cbwx34 writes, it brakes down under use. But mixing it with oil is not necessary, there is vax in the compound so using extra oil will not speed up things, on the contrary.

Best,
Stig

Hi all,
This also happens when the setting is to little, the the diamond don't get pressure between the stone and the housing of the TT-50 and the diamond-tip starts to vibrate.
If this happens, use the stonegraders coarse side ant flatten the stone as much as possible before using the TT-50 again. This prevents the diamond-tip to follow the tracks made earlier.

Best,
Stig

Hi,
Take it apart and wash it. When you mount it together us some WD-40/5-56 on the nut and screw.

Best,
Stig

Hi,
Vaseline works well.

Regards,
Stig

I appreciate all of your replies and suggestions. Thank you very much.
However, my point is that we are all talking about "making do". That is not acceptable. Tormek needs to offer us a solution that does not require us to "make do" on their premium, world-leading product.
Their silence is deafening by the way !!!!

Hi,
I have sent you an email.

As usual, contacting support@tormek.se is always better to get a faster answer. We have a 24h response time there. The Forum will take longer for me to check as I am often " On the run".
This Forum is a great place to get help from our experienced members when it comes to "hands on" tips and tricks and the members thoughts and skills regarding our products.

In general, water leads all kind of ways and some tools will make water to get around the machine instead of in the through. When it comes to design, there is always give and takes, there is no 100% solution for all tools you might have in a workshop. We try to make the machine and jigs to cover most of the tools that needs to be sharpened. It might come with a disadvantage as getting water-spillage for example. We have accessories for this, like the RM-533 rubbermat, that is the same mat as on the sharpening station, it will stop water getting on a table or workbench.
Or simply using a serving tray.

Best,
Stig

Most of Wusthof's knives are heat treated with HRC58.

http://www.wusthof.com/products/classic/8-cook-s-knife
http://www.wusthof.com/7-santoku-hollow-edge-1945

I know that the santoku knife is light, so there is little impact on the edge. But even so, 10 degrees per side seems to be too little. In addition, it does not meet Tormek's recommendations.

https://www.tormek.com/international/en/user-categories/knife-sharpening/

Hmmmm... that would make me wonder if they're really sharpened at 10 deg.  Be interesting to get one and check.  (What manufacturers say and do don't always agree).  Definitely would require a more delicate use.  (Also not impressed that the sharpeners they offer are the "pull through" type).

I would, like any other knife, evaluate it based on its current sharpening angle, and whether the edge is holding up.  If not, adjust accordingly.

I don't think it's a conflict of what Wusthof's says vs. what Tormek says.  Tormek is a general guideline for many knives... Wusthof is a guideline for their particular brand.  (Don't get too caught up in the numbers).   It's only been fairly recent that "Western" style knives are adopting some of the "Eastern" style attributes... lower angles being one of them.  (Could be they got only 1/2 of the equation?)

Good answer, cbwx.
There is a difference between European and US sharpening angles. Many US knife brands are using 40 degree angle as standard while European (and japanes brands made to be used in Europe) has a 30 degree angle. And this is the total angle I am referring to.
There is no easy answer how and why when it comes to knife-sharpening. I sharpen almost all knifes to 30 degree total angle when I sharpen to friends or on demos. With that said, I have a pretty good knowledge about the brands we have in Europa.

When experience starts to show, everything gets easier and you learn about the metals in the blades.

I would personally not sharpen a knife at 20 degree, I have all kind of knifes and even if some of them has 58 hrc and up to 62 hrc, i would never sharpen them at such angle. It would be very sharp but nor for a very long time.

Best,
Stig

Hi,
Since the question about thinning a blade was asked I have talked to some manufactures and sharpening business that I know, about how often this is actually done and when it's necessary.

To start with, our machines are not very suitable to thinning a knife blade. It not designed that way from the start and was not intended to actually do that. To thin a knifeblade you need a flat beltgrinder or similar, simply said, a larger flat grinding-system.

With this said, the answers I got was as I predicted, this is not common service and it will also change the knifes original design and choice of material it was made in.
A larger professional sharpening business will have machines that makes this possible but the time used doing this service and the charge for the sharpening cost is not in level.

Best,
Stig

Hi,
Mount the jig in the middle of the blade, now it closer to the tip which, and you will not have this issue.
If you sharpen knifes towards the stones direction it is not a problem and its also removes steel faster and gives less burr which is easier to remove.
Thinking of your earlier topics, this would probably help you on several levels. You will get more knifes sharpened and faster burr removal in an hourly sequence.

Best,
Stig

cbwx34,
I agree on the honingpart. In the handbook there is a picture of how to hone planeblades freehand. Same technique for knives so there is a chans for everyone to do it correctly.
And also your suggested part 4, if you are in a business with sharpening. I have done numerous demos sharpening knifes and since I don't know how they are taking care of their knifes, I go a little safe and ad some degrees so they have a sharp knife that would for me personally feel a little "stubby", still sharp though.
When I first started at Tormek I thought that knifes would be the easiest thing to sharpen. I was wrong. It took me only some knifes to get it sharp but to get a knife to look factory sharpened with a nice consistence edgeline and tip, with the correct curve, that took me a while. I have sharpened some thousand knifes over the years and feel pretty confident with it.
I must admit that I went "all in" earlier with the SJ stone and different angles on different material. These days, for me, I get a very good result with the regular stone and the honingwheel.
Its good enough. I do sometimes take the time to do some knifes with the SJ stone, not because I find it necessary but because I find it relaxing doing it.

Best,
Stig

Hi,
I don't agree at all.
If a knife get dull to quickly it's more likely that there was to much burr left on it. To then use a steel on it, if you don't know how to use it, will get it even worse.

I sharpen my knifes at home 1-2 times a year and I use the honingwheel 3-4 times to keep them in shape. There is no burr at all on them and they stay sharp better than a new expensive knife.
My opinion about steels are that there is very few "home chefs" who actually knows how to use them correctly and even highly professional chefs struggles with it. The experts are butchers and staff on fishing industries. I am now very generalistic so take no offence if you actually master this.

A SJ stone cannot make a knife dull. There is no logic in this statement.

In general, sharpening has 3 variables that needs to be considered.

1. Quality of steel on the tool being sharpened
2. Correct angle for what the tool/knife is being used for
3. A sharpening system that don't burn the edge and is consistent at getting the same angles time after time.

If a customer complains that the knife gets dull after a short while, I would have a look at the quality of steel and what angle I had put on the knife. Then ask what he or she is using the knife for so I could adjust the angle so the knife would stay sharp longer.

I am a happy hobby knife collector and have knifes in the range between $30-$500 and have to many of them. I don't put the same angle on all of them, some have harder steel and some softer so I have found what works best for us in my family. We keep our knifes in a special knife draw and handwash them every time they are used. Except my Mora kitchen knifes which I am long time testing with our dishwasher, 5 year and on going and they are still in great shape.

So when it comes to taking care of the knifes, there will be differences how long a knife will stay sharp.

Our Forum member Magnus told me a story some years ago which I found very good.

A customer who bought two expensive kitchen knifes, same model,  for his daughters for Christmas called him up and made a complaint for one of the knifes. He wanted a new on warranty because one was so dull he could hardly use it. Ha had been visiting both daughters after Christmas and found two different knifes when using them.
Magnus who are an expert in knifes asked him some questions and they found that one of the daughters was very good at keeping order in the house and taking care of things and the other daughter had completely the way around and washed the knifes in the dishwasher and had no feeling of taking care of her stuff. The father came to the conclusion that it had always been that way and said politely that there was not anything wrong with the knife, it was how it was handled.

Many times when I answer questions about our product and that there is a opinion that something is wrong, the user have not had the idea to check the quality of tools they are using. I have had jigs sent to Sweden and measured them and found them to be ok, then contacted the customer and we have discovered that the tool has been bent, burned or have metal that is way to soft (cheap tools) so therefore they have had problems getting the tools sharp or in shape.

My short answer would be : Please check the quality of the steel so you can set up an angle that will keep the knife sharp as long as possible and give the customer some advice how to take care of the knifes.

Best,
Stig