Hello everyone
I wonder about the granulometry of the Tormek stone (SP200) is it possible to use another stone than the prepares (Sp650 Tormek grinding wheel) which gives a granulometry of 1000 to have a grain size finer than 1000?
If I take a 3,000 Japanese stone and rub it as the grinding wheel prepares, the fusing will be thinner.
Thanks for your answers
Tormek do offer a 5,000 grit wheel, The SJ series. You can also get higher grit wheels from third parties to fit the Tormek.
I will hand hone on a ceramic bench stone if I want a finer edge. Usually on my quality bench chisels, Japanese knives, or Plane blades for finishing work such as my smoothing planes.
I question the importance and accuracy of grit numbers with Tormek sharpening. The concept of being able to adjust the grinding surface of a single wheel finer or coarser seems very useful to me. The minimum and maximum numbers of 220 and 1000 seem a fictitious over simplification to me. I believe Tormek interjected them to make it easy for the typical user to understand with minimum/maximum thought. This seems like another example of trying to aligning Tormek wet sharpening with dry grinding and/or bench stone sharpening.
Smoother ground surfaces can be achieved by using lighter grinding pressure. Smoother honed surfaces can be obtained by moistening the composite wheel, lightening the honing pressure, or extending the honing time.
In the years since I joined this forum (2009), I have seen numerous sharpening frontiers pushed back by forum members. We still have room to grow.
Inexpensive diamond cards are a good way to expand the grit range of the non diamond Tormek grinding wheels.
Ken
Inexpensive diamond cards are a good way to expand the grit range of the non diamond Tormek grinding wheels.
Ken
Thank you, that's what I wanted to talk about. Can diamond cards give other grain sizes to the standard Tormek grinding wheel?
This is interesting.
Just being a bit hypothetical here on in.
Is it a given that the standard SG250 wheel, if graded to coarse, will gradually tend to fine if used to grind a knife?
How gradual is this?
If one was to keep grinding on and on, adjusting the USB as the stone wore down so as to maintain a constant angle.
How fine a grit on the stone could we achieve? ie original posters question?
And of course (re Ken's post) it's a bit arbitrary .
But could we ever turn an SG250 into a 10k stone?
Or are the abrasive particles 'set' to only effectively grind at the 1k mark.
I suppose I'm just waffling on and fleshing out the original posters question.
Do we really need loads of diamond or CBN wheels of different grits or do we just need a range of different grit 'cheap' diamond plates and the one SG250 stone?
Hmmmmm.
I think I need to go to bed......
Sir Amwell captured my thought: "This is interesting".
I believe the SG has several underappreciated advantages. Unlike diamond or CBN superabrasive wheels, the abrasive runs all the way through the useful range of the wheel. Yes, the wheel does need occasional truing and dressing. Or, this could be restated to saying that the SG can be trued and dressed. For the majority of the fifty years of Tormek, this was never a big deal.
Along with truing and dressing, the SG can also be reshaped. The most common uses of this feature is putting a radius on the two corners of the wheel and grinding out chips in the wheel. I now make radiused corners on my SG as part of routine mtce.
I think the Stone Grader is an essential feature. It allows one grinding wheel to serve as both a coarse and a fine wheel. I also think it was designed before superabrasive wheels were used. Our late member, Wootz, introduced using inexpensive diamond plates as a more versatile alternative. Here is a link to his video:
https://youtu.be/141hD1d1zj0?si=GiyEMIY2L1htLf03
I modified his method slightly by epoxying DMT file cards onto flat pieces of aluminum. A 24" piece from the hardware store can be cut into three pieces. Mounting this into a square edge jig keeps things square.
These diamond plates are inexpensive and available in different grits. I had no trouble resurfacing my SG smoother than "1000 grit" although 10k seems like an enjoyable pipe dream. These diamond plates work well with the SG, SJ and SB wheels. As Wootz noted, using them helps keep the wheel true longer.
Try it; I think you will like it.
Ken