hello all. i have been lurking a little b4 chiming in. i want to open a sharpening service here in the tri city area i live. i'm 99.99% sure i'm not going after the grooming/beautician shear and clipper biz. just wanna sharpen knives, scissors, hoes, hatchets/axes, etc.
i kind of did an experiment. i bought a VERY cheap tormek clone (yep, hf) with an 8 inch wheel. since i am just learning i wanted to "see" the difference between wet wheel/jigs vs freehand belt sander. i have got pretty spiffy with the belt sander, but do admit the wet wheel/jigs turns out much better work. and a WHOLE lot cleaner and quiet. after my experiment i returned my cheap clone for a refund.
am now ready to buy a "real"system. that leaves either tormek or jet and there are way to many non glowing reviews of the jet and i have never read a bad review for tormek.
so after christmas we'll be splashin in some tormek water!!
the only problem i ran into with my 8 inch wheel was trying to sharpen small pocket knives or long fillet knives with VERY narrow or thin blades. a couple times things sounded/felt funny. closer inspection confirmed i had ground away part of my jig. obviously freehanding will be a way not to have this problem. but i do like being able to tell an avid fisherman he has an exact 15 degree bevel on his prized filleting knife.
has anybody come up with a way to use the jigs on small knives? read about a guy who clamped planer blades to small knives then put that conglomeration in the jig.
any thoughts or help would be appreciated. would be REAL nice if tormek came out with a "tiny" knife jig or peripheral. hint hint capt jeff ; )
obviously the thought or question must be a little dumb? 48 views and not one response? wow. maybe i'm beginning to understand that although the tormek WILL sharpen knives its mostly intended for woodworking tools?
would have thought mr. ferris would have had at least some comments.
thanks
Use the long knife jig for fillet knives and the regular knife jig for small knives like pocket knives. Actually, I usually free hand sharpen my pocket knife. You will find that going from a belt sander to a Tormek is like going from a Yugo to a Lamborghini.