Michael from Denmark, a professional sharpener, employing our software for Tormek in his business, has shared his sharpness BESS scores.
His sharpening equipment includes 2 Tormeks with all grinding wheels imaginable, and a half-speed buffer with 2 slotted paper wheels for deburring, our FVB and PPC, a BESS sharpness tester, and a laser protractor. He is sharpening for restaurants in the Copenhagen airport and his area, households, scouts etc.
(http://knifegrinders.com.au/photos/Michael-knives.png)
(http://knifegrinders.com.au/photos/Michael-BESS.jpg)
Numbers in his notebook are sharpness of the knives in BESS, for comparison a new utility knife blade scores 150-200, and a disposable shaving razor under 50.
At the top are his notes on the wheels diameter, and Universal Support height for grinding and paper wheels for the knife jig set at 130mm, as calculated by our software.
Michael is very innovative, and we learn a lot from each other; later he may share with us all his method of sharpening serrated knives on grinding wheels of his own design.
An excerpt from his correspondence:
"I am in the process of contacting a teacher at the chiefs school here in Copenhagen that teaches for the chef degree and other kitchen personal...
My goal is to talk and show how knives also can be sharpened and what they should look for when having someone else to sharpen knives - a sharpening service. I have tested one other knife sharpening service to see how there result was - and as my wife said when she looked at the finished knives we got back - "Have they been sharpened?" - was her reaction to the result. She has also tried other sharpening services at work - with bad results too there. So I thought it could be fun to teach these up-coming chiefs to be more quality minded for getting their knives sharp."
Next is another page from his notebook with BESS sharpness numbers for his workload. Impressive, considering that <= 50 BESS is the shaving razor sharpness.
Michael writes:
"I've done a full workflow of sharpening 14 straight knives for a client using 4 Tormek wheels, and 2 paper wheels with 5,0 and 0,5 diamond paste on them and supports. For the fun of it and to see how well the sharpening went I measured all 14 knives. The more I measured the merrier I got. Have a look at the attached.
I just needed to share this with you to tell that following all your sharpening guidelines really pays of to follow! Thank you again for all the efforts you have used to improve the sharpening..."
(http://knifegrinders.com.au/photos/Michael_Denmark_BESS.png)
Excellent!
Thanks for sharing.
Ken
Thanks for the information.
The acronym PPC I believe refers to the Pin Pivot Collar employed to keep a consistent bevel on knives with curved edges.