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This thing was a game changer for me. It's so much quicker and more fun to sharpen knives since I got it. KS-123 made me sell my diamond stone, invest in a second machine. It is very nice not having to remove either the stone or the honing wheel.

I'm a tormek newbie and would say that my SP-650 is very young. I have noticed that it takes longer to achieve low grit than it did when it was new. The fine side still seem to be as effective as it was when it was new. I can clearly see the ..snip ...............snip..
SP-650 might be the best allround grader in the long run, but when it comes to sharpen and re profiling knives with 58-60 HRC, the 150 grit diamond stone has been great.

 I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

Thanks!

I think you are correct.

A couple of things you can try with your SP-650... I've roughed mine up using a nail or an old screwdriver, just scraping the surface to freshen it.  You can also use the edge of the stone for the last few seconds of grading... just rotate it a little until the edge is making contact with the wheel.

But several on here have used diamond stones to grade the stone with good results.

Thanks for the reply! Yes that's exactly what I did, using the edge to make it a little more aggressive again!

I guess you would recondition the conditioner as you would any whet stone, so a diamond plate, as CB suggested, or you could use sic powder or playground sand on a glass or granite plate.

Great tip, I'll try that, thanks!

I'm a tormek newbie and would say that my SP-650 is very young. I have noticed that it takes longer to achieve low grit than it did when it was new. The fine side still seem to be as effective as it was when it was new. I can clearly see the coarse side of the SG is getting more shiny. Is there a easy way to get the rough side back?

I have a 8" 150 grit diamond plate that I got from a respectable knife shop in Stockholm. This shop sells fancy kitchen knives and Shapton stones and the 150 grit diamond stones is for stone flattening. The thing is that it is way more effective than the coarse side of SP-650. I apply very light pressure  when grading and the result is really good. It seem to hold up well for this particular use, way better than my DMT DiaSharp stone, that got big shiny spot when it touched the SG-250. Im very skeptical towards DMT after this.

I suspect that the light pressure used with my diamond stone doesn't get me all the way to 360 grit, but very swift to maybe 5-600 grit. This might sound strange, but even if the result from the diamond stone gives somewhat higher grit, it feel so much more aggressive, in a good way, compared to what i get with a new SP-650.

SP-650 might be the best allround grader in the long run, but when it comes to sharpen and re profiling knives with 58-60 HRC, the 150 grit diamond stone has been great.

 I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

Thanks!

Looks good (what did it look like before?)... you should post how you did it.

You're right.

I feel a little stupid really, since i'm just a hobbyist but i got an impulse last week and purchased a T8. My plan was to sell my T4 and my DF-200. But instead i moved the T8 honing wheel and MB-102 to my T4 and i was sold, since i mostly sharpen knives.

It's even more fun when i don't have to lift off the stone while honing.

The T8 Org isn't cheap, but i must say that it is for the most part a better deal than T4 Org. I do love the water trough lift, so convenient and the wider stone area 50 mm instead of 40 mm makes a big difference.

Also the footprint isn't much larger than the T4.

EDIT:
I just made this - Mora Tanto. For the things I use this kind of knife for, I do think I'll prefer the tip like this.

Maybe super obvious, but I always make sure to grade the stone to "fine" and practice I a couple of passes with tricky blades.

I wish that the above was true, as late as yesterday I messed up this kind of knife, and that was after I made a quick pass with the stone truer. 200 grit maybe? The knife looks really bad.

If you want to work with an angle cube to set grinding angles, this little simple tool "zeroing plate" might be helpful.
No mathematical formulas or programs are needed, nor measurement of usb height.

I think this topic has been up in the forum before but I don't think I've seen this method.
As a result of working with the "Black edition" protractor, some ideas emerged that have resulted in, for example, this small tool.
It's almost the same principle as the Knife Angle Setter, three points on the wheel, but instead of a graduated scale I use a Digital Angle Cube.
... SNIP...
It consists of four parts that are easy to 3-d print if you have access to a 3d printer, of course.
And one of them is of course my favorite The T-Cube.

The simple zeroing plate works well directly with the SE-77 and with the T-cube the knife jigs also work well, such as KJ-45 and KJ-140.
Of course, you have to do the procedure a few times as I described in the pdf file because the zero position moves when you adjust the usb support,
... SNIP...

Don't forget to give a "plåster" to your customers in case they need to feel how sharp the knife became after your work.

Wow that's brilliant!

Önskar att jag hade kommit på det bara..

Old thread alert.

I found it when searching for full flat grind and KJ-45. I have some issues with KJ-45 when it comes to knives that tapers off, like spyderco knives but also fillet knives since the blade height(?) is so small, hope you anderstand what I mean. Blades like that has so much taper so that the jig can't get a good grip, besides the problem with the blade resting towards on side of the jig, giving uneven bevels.

My workaround have been various tiny wedges in plastic, metal and wood where the latter have had the best grip, one on each side.


Do you have any tips when it comes to clamp knives with a more aggressive taper? KJ-can handle a bit of taper but I have many knives where I have to use wedges to get a decent grip.

Did the former jig have the same problem?

I don't know if it's possible, but replacing the No 3 screw for a longer one could be an option.  Even if it could lead to other issues like the knob touching the stone instead of the bevel of the knife.

I think it was worse on the SVM jig.

A couple of things to try... one is to make sure the rear screw (4) doesn't touch at all when setting the front screw.  The second is, you may need to loosen the front screw to get a better grip on tapered knives.  For most knives I set the front screw by loosely tightening it... stopping at the slightest pressure, then tighten the back screw.  For tapered knives I find that by loosely tightening the front screw, then backing out between 1/4 to 1 turn, then tightening the back screw, allows the clamp to better conform to the blade shape.

Also instead of wedges, try something like a thin piece of leather or rubber wrapped around the spine.

I have watched the Tormek film on the subject and on many knives it's a perfect match when making a big gap with the front screw.

Leather, I haven't tried that, will do. I have tried rubber, but only as wedges and the rubber I had was sliding when tightening the jaws.

Another thing I will look into is using an old tapered knife blade, or a small part of it, to make wedge. Even if the metal isn't quality metal, I might struggle when it comes to cutting it in smaller pieces.

Old thread alert.

I found it when searching for full flat grind and KJ-45. I have some issues with KJ-45 when it comes to knives that tapers off, like spyderco knives but also fillet knives since the blade height(?) is so small, hope you anderstand what I mean. Blades like that has so much taper so that the jig can't get a good grip, besides the problem with the blade resting towards on side of the jig, giving uneven bevels.

My workaround have been various tiny wedges in plastic, metal and wood where the latter have had the best grip, one on each side.


Do you have any tips when it comes to clamp knives with a more aggressive taper? KJ-can handle a bit of taper but I have many knives where I have to use wedges to get a decent grip.

Did the former jig have the same problem?

I don't know if it's possible, but replacing the No 3 screw for a longer one could be an option.  Even if it could lead to other issues like the knob touching the stone instead of the bevel of the knife.
 

Thanks, my frustration was channeled that way. And it does offer repeatability, but 15.5 degrees per side might be 15 degrees.

You could always check it against a calculator app, but if you're within 1/2 a degree making that from, I'm guessing pictures? Hats off.  I wouldn't worry about it.

(That level of accuracy is a bit overhyped anyway.)

To be honest, I was totally wrong about repeatability. It turned out to be far off on smaller pocket knifes. Anyhow I'm expecting a new one today.

No actually the whole sliding plastic thing with a knob and the spring.

I was so frustrated yesterday so i did some reverse engineering and build the part myself. It works, the only thing missing is the spring.

Of course i have no way to check how reliable it is but i get perfect fit when checking with the old angle meter.

Some pics:
Barbord
Styrbord

Yikes.  Yeah I guess that wasn't accidentally left in the box. 

Looks like you came up with a good temporary solution.  Congrats on the temporary solve! 

Thanks, my frustration was channeled that way. And it does offer repeatability, but 15.5 degrees per side might be 15 degrees.

I called Tormek and they will send me a new one today. That is what i call (great) SUPPORT.

This was a disappointment. After biting the bullet and getting MB-102, a second USB and the KS-123, which was out of stock in almost every shop here in Sweden, only to find out that the angle meter was delivered without the "retractable part".

Does this render the meter useless, or can I use it somehow?

Is the "retractable part" the spring?  (Can't tell for sure on the diagram.) Anyway, I'd let Tormek support know right away... to get a replacement, and also let them know if it's a production issue.  (Might check the box closely and see if it's in there.)

If it is the spring, I'd say yes, in the interim you can still use it, just slide it forward with with your thumb/finger.  Once you set the "protrusion" it's not needed anyway.  (In fact, I'm not sure the spring is needed all that much.)

No actually the whole sliding plastic thing with a knob and the spring.

I was so frustrated yesterday so i did some reverse engineering and build the part myself. It works, the only thing missing is the spring.

Of course i have no way to check how reliable it is but i get perfect fit when checking with the old angle meter.

Some pics:
Barbord
Styrbord

This was a disappointment. After biting the bullet and getting MB-102, a second USB and the KS-123, which was out of stock in almost every shop here in Sweden, only to find out that the angle meter was delivered without the "retractable part".

Does this render the meter useless, or can I use it somehow?

I am confused by "concave edges". If you mean cambering edges on plane irons (grinding back the outer edges to eliminate "plane tracks"), the SE77 is the ideal choice, as the amount of camber can be carefully controlled. Before we had the SE-77, we used the SE76 and leaned on the corners. This produced cambered edges which, if not exact, were usually close enough.

Thanks Tgbto!
Yes I should have used the term hollow grind, or is it "ground" (?), also a confusing term. Is it the same thing?
The OP really is talking about a concave edge as in ground with a wheel instead of a plate (slightly convex edge) or a belt (more pronounced convexity depending on pressure and belt slack) :

What i don't know is how well or bad planar blades is with a concave bevel? I'm currently using my works sharp belt sander for dito, which gives me a convex edge and that works great.

In theory, convex blades have a tendency to skim/pull out, concave blades will dig in. I don't think you'll notice much of a difference in practice because the convexity will not be that pronounced over the thickness of the blade.

Thank you, Ken. Yes that might be the case - me ending up with all the jigs one could get. But anything other than knifes I just sharpen for my self only and the results from the Work Sharp belt sander is absolutely good enough for my use. With Blade Grinding Attachment I get acceptable results on scissors without any jigs, so I thought I could apply the same technique on Tormnek.

But it's so nice to get rid of the noise and the metal dust from WS. Using the Tormek is calming and meditative