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I really enjoy sharpening with the Tormek on the side and producing flat bevels on my chisels and plane blades. Although the diamond wheels work well for this—they're efficient and retain their shape—one does have to use the anti-rust solution (more chemicals and money down the drown) and diamonds are not the best media for sharpening laminated Japanese steel. Also, I miss the "feel" and "feedback" of the SG Waterstones.

Some time ago, Rich Colvin did some experiments in sharpening on the side of the SG Waterstones with the recently introduced MB-100 jig and photographed his results. The flat bevels sharpened on the SG Waterstones, especially the Japanese Waterston (SJ-250), look really good. No chemicals are necessary when sharpening with these stones and there's no need to worry about damaging expensive Japanese steel with Waterstones.

The main problem, of course, is that these stones will wear, hence the million-dollar question: How can one true the sides of the SG Waterstones so that they could be used for regular, flat-bevel sharpening? Could one true (lap) the stone flat on 80-grit wet/dry sandpaper attached to a large granite surface plate or large panel of float glass? Or does the wheel have to be trued on the Tormek? Does the bar of the MB-100 jig have to be parallel to the flat side of the stone when truing the stone? If so, could one attach a small diamond plate to the bar and press it against the stone to true it? Or how about attaching PSA-backed diamond abrasive to one of the flat tool holders, which would be attached to the MB-100, and pressing this against the stone?

I would be grateful for any suggestions on how to accomplish this task so I can enjoy the results that Rich achieved on a regular basis.

Yours on the path to sharpening nirvana,
sweet_strings

I'm really excited by the Tormek's new ability to sharpen on the side of the grinding wheel and get a flat grind on my plane blades and chisels. Considering that the side of the wheel is a flat reference surface, is there any way one can set the grinding angle accurately & easily with one of the new, small digital angle guides? Would something like this Fowler mini-Mag Plus Protractor, which can measure angles at 360 degrees (4 X 90), do the trick?

http://www.fowlerprecision.com/Products/Electronic-Protractors/Fowler-mini-Mag-PLUS-Protractor-54-422-500-0.html

Thanks for your considerate help.
sweet_strings

Would someone kindly recommend a good, precision machinist square that will enable me to keep my plane blades and chisels in the Squre Edge-77 jig while checking my progress towards square? I often sharpen blades that are wider than 2 3/8", such as the No. 8 plane blade (2 5/8") and No. 80 Scraper Plane blade (2 3/4"), and I'm a looking for a machinist square that can check a blade at least 3" long (from the inner edge of the stock to the end of the square's blade).

The stock part of the square should not be too long, however, otherwise it will run into the jig. This is especially true when checking the sharpening of short blades or ones with higher angles (e.g., 40 degrees or more) that require shorter protrusions out of the SE-77 jig. Ideally, the stock part of the square should be less than an inch long, or would be made of a material I could cut down to size if necessary.

I'm getting tired of having to remove the blade from the SE-77 jig every time I wish to check my progress for square.

Any suggestions?

Thanks for your help.
Chris