Messages

Mike,

The stone is made from 220 grit grains. The 1000 grit finish is an artificial surface produced by abrading the stone with the smooth side of the stone grader.

What isn't often explained is that there is a significant difference between a 220 grit surface that is loaded with dross and not cutting efficiently and a graded 1000 grit finish.

A stone that isn't cleaned with the grader won't remove a lot of material, similar to the graded surface, but what scratches it makes will be irregular (on a microscopic level). The 1000 grit graded finish is uniform in grain size and sharp, so it cuts the steel, rather than just rubbing it.

Bottom line is, I rarely if ever start sharpening something without using one side of the grader or the other. I want to condition the stone to do what I want it to do.

Even on chisels that are in relatively good shape, I spend a few moments using the 220 grit. This establishes a complete bevel at the jig setting. Then when I grade the stone to 1000, the fit between the grindstone and the tool is absolutely precise.

That means that the second step will take less than a minute, and then it's off to the honing wheel to produce a mirror finish on both sides of the chisel.

I keep a radius on the inside corner of my grindstone. I shape it with the stone grader and reshape it every time I use the truing tool. I use that to freehand anything that has a concave curve.

... I don't recognize the name Geoff Brown.  Please help fill this gap in my knowledge....
Ken

Geoff Brown owned the UK company which distributed Tormek for many, many years. He also represented Tormek as sales manager for the English speaking world. He still has some capacity with them, though I'm not sure what his official title is now. He was the person who first approached me about selling Tormek in 1992.

While I had a particularly high motivation (staying in business) in the first days of my Tormek experience, I would say that within 20 or 30 tools I felt pretty confident that I could make the honing wheel do anything I wanted it to do.

I also had two excellent instructors in Geoff Brown and Torgny Jansson.

http://tormek.com/media/268468/wet_or_dry_en.pdf

I'm not going to comment on any other author's methods or writings. As far as using a Tormek goes, if you take the edge off with the honing wheel, you did something wrong. It's easy to do, but it's also easy to correct. You're bringing the angle too high. The solution is to not bring the angle too high. 

Think about it this way. there's no penalty whatsoever for having the angle too flat, so always err in that direction.  Start flat and carefully bring the angle up until the edge just gets to the leather. Kiss the edge, don't maul it.

Particularly interesting about Tormek compound is that it contains nearly equal parts 1, 2, and 3 micron abrasive. When the 3 micron particles break down, the 2 micron particles take over, and when the 2 micron particles break down, the 1 micron particles take over. If you experiment with different compounds (I have...quite a bit) you'll find other compounds that will leave a surface as polished as Tormek compound, and you'll find some that cut as fast as Tormek compound, but you won't find the combination of fast cut and fine finish.

So when you say skews etc benefit from a really fine edge....I'm not entirely sure what you mean?  Point being that a 320 grit finish with no discernible tool marks is "good enough" to commence sanding.  You're not saying that you can avoid sanding altogether are you?

That's exactly what I'm saying. On long grain projects (trunk of tree parallel to lathe bed) I rarely if ever sand.

Also I would be interested in your perspective on Mike's point about how long that hard won edge actually lasts.  I appreciate a fine edge will mean longer between sharpenings but surely you would agree that edge will be quickly "normalised" when used in turning?

In a week long class at Craft Supplies in Provo three of us were sharpening with Tormek and 5 guys were sharpening with dry grinders and Wolverine jigs. I encouraged the other two guys (who didn't know beforehand that I was going to be there) to take their skews and spindle gouges to a polish. We sharpened once to the dry grinders' three times and spent about 1/3 the time sanding that they did. That's over a week, doing both spindles and bowls. Made a couple converts that week.

Plus....Jeff...now be honest...you always defend the Tormek way......go on admit it 

Not entirely true. Tormek would prefer that I promote the use of the jigs when honing, which I rarely do, preferring freehand honing. Similarly, I find the use of jigs for small knives and axes to be cumbersome, and say so. These are just a couple examples of where my advice strays from "the company line".

I'm going to offer a dissenting opinion on honing and turning. While it isn't something widely practiced, it has certain applications where it offers an advantage. Specifically, skews and detail gouges really benefit from a highly polished surface. I also polish the top side of my scrapers to a mirror finish and then sharpen the bevel with the stone graded fine. The finer the edge on your scraper, the finer the finish will be on your stock.

Well, if you can put an edge on those Pakistani blades, you're a better man than me. I've tried for 20 years and cringe every time some one hands me one. The only demos on other people's tools I was ever unsuccessful in were Pakistani knives.

Frost's can be quite good, though.

Mike,

You had a "/" before img at the start. That's the "off switch" for html code. "" tells it the address is over. I took it out, and it works fine!

A related question for Jeff Farris:  In your years demonstrating the Tormek on the road, did you ever wear out a honing wheel?

Ken,

No, and I'm not sure it's practically possible. The leather is simply a carrier for the cutting medium (the paste). Short of environmental exposure (leaving it out in a baking sun or a driving rain) I can't imagine "wearing out" the leather wheel.

You are most definitely NOT correct. The split point is ideal for metal drilling. It is very resistant to skating off the mark.

I've never tried it. It doesn't seem like it would adapt to the horizontal base very well.

Just a couple notes on quenching.

If the tool is high speed steel, don't quench, even if you turn it cherry red. Quenching makes HSS brittle and you'll get micro-fractures in the steel.  It won't actually "crack", but its edge durability will be damaged.

In normal tool steels, if you quench after the tool turns blue, you've probably lost the temper of the tool edge already. Quench to prevent the tool from heating up in the first place, not after the damage is done.