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I would tend to agree with JVH. Most of the blades we intend to sharpen are not a knife blank, and even in this case we would probably try not to grind through the axis. So whether the blade is extremely thin or thick will not matter with regard to the grind angle... as long as the blade is centered in the jig.

The only actual effect due to blade width that I can see today is the effect on the assymetry of the grind due to the assymetry of the jig.

As I don't have jvh's machinery skills, I am more thinking of drilling through the jig handle close and parallel to the axis and setting a blind nut which would allow me to correct by adding just enough offset on the long side to make sure the knife sits on the laser line on both sides. It is probably not perfect but it is the only doable thing I can think of with my skills, the excentric bushing and the like being out of my league.

Here we are: I modified the jig, and the instructions are idiotproof enough that I managed to do it with a basic drill press.

So it just works, what can I say. I think it will be hard to achieve the same level of precision that we do for conical drill bits, because there are many shapes and angles of brad point bits, no template to measure them nor scale on the modified plate.

But I was able to take a cheapo drill bit to a level of sharpness it had never seen, and the resulting hole is round, precise and not noticeably wider than the bit. All that on the SB wheel, in less time than it takes to write this post.

IT takes a bit of eyeballing/fiddling with the jig to get both the face angle and the point angle right. The way I did it was : set a rough estimate of the relief angle first, then adjust the sliding knob to get a reasonable fit for the point, then adjust the relief angle more precisely, and so on. I went very slowly with the depth adjustment screw because it now not only controls the amount of metal you remove from the bit but also the height of the tip. The alignment with the marks needs to be done so that they are perpendicular to the expected faces of the point (if they're not, see picture ^^). I don't believe it is possible to have the exact same angles as the original ones, but it will be close enough that nobody will notice.

[EDIT] Using the flip-flop feature of the DBS-22 no longer guarantees symmetry, but a collar stop on the universal support could do the trick [/EDIT]

Cheers,

Nick.

Hello, 

I'm in the process of trying to see if I can 3D-print these brilliant jigs, as I am no machinist, nor do I have easy access to one.

Regarding the bearings, I understand they will make the jig much more wear-resistant, but I was wondering, as I do not sharpen hundreds of knives a year : what if I 3d-printed the circular part protruding from the bottom as part of the plate ? The cost of reprinting compared to the cost of stainless bearings might make it worth a shot. Plus, I can always print the hole for the bearing axis, so I can mount some when the discs show significant wear...

Any thoughts ?

Thanks,

Nick.

Use a caliper, ruler, square (or whatever else) to get them.

jvh

Hi!  I couldn't find a decent way to measure precisely a distance such as FH... Any hints ?

Thank you for your answer! I'll practice a bit (lot?) more with blades with a pronounced curvature before I dare try it with the jig, but i'll definitely give it a try at some point...

I encountered a few jig ideas on this forum. The kenjig/hanjig seemed brilliant and simple, and each time I use them I find them even more so.

There is another category which initially I found appealing, to the point of doing a bit of welding and dremeling and the like : the collar jigs such as the one where wootz adapted a collar around the shaft to prevent lifting, or the pivot collar jig described on https://www.sharpeninghandbook.info/indexJigs.html#PivotJig. I put the latter together and installed it onto my T8. And then I realized that if I used it edge leading, and for whatever reason the blade caught on the wheel, it would be a recipe for disaster : broken knife in any event, and probably bent universal support, shattered jig or blade shards all over the place.

Do you still use such jigs ? Do you only use them edge trailing (on the FVB) ?

Cheers,

Nick.

I was on this thread as part of my binge-reading this excellent forum to otpimize my learning curve with the T8.

As can be seen on SEM images done by Todd Simpson, the chromium oxide grains, and a commercial diamond spray labelled as 0.25-micron, are close in size, both ranging from 0.15 to 0.5 microns.

The site https://www.thiers-issard.fr/fr/accessoires-de-rasoirs/79-13467-chromox.html mentions 3.6 and 2.5 micron granulometry, not .25 or .5 ... Is there some kind of breakdown of the chromox crystals that crushes them to a smaller average size ?

I was wondering, as I couldn't find any reference to it in here: Has anyone considered making some kind of customized sliding plate for the DBS-22 with the idea of sharpening small knives in mind ? I was thinking of a reusing the existing plate without the drill jig, or a couple of 3D printed parts that would slide inside the baseplate grooves, and locking nuts on top to accomodate for varying distance to the stone ?

The idea being to be able to rest/clamp the knife on the sliding plate to avoid scratches...

Same here, I had my PIN delivered before the FVB arrived.

What is "tormek-tatoo-prone"? 
[/quote]

I was referencing this : https://forum.tormek.com/index.php?topic=1568.msg6183#msg6183

Well, no worries, it was essentially a joke on my part. My personal situation is such that i'll gladly part with a reasonable amount of my money (rather than eventually die with it) if I feel it makes a difference in the end result and my technique. I guess it comes down to the time/money/effort/result compromise.

I had been trying to fix a wooden knife measuring jig but I would either have had to spend a considerable amount of time sanding, routing, glueing, dominoing, etc., which i'd rather spend sharpening knives. It speeds up my setup for each knife, I can either use it to measure the length of to set it to the now famous 139mm.

Same thing for the laser line, I feel it really gives valuable feeback, improves the end result dramatically and helps develop muscle memory for the pivoting/lfting combination. All in all, I don't regret, and I think it rather helps me spend time and concentrate on areas which deserve it, such as putting several very different types of knives to the stones and practicing on them. I have some Victorinox, Opinel and Sabatier which are good - albeit very different - candidates for my practice sessions.

...snip...
Not to hijack the thread but the rust erasers work great to clean the bottom of pots and pans where grease has cooked on.

Very true, and they even remove rust from tools left out all winter, and such...

Yup, and where I come from, we use these to remove rust from ski edges, as well as dull the tip and heel of the edges to ease turn entry and exit.

I saw a YT video wherein a guy puts a scotchbright pad lodged in the back of his water trough

The scotchbrite pad is used a lot as well for cleaning high end japanese wetstones or glass stones when mounted on blanks for edgpro-like tools.

Thank for your answers! I will modify the DBS-22 jig veeeeeeeeeery carefully and try on the SB. I will keep you posted!

Thank you for the input, I will try to do that. Do you still feel like you have a lot of control when you sharpen that way ? Or is it tormek-tatoo-prone ?

I will probably do it on a few inexpensive knives and on the SG only (not SJ) before I get back to this one !

Hello all,

I'm still getting to grips with my new T8. Today's target is a corsican knife made in the hills around Ajaccio by a renowned knifemaker (Biancucci). I have no idea what the steel is, I just know it is NOT stainless and the forging process involves tempering in ice. I'm not sure what happened to this knife, but close to the heel the bevel was shorter and the blade ground in an akward fashion.

As you can see (C1.jpg), it is a thick and bulky blade, with a high curvature in the tip area. It also has a very thick heel. I used the setup template from Jan to have a reproducible setup, and it curves upward much more quickly than the template. I also used a reference line on the stone with a laser pointer.

To make sure I didn't miss anything, I tried to first lift (airplane roll) the handle only. As expected, the edge would quickly run higher up the stone, with a very high angle (C2.jpg). I then tried to pivot (airplane yaw) the handle rather than just lift it. However, the blade being very short, and because of the flat handle on the SVM-45 jig, the distance between the blade would also increase quickly (albeit not as quickly as when only lifting). (C3.jpg)

Back to the paper template, but this time with the triangular-shaped pivot jig (C4.jpg). With a lot of pivoting and a bit of lifting, this improved dramatically. It would still get further up the wheel, but much less than before (C5.jpg). I had to reverse course at some point over the US, because the pivoting action would bring the tip closer to the edge of the wheel. And boy it ended up sharp after honing on felt/1µ diamond spray.

As you can see (C6.jpg), I did not completely correct the area where the bevel is much thinner (I'd have to remove a lot of steel, and probably reshape the heel). You will probably also notice that in the first part of the curvature, the bevel is wider. At the beginning of the pivoting action, the edge would drop for a short while below the laser line, so no surprise here.

And that had me thinking that maybe a pivot jig with a variable flat area  (if this is not clear i'll sketch something) might help. Or maybe the SVM-45 with just the handle upside-down, who knows. Or the one sold by wootz. Or maybe somehow bringing the svm-45 backwards to keep the edge on the line, no longer resting over the US, but that would be detrimental to consistency.

Well, your feedback is welcome. The tormek is not even a month old and I got kids, so we're talking a few hours of experience on it. Still, I think the compromise between speed and quality is very promising.