Messages

Rjje,

I agree with John. Support's email address is:
[email protected].

Keep us posted.

Ken

Welcome to the forum, Ballacado. My first question is, do you drink this water? If not, why would you allow it to be used in your Tormek?

I apologize if this sounds harsh; it just looks like your employees have seriously abused your Tormek. I suggest you email your question and photos to support
([email protected]).

Good luck.

Ken

I stumbled upon this video. (I like Barlows.)

https://youtu.be/sGFhI47JCfU?is=owUwwJ3IgPNhsPOn

Rich,
My gut feeling agrees with yours. I also feel your design will be less prone to falling wheels.
Ken

Well done, Kwakster! A labor of love which has produced a worthy knife.

I'm curious as to how you resolved the earlier problem with your photos.

Ken

One of our members alerted me about the problem with the photos. I have contacted Tormek IT and will keep the forum posted. I recall a similar situation several years ago when another platform switched to fee only.

Ken

Like many of us, I experienced frozen EZYlock several years ago. I finally resorted to using my Channelocks. I was fortunate that my problem was fixed without damaging my grinding wheel. (This is NOT a recommendation to use Channelocks!)

I have always been careful in not leaving my grinding wheel in the water trough. Also, I always remove my grinding wheel after each sharpening session. Having noticed several posts with this problem over the years, I emailed Mats in support. Mats is Tormek employee number six. With his years of experience and dedication, I believe that no one understands the Tormek more than he does.

Mats devised a series of tests to determine what might make the EZYlock fail. With no grease on the spacer, he could get an occasional EZYlock failure. With a light coating of grease on the face of the spacer FACING AWAY FROM THE GRINDING WHEEL, he could not produce a failure. I believe this is the key to unlocking the problem.

For those who do not remove the grinding wheel regularly, I suggest loosening the EZYlock before each sharpening session. This starts each session with no residual thread resistance.

Ken

See more details in Tormek General subforum.

Ken

I received an email today from Sharpening Supplies advising me about a limited time 10% sale on T8 and some T1.

Ken

Tgbto,

I agree that the KS123 is very useful for low volume sharpening, which, I suspect, is what most of us really do.

My question is, if the KS123 is not satisfactory for high volume such as "weekend warrior" farmers market sharpeners, what is satisfactory? Remembering designing the kenjig, the two major components of sharpening were the grinding wheel and the knife set up. Any modification to either could not negatively impact the quality of the sharpening.

The kenjig is not limited to just one bevel angle. setting up for more than one angle just requires making extra jigs. This is no big deal, either is construction time or cost. It will lengthen then sharpening time somewhat.

The real time constraint is the variety in the width of knives. Wein the real world, where most customers will bring in knives of varying widths.

Ken

Good question, Bobi.

Here is how I solved the riddle with my T2: While the angle setter on theT2 (and T1) may seem problematic, once you figure it out, it is really quite simple. Don't worry about breaking it or putting it together incorrectly. Take it apart and then reassemble it several tomes. It is actually easier than a soldier field stripping his rifle, and you have no drill sergeant looking over your shoulder.

You will master this task in a very few minutes! (If I could do it, you certainly can.)

Ken

I am always concerned with what new readers who have not yet acquired much background in Tormek sharpening will absorb from our posts. I would use the research our late member Wootz (Vadim of Knifegrinders Australia) did with the meat packing factories in Sydney. I admire Wootz and his work. However, like many other experienced forum members, Wootz' industrial sharpening schedule was far more intense than mine. I suspect the meat packing knives that Wootz sharpened were probably sharpened more often in a week than most of us do in a year. I expect our regular members to be aware of this. I am not certain that many of our new members and guests are aware of this.

Ken

To borrow a phrase from Wolfgang, making your custom of making the final adjustment by raising the microadjust will serve you well. In itself, it may not be a big deal; however, small improvements compound.

Ken

I learned a new word, "hysteresis". I have known about the effect of "thread slop" on adjusting screws for many years. I first encountered this with the depth adjusting screw of bench planes. For accurate measurement, the final step should be a slight tightening of the screw to leave some load on the threads. This situation occurs even with the adjustment wheels of high quality machinery such as metal lathes. Experienced machinists make this adjustment automatically.

The Tormek online classes mention this in passing, although they have never explained why this happens. The compensation necessity is not caused by the KS-123. It is caused by the threads of the microadjust. It is not a design defect with the microadjust; it is just the nature of the beast with adjustment screws. And, on a practical basis, it is not really a problem with Tormek sharpening, especially with good technique. Use the microadjust by lowering only for rough adjusting. Make the final, more precise adjustment only by raising it.

Ken

When I was developing the kenjig, I wanted to standardize on a single bevel angle. The kenjig was designed primarily for sharpening everyday kitchen knives. I asked Stig to suggest an angle. He suggested 15° (degrees per side). While I have occasionally experimented with 12°, based on Wootz' recommendation, 15° has remained my go to setting.

As an update, with the advent of the KS-123, I no longer use the kenjig. In my opinion, the kenjig was a sound idea. I feel the same way about the various apps. I just believe that the KS-123 is an improvement, whether we choose to vary angles or stick with our "go to" standards.

Ken