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kb0rvo
The photos show exactly what I term as primary & back bevels the better quality Japanese knives - hardness around 60 > have a primary bevel of 15˚ on each face so 30˚ total and I usually thin them with a back bevel of 10˚ total 20˚ although it would be desirable to do an even finer back bevel angle . The one sided edges such as on Yanagibas are around 30˚for the primary cutting edge and then 20˚ for the back bevel . The other side of these knives are hollow ground and whilst sharpening it is necessary to remove the burr by laying this side on a flat stone (flat) and running it gentle over the stone to remove the burr.

I have been looking at making an HK-50 possible out of some aluminium plate depending on what I can find since I spent a long time putting a back bevel on a couple of Japanese knives that were well used and had not been sharpened at the right angles for a long time it took over an hour to put a the back bevel on them with an "Edge Pro" where as I am certain I could vastly reduce that time using a Tormec with an HK-50 set up.
I like to use the edge pro for the primary bevels and often run the blade on the leather wheel to finish then off .

Since I charge to sharpen I find in general sharpening knives on the Tormec can easily go wrong but if a knife needs a repair or real tapering the Tormec would be my choice. I suspect I will use the Tormec a lot more once I have fabricated a good HK-50.     

Does the small knife jig allow for shallow bevels since many Japanese knives have a cutting bevel of 15˚and should they need a secondary bevel to keep the main bevel narrow it is necessary to do this at 10˚? 
I have seen the simple homemade jig that Herman Trivilino has made the so called (HK-50) that can aid these small angles and I am thinking that this will definitely deliver such angles .
The new Tormek SVM-00 would be great for re-edging small knives but I am not convinced about how shallow a bevel is possible with this?
Has anyone put the SVM-00 through tests on really shallow bevels such as the ones I mention  ?

I think I have cracked it now ! I centred the knife holder over the dip then I made sure it ran parallel with the desired profile and let it softly go onto the stone making sure everything was square on the resting bar then I concentrated on the rises (I raised the sharpening angle dramatically somewhere around 50˚) and I checked the progress after each pass-eventully getting a good flat profile . The next step was to lower the angle back to 17˚ and get the edge back .
The one thing I just cannot do and I think this is a limitation of the bit is to put a secondary bevel on the blade to effectively thin the blade to the primary bevel .
So out comes the Edge Pro and I put a secondary bevel of something like 10˚ ( the calibrations stop at 13˚) then I went back to the Tormek and honed the blade on the leather wheel.
This secondary bevel means that the amount of blade on the cutting edge is cut down so resharpening is a lot quicker and the knife has a better entry for cutting deep.

I am very pleased with both the Tormek and the Edge Pro since both have their strong points and there is a common ground between the two. The Edge Pro will cope with very curved or small blades and small scissors  but is not very good for chisels or for big repairs on a blade the Tormek is much better for that and a host of other tools .

So apart from fine serrated blades I feel pretty well covered (although it is possible to put a very fine bevel on the back of a serrated blade again I think more a job for the Edge Pro)

As for serrations I think unless one wants to spend huge amounts for an occasional thing I will make do with what I have.

One happy Tormek owner!

One thing I find hard to do is to remove hollows in blades ; kitchen knives are particularly prone to a hollow just forward of the handle particularly if they have been sharpened by a steel. I have not had the Tormek very long and as yet I find keeping a straight edge leading up to the curve for the point one of the hardest things to do .
To date the easiest way I have found to true the edge of a blade is on a conventional stone . Does anyone have a trick that works to achieve an edge that is true - just to clarify when the edge is offered up to a sheet of glass or something else similarly flat the blade is in contact with the glass until it turns up towards the point.
My attempts so far have made the hollows worse in spite of concentrating on the high spots .
Would I do better using the tool rest so that the proud spots would come into contact before the hollows? I realise that although the machine is essentially straight forward to use there are subtleties that are mastered with experience