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,.. (..) ..  cutting knife has a 5/8" primary bevel on it. ...(..))..extremely high degree (70 degrees) ...(..)... common angle for these knives lies somewhere around 24 degrees so I'm uncertain if I need a different sharpening wheel ...

To quote Ken S from some of his previos posts "I'm lost..."   

Can you post a photobucket pix of this assembly ?   If i can see what your up against i might have a specific suggestion., otherwise i'd just be guessing in the dark

- Dan

Forget the wimpy little lapidary stuff... Here's what you need! ..(..)

Very Funny    !

Wimpy Lapidary?  Check this out.. an Agate Round about 4 Feet in Diameter 



and here's the big brother of the one I posted yesterday:



-and-



- Dan

How about a concrete cutoff saw? 

This gets me thinking about the saws that geologists use to slice stones. Maybe one of those could be used to slice up an old Tormek grindstone.

Sure, these are, in the lapidary world, called "Slab Saws"





it is interesting,.. but tools for lapidary are virtually un-used and virtually unknown to us folks in the world of "sharp blades" .. I have never understood why that is, as polishing, abrasives, flat surfaces, diamond pastes, etc, etc, ..are, in Lapidary,  very well developed technology.  We would do well to have a look around there 



-Dan

..() I have a Filipino martial arts school that trains specifically in knife fighting. They have many knives with these funky type of blades.
...

Thanks for the picture, that helps a lot..!!  You have there a  Karambit  style blade.  If you only have this one and you are going to just keep it sharp for your own purposes, in other words you are not going to volunteer to sharpen all 100 such blades in use by each of the 100 other members of your martial Arts School  , I would suggest you just use a set of Norton Slip Stones and Hand Sharpen the blade.  Available for $9 bucks from:  http://www.sharpeningsupplies.com/Norton-India-Round-Edge-Slip-Stone-P180.aspx

If you want to use the Tormek then for about $60 bucks you can get a Tormek Profiled Leather Wheel
Item #: TOR-LA120, these have two standard discs have a radius of 3 mm (1/8") and a 60 degree tip. The set of optional narrow discs have a radius of 2 mm (3/32") and a 45º tip. These smaller disc profiles permit the honing of small carving tools with very narrow profiles. The diameter of the larger wheel has been increased from 100 mm (4") to 120 mm (4¾"), which speeds up the honing process.  I think they would work very well on your  Karambit ,  You might have to experiment removing the large main leather wheel to allow for clearance when grinding the curves on your blade,  But remember that you have a very small folder there and you can easily remove the pivot screw and disassemble the folder, then manipulate the blade without the folder handle interfering with the sharpening operation. Also, You might want to experiment with various heavy diamond grit pastes on the leather.. .. WE sells an assortment of these pastes for only $6 a tube, which is a real bargin.   The Stock supplied paste that comes with the Tormek will not have the right cutting action to sharpen these blades, although it would be possible to use it but, I would suggest Dia pastes, far faster, and more suited to the job.

Yes, if you want to use the WE system you will have to buy or fab special curved paddles, and unless you already own a WE you will be in it far more $$$ than you would want. 



Hope this helps  -Dan

Kenny, you lost me.
....(...)
What is it that you need to do that can't be done with the Tormek and can be done with the wicked edge? The wicked edge looks like a clever concept for sharpening knives. I don't have any criticisms of it for that purpose. The one claim I would question is that any employee could quickly be trained to sharpen knives in just a few minutes. This may be so, but I would be reluctant to trust "any employee" with my good Henckel knives.

The Tormek can certainly sharpen knives. It can also sharpen almost any tool in the shop or home. The wicked edge may well be a superb tool for knives, but I don't see where it can sharpen anything else.

Ken

Ken,

I understand your frustration with the OP, .. I read and re-read his post several times, and I think the issue is that he has not specifically told us what exactly this "curved blade" is that he has. Is it a hawk bill or  recurved blade?  Or is it a knife with the bevel on the outside of a circle like a Pizza Cutter ?   We need to know more about what he is up against. Maybe he can post a photobucket picture for us.  That would help a lot to unscramble the issue.   If he just wants a quick inexpensive fix then a Norton India Slip Stone will get him going if the knife is a recurve type.

I can not resist making a editorial comment on your comment on the Wicked Edge system:   I own both Wicked Edge and Tormek and after 50+ years of sharpening everything in sight (I started, like many of us at my Fathers side in his woodworking shop when I was barely tall enough to peek over the bench!) I just want to observe that it's a case of  "different tools for different jobs" ..  You are right the WE is specifically for knife blades, and the Tormek is a broad range commercial device for many other cutting tools besides just knife blades.

But the WE system has found a home with the dedicated bunch of us (all of us have a little OS in our hearts, ie.e Obsessive Sharpeners!), we use the WE system to Diamond micro polish Custom Blades from the "world of Art-Knife Makers", and also to experiment with blades where the goal is to sharpen well into and beyond the range of microtomes.  For that it is suited very well, and, to be honest, the Tormek is really not designed to play in that ball game.  That is not a "knock" on Tormek, it is just a statement of fact.  Tormek outstrips the WE system in so many other regards, and it is so perfectly suited to certain jobs for which it s designed, that it it rates a 5 Star in its world and when used within its reach.  But, just the same in the world of Custom Art Knives and "OS" the WE is also 5 Stars. To give you an idea how insane it gets: I have mounted optically flat glass plates on my WE and  used 0.25 micron Diamond paste. Trust me, the result is sharper than what you can get on a Tormek.

Again, I have both systems, use each one where it is appropriate for the job, and am very happy that both Tormek and WE exist, so that I can play in the world of sharp things!   

-Dan

PS:  I know Clay personally, and don't be bothered by "marketing verbage".. Yes of course the learning curve on a WE is very steep, and not just any employee can use it!  Clay is doing the best he can to survive with his little venture in a very competitive world, and sometimes to goal is to just "sell a few units".. That's a sad comment on the world we live in, please do not hold it against WE.. .thanks for understanding..