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Instead of spinning the rectangular stones around on a carousel, it would be great if there was some sort of machine that would spin a round-shape stone against the knife instead.

Add an electric motor and some sort of holder to attach knives to during sharpening, and I think it'll be a winning combination.

I think a sharpening stone somewhere between 249mm and 251mm in diameter may work well.

Mmm, you might be on to something here,

From your post i would say that it's the overly large edge angle, although the type of plastic the cutting boards are made from could also play a role.

In contrast to what most people think a narrower edge angle lasts longer (within reason)

What i've found is that many generic stainless steel kitchen knives can handle a sharpening angle of ~25 degrees inclusive (when used with care for some time on a reasonable quality cutting board), which if then deburred on the Tormek leather wheel their apex will come out at ~30 degrees inclusive due to the "give" in the leather wheel, which will micro-convex (and thus strengthen) it just enough.
If however i find that my customer is an ignoramus/brute/Shrek/idiot then i increase my sharpening angle to ~30 inclusive,of which the apex will measure ~35 degrees inclusive after deburring.

My own rule of thumb: (the edge should be) as thin as possible, but thick enough.

The knife wielder can then use a good quality (mirror-) steel on that edge, and later maybe a good ceramic rod to prolong the knife's useful sharpness before you get a new request to perform your magic on the knives again.

The happiest customers are those that need your services the least, but most likely they will be your returning customers

The standard Paper grit Wheel using glued on ~180 to ~220 grit silicon carbide can overheat an edge only if too little wax is used while at the same time your sharpening passes are too slow.
If you avoid this i haven't experienced overheated edges, and i have a very simple process to check for that.
I've tested this on various knives (among which a few good quality Tojiro VG10 kitchen knives) well before i told Vadim about Tempilstick, which he then used to do more testing.

Pressure can also play a role; too much will be counterproductive in several ways.
I always recommend to let the Wheel do the work and use a light touch.

On my own Paper grit Wheel i later replaced the glued on silicon carbide grit with glued on diamond grit.
I have found this to work more efficiently on especially high vanadium carbide steel types, plus diamond has the added advantage of a much higher thermal conductivity compared to silicon carbide, a property which very effectively wicks heat away from the apex being sharpened and transfers it directly into the wax which dissipates it further by continuously melting & solidifying during the sharpening process.
Because diamond also has a rather low tolerance for heat you absolutely need a coolant like wax or oil.
I think CBN would be an even better choice than diamond for Paper Wheel sharpening, as it has a much higher tolerance for heat while still having a lot of thermal conductivity (though not as much as diamond)

The combination of diamond paste (which already contains oil) with certain other oils seems to combine these properties even more efficiently, especially when using progressively finer grits, which normally have a higher chance of heat build-up compared to more coarse grits.
Using Paper Wheels with diamond pastes & oil gives me highly polished edges, that also last for quite a while.

I also use my Tormek T7 fitted with an SB-250 stone quite a lot because besides being watercooled & airborne dust free it can also do a few things i can't do (as well) with Paper Wheels.

Paper Wheels with diamond paste & oil do not overheat an edge.
Vadim's research & testing also proved that.

A Paper Wheel using the standard silicon carbide grit will also not overheat an edge, provided you use enough wax on it's surface so there is  a complete coverage.
This is critical, and the wax is best applied like a crayon on a wheel that is turned by hand.

Maybe, but so far i've never felt the need to try that.

I tend to keep things fairly simple: find the current edge angle by measuring with the cut-outs in the WM200 (as close as i can anyway), destress the old edge by cutting a few times lightly into a hard silicon carbide stone (for instance the stone grader from the Tormek), color the old bevels black, and then set the small knife rest where i want to take off steel: at the exact same angle if need be, or at a somewhat smaller angle if possible.

I first talked to Wootz/Vadim when he joined this thread on Paper Wheels on the Australian Bladeforums in 2015/2016:

https://www.australianbladeforums.info/forum/have-your-say/general-blade-discussion/sharpening/24864-

Vadim was very interested in the modifications i had developed to the Paper Wheels sharpening & deburring system, and which transformed the sharpening/polishing of ceramic knives and later also high (vanadium-) carbide steel types.
Those mods involved the use of various fine diamond compounds together with certain types of dried oil to make the diamonds adhere to the Paper Wheel surface.
Vadim adopted my process to aid in his growing knife sharpening business in Australia (as did quite a few other knife people around the world), and we kept in contact over the years from time to time.

It's very sad that he departed this earth at such a relatively young age.
My impression is that if he had lived longer he would have advanced the knowledge of knife sharpening even more than he already did in the time that he had.

No,my Tormek T7 is fitted with an SB-250 Blackstone, which imo works better for various stainless steel types which also have a higher carbide content.
While D2 steel is only moderately stainless, it has quite a lot of those big & blocky chromium carbides in it's matrix, and the SB-250 stone being black silicon carbide can deal with those noticeably easier than the SG-250 stone can.
I have found the SG-250 stone to be better suited for low alloy carbon steel types.

With this home made small knife rest i only sharpen edge leading.

These vintage Artus Flex knives were resharpened on the Tormek using the home made small knife rest:

https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/vin ... e.1689441/

A friend of mine regularly carries this Chinese made Bastinelli Piccolomako clone in well hardened D2 steel with G10 grip panels, both upside down vertically or horizontally using a very simple electrical wire constuction.
He also owns the real Bastinelli model, but considers it too expensive to actually carry & use.
Very useful & unobtrusive small SD knives (certainly for the omoney: ~25 Euro), but the factory edges on these clones can be quite bad, so i recently resharpened this one on the Tormek using the small knife rest.

Also did this user Benchmade Mini-Griptilian in 20CV steel the same way on the small knife rest, and the new edge also measures ~30 degrees inclusive.

A while ago i did this user Spyderco PM2 in S30V steel on the Tormek SB-250 Blackstone using the small knife rest, then deburred on my homemade MDF wheel (actually a rim over the leather wheel), which is coated with 1.0 micron diamond paste.
The new edge measures ~30 degrees inclusive.

This user Spyderco Resilience was sharpened a while ago on the small knife rest.
In the pics there is still a bit of burring at the heel, which is also the tricky part to sharpen on this model with the small platform jig, because of the non-existing ricasso at that point in combination with the slightly protruding handle.
I had to use the edge of the stone (an SB-250 Blackstone) to get there at all, and as you can see it's not visually perfect.
After sharpening the edge was deburred freehand on the Tormek leather wheel.
The new edge measured an almost exact 30 degrees inclusive and the apex was keen enough to whittle one of my chest hairs from root-to-tip at 3 centimeters from the point of holding.

I later heard that the owner of the knife had to go to the hospital emergency room twice (!) for cutting himself rather badly with it.

In this YouTube clip inventor Herman Trivilino showcases his original small knife rest/jig/platform.
As you can see Herman uses half of the Tormek scissor jig SVX-150 as a base to attach a steel plate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcWAkQmoU8c&t=4s

Several years ago i made this small knife rest, a variant based on the original design by Tormek forum member Herman Trivilino.
Mine is being used for reprofiling/sharpening various blade shapes & sizes (flat ground is ideal, but saber ground is also possible), from the small blades in Victorinox knives up to expensive professional gyuto's with 210 mm blades.

A possible problem is that you would have to make such a knife rest yourself, as Tormek still doesn't offer something comparable.
I used a piece of Torlock cut from a Tormek SVD-110 tool rest (which remains functional afterwards btw), a few pieces of scrap aluminium & some metal screws.
A very important aspect is getting that piece of Torlock as square as possible, for which i used files and a micrometer.
With access to a precision milling machine it would be a piece of cake.

On top is a piece of 0.3 mm thin fiber-reinforced PTFE tape, which works very well for moving the blade across the platform and also to avoid scratches while doing that (up to a point)
For more blade protection i use plastic packing tape on the blade surface as well.

When used in conjunction with just enough water in the trough so that it doesn't splash the platform the tape lasts quite a while before i have to replace it with a new piece.
The lowest angle i can grind to is ~20 degrees inclusive.









Tormek SVD110 Tool Rest:

First resharpened the old edge with a Paper Wheel coated with 15 micron diamond compound to get rid of the damaged sections in the apex, then refined it just one step with a second Paper Wheel coated with 6 micron diamond compound.
The new apex can whittle a chest hair towards the hair root (this is noticeably easier than towards the point of the hair), and it also has a little more bite.
Will see how this edge finish holds up in our kitchen, as the knife is already in use again: