Messages

Excellent advice from everyone.  I have a few knives sitting around that I don't care too much about and will be testing the tool on.  I think I've come to see that the 220 grit is a bit much and that I can do better with the 1000, generally.  I plan on doing some maintenance later today to hopefully prevent slippage.  I'll keep looking for videos too.

I still am struggling to know how many honing passes I need on the stropping wheel.  A few of the videos I've found seem to show them just doing a few quick strokes on each side.  Other posts I read on here suggest that people neglect this step too frequently, only doing a couple passes when they should be spending more time.  I'll keep experimenting, but would love to know what folks here generally do for knives.

I have registered (thanks for that!) and have the handbook.  Actually, I have a printed copy from the guy I bought the Tormek from, it's nice, but there are some updates in the digital copy I'm reading, I think.  One area where I'm becoming confused is proper use of the angle setter.  Trying to measure my own blades' angles has me confused.  The picture implies that for some, you can set it directly to the angle, but for others you should be setting it at half, and it has to with blade thickness?  I have just been sharpening at 20 degrees on each side, hopefully that's okay.

Thanks again for your thoughts and any more to follow,
Ben

All,

Finally found a used Tormek at a great price and started sharpening some knives.  The first results were rough, but I've come around pretty well over the past few days.  I now have some knives that are definitely sharp enough to catch my thumbnail, but don't quite push-cut paper or shave my arm hair.  I'm thinking maybe it's a burr issue?  Additionally, these are fairly cheap knives so I don't know what kind of edge to expect.  That leads me to two basic questions, which I've seen somewhat answered elsewhere on the forum but can't seem to find now that I need help.

1) When I'm grading the stone, I've been told you should put quite a bit of pressure on it for a good deal of time.  I have gotten a pretty glassy finish when aiming for 1000 grit, so that seems okay.  The issue is that when I press down, it's not uncommon for the wheel to slow or even stop and the holding nut to loosen.  I take it this is not what is supposed to occur.  Maybe some maintenance is in order?

2) I've yet to figure out how much time should be spent on each step of the process.  I have been told you should always use 220 first, even if it's just really quick, but also heard that you don't really need to do that unless your edge is really lousy or nicked.  Then, I've heard that you need to really spend time on the 1000 grit (after spending a lot of time grading it), but others say that stropping on the leather wheel is often overlooked.  I know it's not a formula, but should I be spending the majority of the time on one or the other?

Thanks in advance--fun forum!  I have the planer/jointer jig and will eventually tackle those once I do some more knives and some handplanes/chisels.

Cheers,
Ben