Messages

@ Wootz.. thank you for your honing wheel tips> The result is getting better. Still not there but better. I noticed I did not always had the knife straight on the wheel which gives me bad results. Just need some more experience with it I guess.

@cbwx34.. Thanks for the Sharpie Tip. Haven`t sharpened knives much couple of days but I am practicing with the sharpie. So every knife I can find I color the edge and try the find the angle on the Tormek. This is the reason I couldn`t resharpen my kitchen knives after making them dull. I couldn`t reproduce the same angle as the first time I sharpened the knife. So I really need to develop this skill to quickly find/reproduce the original edge bevel. Must admit I find it difficult to do.. Just have to practice more. Will get it down eventually :-)

So Tormek friends.. a little update and of course some new questions. Hope y`all don`t mind.

As I gain more confidence the bevels get more smoother and better looking overall. That part is going okay and it improves with every knife thankfully.
Now today I got a bit confused. I sharpened a chef knife (cheap) and got it razorsharp. Went on to the next knife. Did all the steps looked beautiful (edge wise) tried it on a piece of paper and it couldn`t cut anything.. not even butter.(note: I sharpened this knife before and made it dull for resharpening) I figured out I used the Angel Master wrongly. Probably went from a steeper angle to a wider angle so I need to focus on the angle master more.

Some other thing that I thought was weird (most likely to my misunderstanding or wrongfully using the machine) I noticed when skipping the honing wheel and went straight for my stropping paddle with very fine compound the knife was MUCH sharper. So I think I use the honing wheel wrong perhaps. Used a bit extra oil AFTER I put on the Tormek compound because it looked so dry. Awfull thing to do I read in other topics. So later on I thought wait a minute what if I put a bit of extra fine compound on the honing wheel (same as I use on my leather paddle) results got a bit better but I think I now made all the mistakes one can make with a honing wheel and have to buy a new one. Well.. first stone and honing wheel I offer to the learning process than 

Below some pics of my progress on the Tormek

@ cbwx34 Thank you for your advice and help!

So last night I had my second go with the Tormek and I must say I think I really managed to sharpen a knife. When first time using the Tormek I was very tensed and in my head it had to succeed on my first attempt. Well that seldomly works. So I loosened up a bit and changed my attitude and got in a more "Zen" state if you will.
Tried my old chef knife but I could hear the wheel with every spin eating the blade at a certain point so I thought I had to true my stone in order to progress.. I made 2 short youtube clips about that, before and after:

https://youtu.be/U_l57W_9520

https://youtu.be/ZBEYaOp4SDQ

Now that the wheel was OK I took off.. Used the Anglemaster (more) correctly and sharpened away. The trick for me was very little pressure and a fluid motion. One thing I noticed was that I had a hard time raising the burr with the finer gritt. I prepared the stone coarse with the grader and the burr came almost instantly. After raising the burr on one side I flipped the blade. After getting the buur on both side I gave it a couple VERY light passes on both sides so that I couldn`t feel the burr anymore. Then I used the honing wheel. Now after using the honing wheel it was sharp but after I gave it a few strops on my stropping paddle with very fine compound the knife really took off and it got hair popping sharp.
So all in all a rather succesfull evening and with time I know for sure now the results will get better and more persistent.
Well.. till next update! :-)

No doubt you will get the hang of it much faster than you suspect.

Maybe a good place to start is to understand how the stone grader affects the wheel.  There is a big difference between an aggressive wheel made coarse with the rough side of the stone grader, and a glass like smooth wheel created by using the smooth side of the stone grader. 

Possibly dress the wheel with the rough side of the stone grader and grind away on some junker knife.  Experiment with different pressure when sharpening.  Then dress the wheel perfectly smooth with the smooth side of the stone grader and do the same thing.  No doubt you will notice a big difference!

Everybody here went through the same thing at some point, and everybody here enjoys helping and answering questions.   Before you know it using your Tormek will seem easy.   

Thank you, will experiment with the stone grader for sure.

Can I ask another question?

I was having doubts yesterday using the anglemaster correctly. Does the plastic part that you use to set the angle need to touch the stone and the blade of the knife altogether? (see pictures) Or do you set that part of the anglemaster on the blade itself without touching the stone? Also when sharpening a long thin flexible blade (see in picture orange handle) it seems impossible to find the angle. So because it`s a sort of filet knife you set in on say 12.5% on the anglemaster?

Another question. How to set the knife correctly in the jig? Does the end of the jig (the part that actually holds the knife) needs to be parallel to the back/shoulder of the blade or should it be parallel to the cutting edge? (see pictures)

Lot`s of questions.. sorry about that.

Also when I set the universal support bar almost touching the stone and you can only see a little light shining through and I spin the wheel I can see the stone is higher on one part. Does this mean it`s time to truing my stone?

Thanks all :-)

https://photos.app.goo.gl/lVLd3N6mWpr8Jwt13

https://photos.app.goo.gl/UVNy2v1hD4NDvc533

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Cv1SRkyeom3nOl7P2

https://photos.app.goo.gl/xRn5wicuyvKMBOJk2

https://photos.app.goo.gl/omiYi38H8YXbHU1j2

https://photos.app.goo.gl/wlt2WUjmPh3OIpDO2

It`s standing on the dinner table now looking at me, and I`m eyeballing back of course. Saturday is my day off and going to give it a go.

Wow!  Congrats!

Bet you can't hold off until Saturday...   

You are right! Just did my first kitchen knife and almost made it kukri knife lol
Ooh well can`t be bothered part of the fun. Think I used way to much pressure and DIDN`T read the manual.

Going to read now :-)

Well what happened today was the following.. I went to see a store which sells Tormek. Talked to the owner and asked if I could get a little demo. After getting everything explained (already knew the most but nice to hear it from another) he asked what I`m gonna use it for mostly.. and I said strictly knife sharpening. He said in that case I`ll make you a deal. He kept the chisel jig which comes with the T8 in the box and gave me the 2 knive jigs brand new (see photo) and a bit extra discount as well. Thought it was a bit of a now or never moment and bit the bullet.
It`s standing on the dinner table now looking at me, and I`m eyeballing back of course. Saturday is my day off and going to give it a go. There`s a nice DVD in the box and a rather thick manual that I will be studying intensively

So Ken I am absolutely not neglecting your advise to start off with a chisel but this came on my way so to speak. Sorry about that..

Thanks all again for all the input and I WILL keep you posted on things.

Wow, I have never had a welcome this big on any board. Thank you all for your input and advice. I`m going to follow up on all. I thought I had to learn a lot with sharpening on waterstones but sharpening on the Tormek is at least evenly demanding. I think I`m going to give myself a good year to really get the Tormek and all of its ways. I have no illusion I have it all figured out in a month.
Maybe I can even find a sort of mentor who can show me some techniques first hand later down the road.

For now I`ll be studying the forum and its the wonderful posts. Again thanks for the welcome and the words of advice.

Hi Tormek people and fans,

My name is Tom and I`m from the Netherlands. I have an obsession with sharpening knives which I incurred the last year. Started with sharpening on water stones and really like it. Not the best at it but I can make a kitchen knife hair shaving sharp. Now I have sharpened most of my friends knives and would like to take it to the next step. I enjoy sharpening so much that I`m thinking of the idea of charging people for it and be a bit more serious about it overall. Now I have watched hours on end on Tormek videos on youtube the last year and I really need that machine. Not really really but I have to give myself a valid reason to buy one. That`s why I thought I could make some money with the Tormek. What is you guys take on that?
There are some "old school" sharpeners here in the Netherlands but they mostly use those big old wheel grinders freehand and are not even water cooled. Not saying I can do a better job but would already be happy if I can deliver the same quality.
I understand learning the Tormek would take time. I already have lots of questions and hope you nice people can help me with that in the near future. Willing to learn and listen.
I hope to buy the Tormek T8 next month. It`s a big investment for me and really need to save up some money. Can buy the T4 already but with the semi professional sharpening plans I thought it would be a good idea to go for the T8.
Well that was it in a nutshell. Thank you for your time and sorry for the bad English.

Tom