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Another thing that can be an annoyance is if you overfill the reservoir by raising the mechanism when it has water in it. If you do this and water is displaced above the line it will overflow and make a mess. Raising the mechanism is only needed when the wheel has become smaller due to truing. 

With my knives I have found that with very little effort I can bring the edge back on knives that have declined a bit with use. I use a fine grit (2,000 and 3,000 on one rod) and light passes to bring the edge back. Like with a whetstone it took some practice to get the angle right each time, I also find that speed does not help so I take it slow and try and maintain low pressure.

I rarely see any damage on the edge from use and I individually hand wash and dry all my knives. With this practice I am able to significantly extend the time between trips to the Tormek.

Thanks Rich for the reminder.

Now that the ground is not frozen and we have the new Gardening Tool section I have a question.

What approximate angle do hoes and shovels require for best performance and resistance to denting the edge?

I can't imagine the loupe is an improvement over the 2 I have that are at least 45 years old from Bausch and Lomb. I do need the MB-102 but have not got around to buying it.

Forum is still a bit wonky. Fails to load or sometimes I get a page with text links.

I would like to have one for mobile sharpening when I visit family or friends. Quite often I am asked to cook and carve and I travel with a knife roll and a second set of knives. More than not I am asked to sharpen my host's knives. Rather than carting them home it would be more convenient to set up shop and sharpen there. For my daughter I will exchange a couple from the roll and bring hers home for a fresh edge.

It is nice to have if you are making YouTube videos. Another use is if you are going after ultimate sharpness for some reason it gives you an idea of how various techniques work. Our library has a nice 3D printer and the clips for testing are only $21 a bag.

I came across an interesting video where the author 3D printed a knife and 3D media holder to make a DIY BESS tester. He bought test media clips from BESS and a $13 digital scale. The only downside is that his scale does not retain highest reading. I think for around double the price you can find a scale that holds the highest reading. He also provides the printer files. He uses an electric knife sharpener for demonstrating which is funny if he is going for a low reading. I may go to the library and have the pieces printed. Here is the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF_WTo-uLvg&t=360s

Glad you are on it Ken

This worked well for me:

https://forum.tormek.com/index.php/topic,5807.msg42446.html#msg42446

Sorry typo. Weekly ads. We get them from local stores in the mail. They are printed on thin newsprint. Sharp knives glide through smoothly. Use feel and hearing to detect any burr along the edge.

Thermal receipts and weekly ass printed on thin newsprint paper are also good indicators.

Some also use cigarette papers to measure sharpness.

I know it might be a bit of a pain but I am wondering how a tethered image from my 25MP Nikon D750 would look on my HD monitor. 25MP allows me to zoom in on details without loss of image quality. I have a nice macro lens that would work well.

One word of caution with the inexpensive USB microscopes is that most are not compatible with your phone last time I looked at them.

I think many users worry unnecessarily about consuming the SG-250. When I have knives that need more material removed I do not hesitate in using the coarse side of the grading stone. I also in the camp that trues the stone fairly often rather than letting it go and removing a lot of material less often. Unless you are using a dial indicator to measure runout it is often hard to detect an out of round condition.

When chasing the sharpest edge I personally look at whose knife it is that I am sharpening. It is not too difficult to obtain an edge that is better than almost every out of the box knife. This can be achieved with the SG-250 and leather wheel. For my knives and a couple of customers I will use a second leather wheel with 1µ diamonds. I also look at the time required to change wheels to a progressively finer grit when doing multiple knives when few appreciate the knifes sharpness beyond out of the box.