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Just received a replacement tt-50 from Tormek. I emailed support and they agreed that what was happening with my tt-50 was not normal. They referred my case to Afinity tool (US importer). Affinity emailed me that same day and sent a replacement. The difference between my old tt-50 and the new replacement is night and day. The new tt-50 has less play and it worked perfectly. Nice smooth cut, no vibration or chatter. I did one pass at .25mm and it fixed the wavy surface that was still present from trueing with my old tt-50. Can't say enough good things about Tormek support and Afinity support. Fast quick response and ver helpful. Tormek really stands behind their products. First rate products and service.  Big thanks.

Antz

I haven't tried this but I would think using 3-6 micron diamond paste wouldn't hurt. The tormek pa-70 is said to be 3-6 micron so the diamond compound would be the same micron size.

If you're using your tormek leather wheel already impregnated with oil I would use an oil based compound. The oil in the leather will repel a water based compound.

To me I would only stick with tormek compound on tormek wheel. That's just my preference and it's never let me down.

Antz

I also can only find shipping from the UK.

Antz

Gary,
I second what Ken said about the t4 vs t2. Although I don't have a T2, I did as much research on it  as I could. I would choose the t4 especially if you already have experience with the T8. The T2 is more like a pull through type sharpener. And to the original topic of this thread I can attest to the sharpness that you can achieve with the T4 as I just cleanly sliced through the tip of my finger clean through my fingernail on the other side  . I was holding a hair and chopping it into sections as it floated freely in the air and it didn't end well. I don't recommend doing that

Antz

Thanks Wootz. I'm not trying to be disrespectful towards tormek in anyway whatsoever. I agree the quality of the machines and jigs are unmatched. I'm sure the tormek diamond wheels are a cut above the rest in that regard.

Thanks,
Antz

Mate, feel free to email me for advice, we have years of experience with them.
I love Tormek in its entirety and, honestly, am not comfortable talking about competitors' wheels on the Tormek own forum, even comparing the diamond wheel to CBN etc
One thing I can tell for sure is that the diamond/CBN coating is not the same on wheels made by this or that manufacturer, and when Tormek puts its name on the wheel you can trust its quality

Hello everyone,

So I'm seriously considering purchasing a couple of custom cbn wheels from woodturning wonders. I'm looking at getting the tornado Jr. 8 inch wheels customized with radius edges. One 400 grit and one 1200 grit. My concern is will these wheels load up quickly when used on mainstream knives? All the info I can find is that they are not meant to be used on carbon steel and are meant for HS steel. But also that's pertaining to high speed grinding. So on a low speed such as a tormek, used with water will they still load up? I'm hoping I can use them for the majority of my knife sharpening and never have to worry about them going out of round. Also I'm leaning towards cbn because as far as I know I can't get diamond wheels customized with radius edges.

Thanks,
Antz

Welcome to the Forum Gary,

If you are 100% certain you have set up the FVB correctly and input the correct information into the applet (blade protrusion, grinding wheel diameter), then I would trust the applet. Watching Wootz YouTube videos he checks his bevels with a laser protractor and I've never seen him be off by even 1 degree. I also use the applets and although I don't have a laser protractor I believe it to be spot on.
Another thing with the angle master is it's not easy to set an exact wheel diameter setting when adjusting for wheel ware. The applet is more precise.

Antz

Fair enough, I promise to not steal any customers from Georgia  . Thank you all for the advice, as I understand it the LLC would give me more personal protection from liability issues. The filing is easy her on our Hawaii gov website but there is a lot more to think about as you guys mentioned. Sales tax, depreciation, filing losses, liability, etc. I will probably end up consulting with a local business lawyer to iron out all the fine details and the best way to go about things.

I also enjoy this forum where we can all help each other without a competitive nature. I very much appreciate all of your input.

Thank you,
Antz

Hello everyone,

What's better for a mobile sharpening service, sole proprietorship or LLC?

Thanks,
Antz

Thank you for sharing Wootz. I've only done a couple of single bevel Japanese knives and my method was pretty similar to yours except polishing of the flat back was done on paper wheel freehand. I have no idea what sharpness I was getting because I don't have a Bess tester but I know I could push cut notebook paper. When I get an sJ wheel I'll definitely try your method. Thanks for updating with pictures. Great post as usual Wootz!

Thanks,
Antz

Wootz, do you ever use compound on your strops? If so what type of compound is best for what type of strop (cow/horse/kangaroo). Also do you use the smooth side or the rough side.

Thanks,
Antz

Thanks Everyone for all your advice and ideas. Today I tried trueing my SG 200 again. I replaced the zip ties with some thicker stiffer ones, made sure all the locking knobs were extra tight, and started my first pass at the exact height of the wheel.

I made a "PAINFULLY" slow pass, about 10 minutes. The diamond tooth was barley skimming the highest spots. There actually still was some chatter when I hit the high spots, so I had to slow down even further. There was still chatter with my reduced speed, so I found that if I held the USB very carefully with my pinky's while turning the knobs with my pointers and thumbs it dampened the chatter somewhat.

After the first pass I lowered the USB by about 1/5 of a number and started my second pass. Second pass was even more painfully slow (about 20 minutes), I used the techniques I learned from the first pass and held the usb with my pinky's to dampen vibration, very careful not to put any downward or upward pressure. At any slight hint of chatter I slowed down until I was barley turning the knobs at all and applied a tighter grip with my pinky's on the usb (still careful not to have any upward or downward pressure). Second pass had contact along the entire wheel. In the end I removed the USB with the trueing tool still attached Incase I had to do a third pass (which I wasn't looking forward too) and checked the stone with a straight edge and it was finally flat and true. I sharpened one opinel to test it and it felt perfect. Now I'm beat.

I think part of the issue was the stone being out of true was actually causing the tt-50 to "ride" the stone. By that I mean it was actually "pushing" the USB up with the high spots and the rigidity of the usb wanting to push back down causing vibration and chatter. It develops almost a vibrational resonance effect. Once it starts it gets worse. That's why manually bracing the usb helped get the results I was looking for. So my conclusion is the tt-50 has too much play and the usb is not rigid enough. As the operator you have to compensate for both those issues (zip ties/bracing usb).

I noticed my usb is not as sturdy on my t4 as on my t8, which is probably why I was mainly having this issue trueing my SG200. I think the weight of the t8 helps dampen vibration in the usb. Hopefully my findings can help anyone experiencing this issue. Special thanks to Rick for your specific advice which gave me the idea to brace the usb. Of course bracing it with your fingers as you true is not the ideal solution but it worked.

Now that the stone is finally true I feel that it won't take nearly as long to true in the future. As long as I don't let it get out of round as the tt-50 will tend to ride the high spots again.

Kind Regards and thanks to everyone,
Antz

Thanks for sharing that info Wootz. So you polish just the flat back close to the edge? I'm trying to picture it in my head.  Perhaps possibly a YouTube video will be in the near future? 

Thanks,
Antz

Well I tried the zip tie method and trueing my t4 at only 1/4 number at a time and still had chatter. It wasn't as bad but still left a wavy horrible stone surface. Unusable in my opinion. I wasted 3.5mm of my grinding wheel (went from 198.8mm to 195.4mm)trying to get it nice and flat again and finally left it as good enough for fear of messing it up again. It's still not flat like how I want it. It's seems like once you get the "chatter" and start making wavy grooves horizontally acccross the face of the stone it becomes so frustrating to take them out. The trueing tool wants to follow the waves even when backed up with zip ties and just perpetuates the problem. Only solution is to take a deep cut and run the risk of chipping the edge of the stone. I become very frustrated, spent almost 45 minute trueing and still not perfect.

I don't know if I have a defective trueing tool. Without the zip ties it has about 1/8" of play up and down. Or if I have a defective stone, or a bent shaft. I'm just confused as to why this keeps happening. Could it possibly be the rubber contact wheel out of round causing the shaft to not run straight? I think I'll have to contact tormek support. Funny thing is I never started having this issue until I used the trueing tool about 7 times between my t8 and t4. From that point it's been a nightmare.

I tend to think it's the trueing tool as I had a similar problem last time I trued my t8.

Thanks,
Antz

Very nice Jan! You cleaned it up very nicely.

Antz