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Stig is the master of pressure control, from heavy pressure for heavier grinding to finishing with very light strokes.

I thought I remembered an advanced sharpening video where Wolfgang explains that heavy pressure does not lead to faster grinding because it kinds of glazes the SG. Or am I mistaken ?

I am curious though as to what configuration leads to bumping the jig collar into the support legs. It would mean that the top of USB is at or below top-of-wheel level, right ? If that's the case, the angle has to be small indeed...

As for the US-430 not being part of the standard T8 delivery, I think that's a bit cheap.

I'm not an abrasive specialist, but in my experience, the "grading" of the stone lasts about an order of magnitude of around 20-40 strokes. Longer knives (obviously) or higher pressure will be in the 15-20 strokes range. And the way it goes back to its "in-between" state is not linear : very coarse or very fine grit lasts only for a couple strokes.

So it does not go from coarse to fine but from coarse back to standard and fine back to standard. It gets coarser by removing Al2O3 particles and exposing fewer, fresher ones with sharp edges. It gets finer by creating a fine slurry that fills in the gaps and makes the stone smoother.

In any case you have a substrate of Al203 particles of a given average size and even if you applied a very fine diamond stone you would still feel the effect of the substrate. Plus the finer the particles, the quicker they'll wash away.

TL/DR : the particle size in the SG gives its standard performance, you can make it vary temporarily by creating ridges or filling in the gaps. The farther you go from its standard state, the shorter the new state lasts.

Hello WimSpi,

I don't use my diamonds wheels for knives much, but after a bit of experimenting with grading the SG or not, using the SJ or not, I settled with the following simple process for everything but very high end kitchen knives  :

Sharpen @15dps on ungraded SG, hone thoroughly @15.5dps on leather wheel with PA-70 compound starting on the same side as the last stroke on SG.

If you have diamond wheels and a 250mm leather honing wheel I'd suggest : Sharpen @15dps edge leading on DF wheel, then hone edge trailing on leather with PA-70, using MB-102 or FVB, increasing the USB height by a half turn of the MicroAdjust nut. This should be a rather quick workflow, maybe not with the smoothest-looking edge, but with pretty decent cutting performance and edge retention.

Wouldn't the interference problem be solved by separating the blades ?

Martha, welcome to the forum. Your knife exhibits a common issue with Western knives: they often have what is sometimes called a "full bolster".

It is a safety feature intended to prevent the user from nicking their fingers with the heel of the blade. In Japan, where cooks are usually more educated with knife handling, there are usually none. The issue with full bolsters is precisely what you are encountering : it's a PITA when it comes to sharpening, and the gap that gets created hinders cutting.

There are several threads about this, such as this one.

TL/DR : You can reduce the bolster using your Tormek, but it will be time-consuming and will cause increased and uneven wear to your wheel. A belt grinder (preferred) or a bench grinder will make it faster.

Cheers,

Nick.

While my first advice would be to contact tormek support, if they haven't answered I'd simply return it and order another one.

All the T8 I know have a low humming sound, not this. It sounds like there is some lose debris somewhere in a bearing or whatnot.

It looks nice, I'd love to try one. Unfortunately, most seem out of stock at the moment, as if this steel wasn't available for this kind of knife anymore...

I personally wouldn't purchase the grader but a set of well-reviewed diamond plates in 160-ish and 1200-ish grits. So you can grade the stone much more efficiently than with the grader, and slides those plates in a SE jig to avoid the pitfalls of the stone grader.

Here is an article that discusses what I was describing. I think that since this was written the availability of symmetrical Japanese knives has increased dramatically for the Western market.

https://japaneseknifesharpening.blogspot.com/2012/03/asymmetry-real-deal.html
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Well, to be honest I'm not sure what I should think after reading this blog post ...

Common terminology:

100/0 (single bevel) – yanagiba, usuba, etc

90/10 (double bevel) – honesuki, garasuki, etc

80/20 , 70/30, 60/40 (double bevel) – gyuto, nakiri, sujihiki, etc

50/50 (symmetric) – non Japanese knife

So if 50/50 is "symmetric", and therefore at the same angle, I don't see why 90/10 or 80/20 couldn't be just the relative sizes of the bevels on each side, but still with the same angle. It would still be assymetrical.

Notice that I didn't say that you had to use the same angle on each side of the knife nor did I say that you needed to change the angle for each side of the knife or to make each side different angled than one another?

All right... and when it comes to a 80/20 suji, good luck knowing when you're hitting the apex on the side with the tiny bevel. That being said, an advice given byJonatan Broida at the time was to sharpen at the same angle, very lightly on the backside, then add a microbevel on the backside only.

Does anyone know of Magnacut chef knives ? Ideally a japanese yo-gyutou or the like... I couldn't find any, only pocket knives...

a double bevel with each side at a unique angle.

I have several-plus japanese knives, but none is of that type. I own some with the same angle on both sides but sharpened assymetrically : the bevel on the left side is much smaller than on the right side. In order to keep them this way, I sharpen about 4 strokes on the wide side, one on the thin side. They have a very thin yet very sturdy blade, and are sharpened around 12.5dps. Edge retention is amazing.

One of these days I need to convert this to a data sheet for easy access.

This is one of the reasons I love TormekCalc so much : each knife has its own entry so you can select it with a single click then just set the right distances.

I feel for you. The way the Tormek custom is marketed is for people who have a very specific idea in mind and who would not use most of the accessories the standard T8 comes with.

There has been a lot of exchange on the topic of the T8 Black (Anniversary Edition), coming pretty much to the same conclusion as you did.

Yes, they probably chose a very high-end marker produced specifically for application on metal. It wouldn't do to just slap a logo on a run-of-the-mill marker and sell it for three times the price of a Sharpie.

Hello,

I don't think the Custom includes the marker.

Any sharpie will do the trick. I'd advise using one with a beveled tip as i find it easier to slide along the edge.