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I have no experience with these particular knives, however there is one sure thing : steel in itself is very cheap, even VG10. However, how it is forged and tempered will make a world of difference.

Tempering them well enough so they're resistant to wear but not brittle, then making a decent knife out of it is what takes time, and therefore amps the price up.

I know of an IKEA chef knife with a VG-10/Damascus blade that never got close to performing as well as a Shun gyuto knife, even though on paper they are similar. Despite being sharpened the same way, the same day, on the same Tormek at the same angle.

There is an instrinsic sticking of the needle indicator on the AngleSetter.

The friction on mine was very high out of the box, so I did as John did and put a bit of paraffin oil on all pivots as well as behind the needle. It still has about 1 dps of hysteresis when I move the USB up and down, but I guess it is due to the flexibility in the plastic needle.

Tormek recommend the fine side of the grader to dress the SJ wheel.

Agreed, but that's probably because they offer no alternative yet. I think it will remove too much material in an uncontrolled way. The Wootz maneuver with the SE-77 and a fine diamond plate seems way safer.

And while we're at it ask HOW MANY KNIVES DO YOU NEED!?
Three at most unless you're a high end sushi chef?

I love that question.

IIRC, a japanese chef needs at most three knives : Deba, Yanagiba, Usuba. A sushi chef should even not need the Usuba.

Shifting to the western world, most home cooks should only need a chef knife (gyuto) and a hawkbill paring knife. Throw in a deba or similar if you need to work with fish... Yet I have dozens, and even though I mostly use three, using another one for a taks where it shines is such a delight.

I know, right ? I'm far from saying you shouldn't do what pleases your customers. I guess the same ones who will praise a mirror-polished knife edge on an utilitarian knife will probably use the same edge sideways to scrape their cutting board free of carrot slices...

As for the deba story, if she were to misuse such a knife while trying to sanmai-oroshi a fish, she'd probably remove part of said finger. So we just have to be glad she was probably just carving a turkey.

I guess I'll try to stay out of the B2C business

Though whether a polished edge means more tomato cutting time remains to be seen.

In my experience, but not substantiated by an extended study, edge retention expressed in terms of "how much vegetable cutting can I do before the knife feels dull" seems to be actually better when I don't use the SJ in between grinding on the SJ and honing on the leather wheel.

So will the knife seem sharper when polished ? Sure. Will it actually be sharper in terms of BESS scores ? Probably. Will it stay sharp longer than an unpolished edge, though ?

Also the intent behind the videos is to demonstrate proper technique. There probably is still a burr on several of the knives/tools after their short honing, but the basics have been covered.

I'm afraid that sounds like a bit more of an investment, but you may be better off adding the MSK-250 to your setup. It will save you a lot of time and effort... Or you could try to set it just right with a bit of Loctite 243 or equivalent, let set, and get going.

The only jig I know of is described on Rich Colvin's treasure trove of a website.

It requires *a bit* of craftmanship, though...

Good day to you too ! And welcome to the forum.

If everything is square and your blades come out out of square, then there might be an issue with your technique. So if you keep on grinding the same way, you will probably keep sharpening out of square.

What I'd do is skew the SE-77 so you grind your plane blade back towards square. It is explained on page 127 of the SE-77 manual

The SJ stone is very fine and also quite fragile. I would dare touch it with anything that isn't reasonably parallel to the USB.

Even when recently trued with the TT-50, it remains quite smooth and polishes well. There are precautions to take (such as never exit the stone with the TT, always hit the shoulders moving into the stone. You can find several posts on this topic.

If you want to grade it as fine as you can, I'd suggest a very fine diamond plate held in place with the SE jig, as seen in Wootz's stone grading videos.

From a theoretical standpoint, using the MB-100/102 with a coarse (then fine) diamond plate clamped in the straight-edge jig with a robust backing (such as a plane blade) could work.

From a practical standpoint, I doubt it will be easy to make it square to the top surface. Maybe use a laser as a guide...

The only system I advise for people not interested in learning basic sharpening technique is a rod-based system where fine-grit ceramic rods are set at a fixed angle and the knife is held vertical.

It's rather foolproof and will not damage the knifes too much, while keeping the edge in an acceptable shape. Alternate strokes on each side, not more than 3 strokes when the knife feels dull. And it occupies very little real estate when stored.

I think it was automatically recognized and sent.to our forum Just because the space was missing.

If what you are looking for is the replacement tip only for the truing tool, you can lookup "Tormek ADV-D" and find countless sites that sell them.

But I'm not sure that's waht you're looking for...