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Pietje, I have the PT50A. Looks like I need to find a consistent way to tension the wire!

Thanks for the info people. I'll check out BESS line tensions. I'm definitely doing it the same way each time and try a little push feel to see that it's relatively similar each time I set it up but I totally get that this is a pretty lo fi way to go about it. The though crossed my mind pretty quick that the tension may have an effect on scores, but I also thought that the BESS system would/should have accounted for that.

Otherwise, the only method mod I'm going with for the moment is to ditch the Tormek stone grader in favor of diamond plates mounted in the flat jig as per Kraichuk's advice. I know from grinding blades that the grinding surface is extremely important and the stone just seems a little too haphazard considering the rest of the system is more precise.

If I can get into the 100-150 range I'll be pretty happy.

Looking forwards to small production runs of my knives, I'll be looking at getting diamond of CBN wheels to get a low res but accurate "factory" edge that is quick and repeatable.

Hi!

I'm a new T8 owner and have been getting up to speed over the last two weeks. I'm now off the training wheels (I'm a knife maker and freehand grind so it's all fallen into place) and have decided that for the moment I'll stick with the standard setup (SG-250) and see how well I can do with it alone before I start going down the rabbit hole of all the other stones and after market accessories. I really don't want to be changing wheels and moving to other machines right now. The all in one solution initially sold me and I'm pressed for space in my inner city workshop.

I also purchased a BESS tester in order to have some sort of benchmark to work to.

I'm curious to know an approximate range of what people would expect to score with this setup. I understand there are variables, steel and geometry being the first two of many. However I'm totally in the dark as to what sort of scores I should expect to achieve. So far I'm averaging around the 160 mark on good quality production folding knives (Benchmade, Spyderco, ZT, etc) with working edge angles. The best I've hit so far is 139 on a small utility knife I made in Takefu SG2. I know that this steel is known for holding a fine edge so I went in on a lower angle than the folders. I'm still struggling with setting edge angles as the Angle Master provided with the T8 is soooooo hard to use to set the cutting bevel. Right now I'm either replicating angles or only adjusting them slightly.

I'm learning very quickly that the production folders generally have pretty wonky geometry and their cutting edges are not terribly neat!

Any advice is warmly welcomed.