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I agree with everyone here about the need for the US-430. I should have mentioned from the start that I had to buy this for the cleavers, as it was impossible to get the standard USB to work.

I'm in the middle of making my own home-made FVB and I look forward to trying that out with the US-430. The new MB-102 you mentioned Ken also looks like a pretty essential accessory.

I have some axes to grind as well (joke) so aquataur, I will also try your ingenious clamp solution!

Thanks for all those tips. I'll be sure to investigate those other jigs. I'm sure there are better solutions when there is no need to tilt or pivot.

I'm sorry, CB, could you explain a bit more what you mean by "choke up" on the handle of these longer knives?

I've got a few beautiful carbon steel Chinese cleavers that I love to use in the kitchen. The blade on the big one is about 21cm / 8¼", and the small one, 18cm / 7". Both have almost perfectly straight edges with the slightest of arcs, and they are both quite heavy.

I'll "cut" straight to the point  Sharpening these blades on my T8 seems to require a lot of practice to get perfect. Even though there is no lifting or pivoting needed at the tips like normal kitchen knives, the narrow width of the wheel compared to the long length (and weight) of the blades makes it challenging to do perfectly level (i.e. flat) pass along the entire length of the blade. I inevitable tilt the blade a fraction of a degree along the pass, and it leaves a tiny groove in the blade that then takes a lot of time to smooth out.

Apart from more practice practice practice, is there any advice on how I can improve my technique?

I wonder if my stance is off, or I should be using a different type of jig that helps to keep the blade perfectly flat against the wheel? (I use the SVM & KJ knife jigs).

Any tips appreciated!

Late to this thread, but impressed with your design jvh, thank you for posting it. I think this is going to be my next project! A question regarding how the adjusting rings are secured. I can't quite see from the photos, but it looks like you have drilled (radially) and tapped these collars and secure them with pointed grub screws (whose tips "mate" against the grooves in the guide tubes). Is that correct?

Thanks everyone, I will keep the forum posted as I learn more, for example, the exact difference.

My typical use case for this is switching from grinding into the blade with the SG-250, then switching sleeves to polish away from the blade with the Japanese waterstone SJ-250. I know the purists will (correctly) comment that most likely the diameters of the two wheels won't be identical anyway, and I acknowledge that, but I was curious to know whether (if they were), we can consistently adjust whatever difference there was by using the micro-adjust or turning the adjustment nut on the USB by a precise amount (as Ken mentioned).

Apologies if this is a naive or obvious question. I don't have accurate enough tools to measure this for myself to find the answer.

The T8 has 2 attachment bases or sleeves for the USB. One allows a vertical attachment, the other a horizontal attachment towards the front of the machine.

My query is, suppose you have a blade clamped in a jig, and you have set the appropriate angle using your favourite method, and have locked the USB into let's say the top binding sleeves. If you then remove the USB from those sleeves - and carefully - so the adjustment nut does not move, re-insert the USB into the other binding sleves, and lock it - and change nothing else - will the angle of the blade against the same wheel be exactly the same as before? Or you cannot assume this.

Thanks... I will try that position next time.
I have the rotating table and I use it every time, as I grind edge leading and hone edge trailing, and I'm doing both from in front of the machine. Maybe I can do both from the same position without rotating the machine.

I currently use my T8 in a standing position. It's located on my workbench in my workshop, but because the bench is high, I use an old palette (approx 220mm high) to stand on while using it.

But it's a fatiguing work position and doesn't feel right. It seems I am always bending my back and leaning too far over the machine. So I am looking into making a low stand which allows me to sharpen in the siting down position. The esteemed (sadly departed) Wootz is often seen sharpening sitting down in his videos, I'd also like to try that position.

I know everyone is different, and I will certainly experiment for myself, but to get me started, I'd like to ask the community members who sharpen sitting down, what stand height works best for them? Foot stools or 5 gallon plastic buckets have been mentioned but I'm curious to learn more.

Tormek's suggestion of lifting the support bar and moving the TT-50 diamond to be able to travel inward is fairly new. [...] I suspect the lift was started because of chipping complaints from users who set the TT-50 to cut too deeply. [...] By making very shallow cuts and not needing to lift the support bar, there is no problem with misalignment. [...]

This is interesting. So I followed the recommendation in the Tormek TT-50 tutorial video and lowered the USB height by exactly 1 numeral on the adjustment ring each time. Being the curious type, I did want to see what would happen if you run the diamond tip off the edge of the stone (instead of lifting and repositioning). With the cut being set to 1 numeral, I experienced quite noticeable chipping of the stone's edge as the tip ran off it, even though I was going extremely slowly. To your comment, Ken, I guess that means the cut wasn't shallow enough so next time I will move the adjustment ring by maybe half a numeral and see if this eliminates the edge chipping.

The suggestion for a lock nut on the USB adjusting ring is good to stop you accidentally moving it, but it won't completely remove the slight amount of play when the USB is un-clamped. It's because the other leg is free to travel minutely. If the other leg also had an adjusting ring, then I think the play would be eliminated. Anyway, we are only talking about a slight amount of play, the only reason I noticed it is that when coming in from the opposite side of the wheel back to the center, the 2 cuts don't match up. If, when you lifted the USB to reposition the TT-50, it came back down at exactly the same height, this phenomenon wouldn't happen. Anyway, not a big issue, just something to be aware of.

Thanks Ken for your input. It's good to know that for most sharpening applications rounding the wheel diameter to the nearest 10mm will give an acceptable result!

Hi everyone.

I did the deed this evening and got the stone surface back to almost new. Albeit with new dimensions: Ø248.2mm. I guess I am going to need to use calculators in the future to get accurate angles...

I did go very slowly back and forth so got a very smooth and even result.

However! That TT-50 does have a learning curve! In particular, I noticed something unusual happening each time I approached the edge of the stone and had to stop to move the TT-50 tip to the outside of the stone to complete the pass coming inwards again. What I found was, even though I took extreme care not to move the USB adjustment nut as I loosened the clamp screws to raise and lower it, when it came down again it was not at the same height as it was before. Most times it was a bit lower which meant when I started my finishing pass (from the opposed side of the stone inwards), the amount of material removed was greater.

However, by doing several passes at the same height, I ended up getting a smooth and level result.

When I investigated this phenomenon in more detail I found the cause was due to the fact there is only 1 adjustment ring nut on the USB. And even if it does not change position, when you loosen the 2 clamping screws, there is a tiny amount of play in the USB (between the USB leg that has the lock ring vs. the leg that is free). This results in the TT-50 cutting bit ending up in a slightly higher or lower position when you re-clamp. Because you are coming in again from the outside of the wheel, it's hard to get this exactly right with the pass you made from the opposite side to get a perfectly even result. I tried to re-clamp as consistently as possible but was surprised how hard it was to get it perfect.

Anyway, you can overcome this by doing several passes with the USB ring nut at the same setting until you hear no more material is being removed any more from either direction. Then you can adjust down a tiny bit for the next level.

I like the idea of automating the feed screw of the TT-50! I had exactly the same idea as I was doing it manually. I have a few spare stepper motors... perfect application for one!

Thanks guys for all the feedback. Haven't repaired the wheel yet, but will get to it in the next few days.

I had assumed that from now on I'd have to be measuring the diameter of that wheel each time I grind (polish) a new angle.

As we say in Japan, "shoga nai".

Nico

At the risk of re-asking the obvious...

I too was interested in the FVB. It's claim was "Controlled-angle honing and edge-trailing grinding of knives, cleavers and wide blades".

OK, so I am using the USB in the standard horizontal position on my T8 for honing. When switching from grinding to honing, I adjust the wheel diameter on the AngleMaster to 215mm and re-set the USB horizontal distance using that tool, the same way as I use it for setting the edge angle when grinding with USB in the vertical base.

I've assumed that this process will give me accurate control of the honing angle, but now wondering with the FVB's claims whether that approach has been wrong?

Aside from the other virtues of the product (e.g. better ergonomics, overcoming the interference with the jig screws, working with KG's software to get more accurate and repeatable results, etc. etc.) do I need the FVB to get a better honing angle than my current method?

To the community: Pontus from Tormek support has also responded to my request for help and offered this instructional video:

https://youtu.be/_9izVW7g6uo?t=591

The video confirms tgbto's comment about always truing from the edges to the center of the stone with the TT-50.

Thanks to all,
Nico

Thanks a ton for that advice.
I will give it a go... and let you know how it went.

Nico