Messages

The importance of good light when setting jigs and sharpening has been mentioned here many times. I find that these newer head lamps are awesome. They have a strong LED lamp and a rechargeable Li-ion battery, and are very inexpensive. I have two so that at least one of them is always charged and ready to go.

Any thoughts from anyone else?

For $400 US I think I'll stick with my homemade jig, described here.

I could be wrong but I'm of the opinion that getting a kitchen or pocket knife beyond razor sharp is not of much utility. They will quickly lose that high level of sharpness after the first use. I get mine sharp enough to do that demonstration where you slice through a sheet of paper held in your hand. That seems to serve me well enough.

A possibility is purchasing a new SG-200. That will make the two wheel diameters much closer. Use your present SG-200 for tools which don't require the SJ-200.

It's not a bad idea to have that extra grindstone. You can use the old one for dirty tasks like lawn mower blades, hedge clippers, pruners, and the like. Use the new one for those chisels you like to keep shiny and your best kitchen knives.

it gets frustrating to sharpen a knife with a great edge and then mess it up on the honing side.

What do you mean by "mess it up"? What's happening that makes you think it's messed up?

It really is quite easy, with a bit of practice, to hone free hand. I suggest you try it on something that has a wide beveled edge, such as a wood chisel. Be aware that if you hone at too small of an angle the edge won't make contact with the wheel so you can't mess anything up. As you gradually increase the angle you can feel and hear it when you've got the entire length of the bevel in contact with the surface of the wheel. Go too far and you not only start to round over the edge, you can hear and feel that difference. I suggest you practice with some cheap chisels and knives.

I don't feel the wheel is "sharpening ready" right after it has been trued (because of too-high cutting-efficiency ) so I usually add a quick pass with a diamond plate to break down the ridges. Going **very** slowly when truing, both in terms of lowering the USB and in terms of moving the diamond tip left and right, creates shallower grooves. So the stone is closer to "sharpening-ready" afterwards.

I agree, if by "sharpening ready" you mean ready to sharpen something like a good knife or a chisel that need a tune up. However, if I have a dull mower blade handy (and I always do because for many years now I always have two blades, one installed and one dull and near the bench waiting to be sharpened) a freshly-trued grindstone is very effective at removing a lot of steel fast, which is what's needed for a dull mower blade.

Of course, the same is true of an old dull wood chisel that perhaps you loaned to a neighbor who seemed to think it's an all-purpose tool that can be used to bend nails out of the way during demo, or opening paint cans!

After sharpening such a tool, and applying the stone grader, the grindstone is now ready for sharpening more refined tools and good knives.

As mentioned in the TT-50 topic, I believe the stone grader actually brings the stone out-of-true faster (which then requires truing).

Hmmm... I wonder what leads you to this belief?

It's quite possible that you're right. It could also be true that the act of sharpening brings the stone out of true. Certainly something must be causing it to happen, since we know for sure that it does get out of true.

Again, I go to my automotive disc brake analogy. Just as the brake pads, and to a lesser extent the rotors, are designed to wear, so is the grindstone. Using it makes it wear. Things like using the stone grader, using the truing tool, or even the very act of sharpening a tool itself, will make the make the grindstone wear faster, so will driving your automobile make the brake pads and rotors wear faster.

This is part of the design of these things. It's how they function. It costs money to operate these devices because of this wear.

I'm not sure the truing tool restores the "cutting efficiency" of the stone.

I guess it depends on what you mean by efficiency. A freshly-trued stone definitely cuts steel more aggressively. I wouldn't sharpen a good knife on a freshly-trued stone. It removes too much steel from the knife blade. I would find my dullest chisel, lawn mower blade, or other tool to sharpen on a freshly-trued stone. In fact, I often keep a dull tool handy to be sharpened immediately after truing.

Ken is absolutely right about truing often and lightly. Not only will it give you better results, it's more economical. Because an out-of-round grindstone will very quickly get more and more out of round as you use it and you will have to remove a lot of material to get it round again. A grindstone will last longer if you keep it from getting out of round by truing it often.

It's kinda like brake pads and rotors. Putting new pads on a rotor with a rough surface will make the pads wear faster. It's more economical to machine the rotors when replacing the pads.

Well, jeez. Not sure how I missed this reply.

If I ever have the chance to award a "Popular Mechanics Home Workshop Practical Sharpener" award, you would be the recipient.

High praise indeed! Thank you Ken.

My memory is fuzzy. Was I the person who offered you the loan of my SJ-250?

Ken

Yes, indeed. It was you.

I seem to have some mold growing in and on the wheel,

Do you empty the water trough after each sharpening session? That's a good practice.

Ken's advice about also removing the wheel is even better.

I hang mine on a long construction screw on the wall right next to me sharpening station.

This website is without pictures but it has lots of useful information comparing the older jigs and accessories to the new new ones, and listing them all. From there you could type the jig's model number into a search engine and find pictures of it. (BTW, I also bought my Tormek in 2002).

There are lots of websites with photos of the jigs. Just do a google search for tormek jigs. Here's one.

I have an older Tormek, a 7 I believe,

Is it blue or green?

About the adjusting stone, what difference is that from a regular dual grit wetstone?

The SG grindstone can be graded with the two-sided stone grader to either a coarse or find grit. That grindstone alone is sufficient, especially for a beginner. I wouldn't invest in the SJ grindstone unless for some reason I found the SG unsatisfactory.

I sharpen all kinds of hand tools, mower blades, and kitchen knives. Been doing it for 23 years and have never had the need for anything other than the SG grindstone.

In my opinion it just doesn't pay to get a tool or a knife any sharper than what I get with the combination of the SG and the leather honing wheel. Not for my needs, anyway.

You should definitely call Tormek support and report this issue. They will be responsive and helpful and will work out a solution for you.

The MSK-250 mentioned in the previous post is an innovation that came along during the many years you had your T7 stored in your shed. It's essentially a different way of locking the wheel in place without using a wrench. Tormek support may offer to send you one for free, or they may have a different solution to your problem. I'm stumped because my Tormek is even older than yours, locked the wheel with the same nut as yours, and I never had this problem.

There's a washer on the main shaft that separates the wheel from the body of the Tormek. It sounds as if you don't have that washer installed. Take the wheel off and see if there's a washer behind it.

Also, you haven't by any chance installed the wheel inside out?

Wondering if a supergrind 2000 is worth it these days for $400? Comes with a fair number of accessories.

A resounding yes from me. Mine was purchased in 2002 and is still running strong. Improvements in jig design and new jigs will still fit it.

For example, many years ago when I saw the then-new micro adjust feature for the Universal Support Bar (USB) I had the option of buying the new USB or modifying mine. I chose the latter, threading the shaft and buying a nut as the micro adjuster. It's still working many years later, and I've even refined it by cementing the nut into a juice cap cover, and then filing flat the face of the threaded shaft that faces the set screw. Give it a start and it spins on its own. Yankee ingenuity, don't ya know!