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I have run into an issue with this that is constant and cannot seem to overcome it.  I have a newer T8 machine that I have used somewhat heavily, I've gone through almost half the life of the SG-250 stone.  I have trued often with the TT-50 but now I cannot get a flat surface and have also ran into issues of the surface being cupped horizontally AND the surface on the outer side of the stone begins to chatter and cut chatter marks into the stone that look similar to an all terrain tire tread but they are very shallow.  I've tried coming from both sides of the wheel with the TT-50. 

A call to Customer Support lead me to believe I need a new TT-50 exchange tip but I don't believe this is what is causing it.  I noticed the tip has a slight tilt where it is not sitting perfectly level on the stone surface because I've always trued from the outside to inside of wheel.  The CS person told me that I should always go both ways and that this likely caused the tip to go out of flat.  I don't see why this would matter.  I also suspect I may have a problem with the nylon bearing/bushings as I went far longer than I should have without cleaning and regreasing the main shaft.

Anybody care to weigh in before I go play whack a mole with changing components and hoping it helps?

I've been thinking about the idea of using gloves on the Tormek recently.  I like both the added grip of nitrile coatings and the idea of cut resistance of something like an A4 ANSI rated glove just to add an extra safety measure.  I'm currently using a set of very thin nitrile gloves which are mostly just a moisture/grit barrier and quite easily tear if pulled.

Speaking of safety, there is always the old adage of not using gloves around moving machines for fear of a glove getting caught and causing injury.  I'm failing to see how that could really happen without being seriously careless but I also realize just one lapse of judgement or focus is all it takes.  What are you thoughts on this?

These are the gloves I'd like to use if I can feel confident I won't have an injury caused by wearing them....

https://www.ansell.com/us/en/products/activarmr-97-505

Well this is something I've actually liked the looks of for a honing wheel and with the introduction of the MB-102 coming soon I may actually begin using a honing wheel for sharpening.  My reason for avoiding this in the past was that it lacked the precision I wanted in setting the apex finish/angle AND the fact that all 'strops' --- of which the honing wheel qualifies being leather impregnated with abrasive compound --- suffer from the same problems :

- First all of the abraded steel has to go somewhere and it ends up remaining on the surface of the wheel accumulating with nowhere to go. 

- This in turn causes burnishing of the steel more than cutting and results in an apex that is heavily stressed from the very beginning

- Pressure is critical when using a strop as too much will tend to round the apex heavily and cause a significant distortion in the actual apex angle

So the way I see it, the MB-102 solves quite nicely the problem of angle control and pressure and it will be immediately added to my workshop for experimentation. 

It does nothing however for the issue of abraded steel clogging the action of the wheel.  Enter the CW-220, finally what looks like something that may be able to be properly flushed of abraded steel.

Does anybody have any experience with cleaning the surface of the wheel to remove all or most of the steel waste from the wheel?  My thought is that it would be easy to do but I hate to buy just to see.

I've got one of these knives that was sent in by a customer to remove a chip and reprofile the edge to another geometry (lower the DPS) and was surprised to find that it had serrations on the straight part of the edge as I'd not been made aware of this. 

Upon looking further at the blade I decided that I could regrind the edge to both remove the serrations and a sizable chip on the straight edge and the customer was overjoyed about losing the serrations.  I believe I have a game-plan that will work well but I've not done something quite like this but similar. 

The edge bevel is assymetric but the primary grind is identical on both sides.  Somewhere around 5 DPS primary grind and the edge bevel is around 40 DPS inclusive if I recall and ground only on one side.  My plan was to set the edge angle to the setting to match the side of the edge which was ground but only take material from the unground side of edge until the bevel with becomes even.  Then alternate passes on both sides until I've removed the depth of the serrations.

This would be a very high angle so at the point where the serrations are virtually removed I would lower the edge angle to the proper setting to re-profile the edge to the appropriate geometry prior to sharpening.  The steel of the knife is 154CM according to the website and the owner vaguely remembers that being the case but I see no markings on the blade.

https://emersonknives.com/shop/knives/every-day-carry/cqc-8/cqc-8-flipper/

It later ocurred to me after thinking about this that I may not want to grind the serrations into the wheel as I am concerned it may gouge/chip the stone putting a very high contact pressure on the wheel as the tips of the serrations would cause the PSI to skyrocket being such a small contact area touching the stone.  I suspect there is little to worry about here but wanted to get others opinion.

I will be using the SG-250 wheel to make the modification, planned to use the Truing Tool to grade the wheel extremely coarse with a fast 30 second pass to level and condition the wheel surface. 

What are your thoughts on my approach?  How would you approach this?  Have you ever done anything like this and what might you have done differently?  Anything to add here would be of value as I'm planning to work on this blade in the next few days or so.

So it appears not everyone is in agreement as to which is best suited to use on the Tormek.  Tormek emphatically states diamond was chosen over CBN because it's best abrasive for this purpose.  Vadim (RIP) at Knife Grinders states the exact opposite when it comes to their grinding wheels.  Confused yet?  I am, I am in need for something to grind HSS and similar high carbide knife steels.  Which will I be best served by?  I will need a coarse wheel for reprofiling and finer for bevel setting.

https://tormek.com/en/knowledge/the-tormek-way-of-sharpening/sharpening-with-diamond-grinding-wheels

http://knifegrinders.com.au/CBN.htm

I am looking at putting together a set of these over time but was wondering about the availability of these after Vadim has passed.  Does anybody know what the status is of his company and how they will be proceeding to fill order and production over time?  Do I need to order now or risk not getting them at all if they stop production on these?

Also, the other question is one of longevity of the wheels.  I need something for 'super steels' and these seem to be the best choice but I still question the longevity as Vadim has claimed them to be.  Even with being careful on pressure it still seems too optimistic that they would last 4000 knives.

I have a customer request to grind a harpoon-style swedge knife to have a sharpened edge along that harpoon grind.  I am thinking I can just clamp the KJ-45 to the edge side of the knife on the primary grind bevel and use this way but am worried I am missing something here.  It seems that it should work but it's an expensive knife and I'd hate to mess up for not asking first.  Thoughts?  Anybody with experience doing this?

I'm beginning to really think I need this stone to add with the standard that came with the T8.  I've used this for quite some time and really found that while I don't grind much if any High Speed Steel, the standard stone can be quite slow especially on tougher steels that have low grindability as the edge bevel width gets wider.  Anybody else here using this Blackstone have anything to report before I take the plunge.  It's costly enough that I don't want to regret getting it but I can't see myself being anything but delighted to work more efficiently to produce my work.

Seems as though a surge protector would be unnecessary for this grinder but wanted to be certain of this.  Anybody able to say for certain one way or the other?

Interesting question here, I've got one that needs sharpening and I fear that this will potentially damage the SVM-45 and bite into the jig.  Anybody have experience here to share?

I have several knives that come to me which are too thick to use the new KJ jigs with and need to reprofile them and get even bevel widths and geometry.  I understand this is the drawback of this jig but it would seem just doing one side of the edge bevel and then remeasuring and adjusting the degrees before working the other side would allow for the correct geometry.  Am I missing something here?  It doesn't seem to be a big problem but I do often go back and forth taking a few passes on one side before flipping to the other side to keep things even.  I'm thinking just a few notches one way or the other using the micro adjust should be enough to get the degrees back right and it should be repeatable going back the other way to work the other side of the blade.

I've seen it mentioned with the Tormek manual for the SVM-45 jig that for knife sharpening the best bench height is between 22-26".  This goes against other recommendations I've seen for 29-32".  I have tried the higher height range and it doesn't work with me at 5' 7".  29" leaves my arms a bit higher than waist high and I'm going to try around 25-26" next.  Anybody else have similar experiences here or have anything to offer?

Does one benefit from using this jig on longer stiff/thick blades over just using the KJ-45?  I only have the 45 and am planning to do a lot of knives over 6" so I want to get the best possible result.  It seems the 140 is mainly needed for long thin knives like filet knives from the marketing... am I missing something?

I see the long knife version of this appears labeled as such on dealers online and neither of them are listed on Tormek website US anymore.  So it seems they are being replaced by the KJ-45 but I've found that it doesn't do everything I need.  .333" thick 'knives' or choppers will not work when they are flat ground instead of saber.  Guess I need to buy one before the stock dries up if that's the case.

I have knives and even swords that are in the ballpark of 10-18" and wonder if this extended support will cover all of that.  If not, where is the upper limit of what it will work with?  How well does this work with blades that have significant curvature in the belly near the tip?  I get some machete type patterns that are almost a 1/4" circle sort of heavy radius to them.  I find the standard support has difficulties with the heavy curvature and allowing you to keep the consistent angle all the way to tip.  What it wants to do is actually raise up the angle higher by having the part of knife contacting wheel be higher up on the wheel.

Is it possible to just simply remove the locknut and leather wheel from the unit while grinding on the stone?  I fear the handle of longer knives will hit on the wheel and catch leading to an unsafe condition.  Truthfully I never use the leather wheel and would prefer to just always have it off assuming it doesn't cause mechanical complications to the unit.

I've done several knives with this new jig and what I've noted is that whenever you use a knife that has a powder coating finish it puts wear on the coating there and sort of leaves a dent/scrape.  I don't mind personally but I sharpen knives for others and some people are very picky about wear spots and seem to not use their knives.  I have not tried a satin finished knife yet but it's coming next and have the same concern here.  I had a thought to wrap the blade with painter's tape there but wasn't sure how secure the blade would be fixed into the jig with that extra material there and quite possibly it may steel leave marks there from compressive forces.  Anybody have anything to offer here?