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You are right Ken. That is sort of what I say when I am putting up one of our yard greetings. Regarding straight lines as in a line of letters spelling out Happy Birthday. I make it straight to my naked eye and say to myself that if I can't see it, no one else can so it is straight!

When you use anything to grind with you are going to produce a negative image of the device you are using. So if you are using a round wheel, the negative would be a concave image. You have to do what Ken said but in reality the slight concavity of the edge you are producing is unlikely to ever cause a problem. I get your drift though.

I would suggest a hand held grinder. The six inch size would be good or eight inches would cover the entire cutting edge of most mower blades. These give you a flat grind edge and like I mentioned you can pretty much cover the whole cutting edge. Of course you would go a little at a time so as not to over heat the blade. I have never done this but my lawn mower mechanic does mine for me and they look like factory edges. You are never going to get smooth edge behind the grind with a round wheel. It would be much like a belt grinder if you follow my suggestion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSczljOVs6o If anyone else wondered what became of him.

Frequent, light truing is essential. Like brake linings on a vehicle, grinding wheels area long term consumable items. This applies to all grinding wheels, including diamond and CBN. Ken, did you really say that diamond wheels and CBN wheels need truing? It is hard to imagine there is enough meat to true.

It may reduce slightly but will always be there. Other than the annoyance it is not an issue and will not affect the honing qualities. All you can do is live with it. Such a simple thing, you would think that there is a better way.

The Supergrind is the precursor to the T7 and later the T8. It would serve you well but the price you saw seems a bit to much. I do not know what a Tormek goes for in Europe. If that 650 euros were dollars I would say maybe $400 for the lot you mentioned. Although the Tormek is very robust and will normally last for many years, that old unit is out of warranty and you do not know its history. For me, at that price I would save some more and get a new T8. I would buy the jigs I needed as I needed them. Go slow and learn to use them one at a time. The new T8 will have a better water trough and a stainless shaft for the stone. It may come with the EZ lock nut which is another plus. If you are just going to sharpen very little you might look into the T4 as a cheaper alternative but I would go for the T8 and never look back.

Offline Ken S
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Ken!!!!!!!! You need to hurry and make another post. Too many 6s.

 $90 CAD

What's that, about $15 USD? LOL

I'm guessing this is the thread you're referring to?

https://forum.tormek.com/index.php?topic=2413.0

Bingo.

We had a long discussion about this same thing years ago as I was poopooing the use of the T3 now the T4. One of my arguments being that the stone on the then T3 was already used up. The first moderator of the forum and importer of the Tormek system, Jeff Farris said on the forum that he retired stones at 200mm. Yet the T3 is born that way. Turns out the limiting factor was the ability of the T7/T8 nee Supergrind stone to reach the water trough. At 200mm it was about at its limit to remain wet. No one was actually concerned with the concavity caused by the smaller stone. But as noted above there is an increase in hollow ness. Is that a word? Once again, it was I that expressed concern about this as I considered it a serious weakening of the edge due to less meat behind the edge because of the greater hollowness. I was pretty much poopooed away yet again on my thinking. I am still of the opinion that a flat grind is the best grind for a knife blade or any other blade.

I have never used a Norton 3x grinding wheel that is made for use on a high speed grinder. Most high speed grinders run at about 3500 rpm. There is an alternative which is the Rikon "slow speed grinder". Slow is relative and only slow when compared to high speed. The Rikon is supposed to operate at about 1750 rpms. Whether or not this is better for some of you I have no idea. I just put it out there for your consideration. I have one of these machines and although it is slower than the traditional high speed grinder it will still produce sparks so do not buy it thinking otherwise. Like someone else said, a belt is the best way to go anyway. A round wheel is not shaped correctly to turn a bar of steel into a knife blade.

I agree with having an "expert" do the job. It is not easy to drill precisely. Along those lines skilled machining is not going to come cheaply. Although I have no experience in this field I am wild guessing at $100 for a machine shop to do it. I hope you lot us know what the cost was if you choose a machine shop.

Depends on how long a "session" is. The short answer is no, not every session. The more paste that is on the wheel the faster it will work so it is a toss up. The more often you apply the paste the faster it will work. There is a point at which you can over paste the wheel. The wheel does not have to be wet. The "wet" is a carrier for the paste, the wet is not the cutting agent. Your wheel should be dry to the touch.

Wally, most of us on here are wondering how you "wore down" an Anglemaster. Did you or did you not use it on a revolving stone? I cannot understand how you would wear a device by placing it on a stationary object. If you could enlighten all of us it would be great.