Messages

Good guess, Jeff.  I suspect you are correct, although I have never thought of a Tormek as being in the same hazard category as a table saw.  It seems a good regulation.

Ken

Rhino,

You are certainly entitled to your opinion.  I am as likely to collect things as the next person.  ( I admit to having sixteen templates for my Omnijig, ten more than Porter Cable made for it.  That's another story.)

However,  for kitchen knives, I prefer to go simple.  My wooden knife block holds eight knives.  In addition to those, I have a chinese cleaver which I like for vegetables.  For my needs, they are sufficient.  I used them almost every day in meal preparation.  They happen to be Henckel knives, although any good knife would be a good substitute.

I can see the possible benefit of having a couple less expensive knives for camping trips.

My kitchen is small enough that I do not have room for knives beyond those I actually use.  I am also not a knife collector.  Knife collectors might enjoy having more knives to select from in their kitchens.

I have never run any of my knives through a dishwasher, nor would I.   My young grandchildren live with me.  The life example  I want to leave them is to use tools skillfully and carefully.  That includes properly maintaining them.

I enjoy sharpening.  My woodshop provides me with plenty of edges to maintain.

Ken

I saw this in the description of the T 7 in the Black Friday sale ad:

"new electronic on/off safety switch"

I wasn't aware of any problems with the older switch.  Does anyone know why the switch was switch, and when?

Ken

Jeff, as much as I like my old Henckels, if I had seen the rosewood handled knives at the time I might be just a passionate about them today.  The rosewood handles would have a nice feel and seem more natural. (The prices seem very reasonable, too.) I'm sure the plastic handles are designed for health department restaurant regulations.

I gave my daughter a nice old Sabatier slicing knife with carbon steel and a nice ebony (or ebonized) handle. In hindsight, I wish I had kept it.  It just feels hand friendly.

Ron, I can appreciate your concern for your wife's hands.  In fact, the main reason I originally purchased my Tormek was because my hands hurt after flattening several chisels.  I hope you will research the choice and use of kitchen knives for arthritic hands and post the results.  Keeping the knives sharp should also help lessen the strain of using them.

One thing I have notices about using a cutting board is how important having it at the right height is.  It can be the difference between feeling good and back pain. 

This is an interesting topic.

Ken

Good idea, Ron.  A small engineer's square is useful for many things.

Ken

I agree with Jeff Farris.  I do the chopping for our meals, and use my faithful twenty year old Henckels every day.  They were, and probably still are, the top of the line.  They are comfortable and a joy to use.  I would not buy a set.  I use the eight inch chef's knife, the four inch paring knife, a six inch slicing knife and a bread knife.  My boning knife is mostly used with tomatoes, as we eat very little meat.  The ten inch slicing knife sees very little duty.  If your budget is tight, start with just the chef's knife and the paring knife.  They will suffice.

My knives have never been near a dishwasher and are carefully stored in a now well worn knife block.

Good knives should end up as part of your estate, and are a pleasure to use.  You will use them more often than a Kitchenaid and probably a Cuisinart.  put your resources where they will give service every day.

The other side of knives is a good cutting board.  I have used an 18 x 24" Boos board for many years.  I would not go any smaller unless it is absolutely necessary.

Ken

Thanks, Jeff, for a thorough and honest post. 

It's easy to think that an expensive piece of equipment like the Tormek should be able to be accurate without much tweaking.  In industry, even top quality tools like Starrett are reqularly calibrated.  How many squares or levels, even new expensive tools are truly square or level?  If they were, why would we check levels at the store?

I think Jeff's post indicates the necessity of being diligent and continually checking.  Another interesting thought is:  "If squareness of edge is critical to the tool's use,"  How much squareness do we really need?  I'm not advocating sloppy work. Dovetails have traditionally been chopped with hand sharpened chisels.  I doubt the early craftsmen kept a Starrett square next to the oil stone.  Like Jeff, I keep a Starrett square very nearby.  However, I do believe that for most work, anything resembling square is probably very adequate.  My most often sharpened chisels are my old ever faithful Stanleys which have seen numerous nasty excavations in less than pristine conditions over the years.  Certainly squareness is not a requirement for them.

I do believe there is room for improvement.  I like Mike's idea about establishing a more accurate front reference surface.  Some roughing up should improve the gripping surfaces of the jig. 

It is regrettable that the Tormek, like most tools, is sold without a good training session with an expert who can verify that the machine is properly tuned and the operator has mastered some of the basic use skills.

I have posted, both on this forum and directly with Tormek, that more thorough video training aids would be beneficial.  Jeff's training films, especially the turning packet are excellent, as are the you tubes done by Alan Holtham.  However, there is room for more training films on basics such as establishing squareness and proper touch.  Good training aids would speed up this learning process, and probably prevent premature discouraged selling off of new machines.

Let's keep using this forum to make our sharpening better.  We need to keep dealing with the frustrations head on.

Ken

It seems to me this squareness issue is caused by either defective equipment or operator error/inexperience.

I can think of one good way to resolve the issue.  Jeff, would you please run a chisel through the sharpening process with your SE-76 and describe how square the edge is?

Jeff is arguably one of the most knowledgeable and experienced Tormek users in the world.  If his off the shelf equipment can get a square edge, then we need to work on our technique.

Jeff, will you help us out?

Ken

This discussion reminds me of my experience with the Unimat (a small combination metal lathe and mill).  Sadly, the Unimat is no longer manufactured.  Over the years a few people have manufactured after market accessories for it.  While the original accessories are generally available on ebay, the useful after market accessories are very hard to locate.

The Tormek jigs of course are readily available new.  The only other after market accessory I have seen for the Tormek was a modified diamond dresser.  I don't believe it is still available.  Robin's long support bar seems like a fine idea.  I hope there are enough orders to manufacture it.  Some of us may regret not doing so when the need for it later arises.

Ken

You might be interested in an earlier posting.  A question arose about how Richard Raffan worked.  I decided to send hi an email and ask him.  He replied promptly and graciously allowed me to post his answer.  i've never met him, but he seems like a nice guy and a fine turner.

Here is the posting:


Rather than try to guess what Richard Raffan might say, I decided to email him.  ("Contact" on his website, richardraffan.com)

Richard promptly and graciously replied, and allowed me to post his reply.  Here it is:

Ken,

These days I have my Tormek set up with a platform fixed on the vertical rest for my skew chisels: the wheel comes to the chisel. And on the other side I use the horizontal rest for gouges, mainly so I don't have to adjust the skew platform.  I prefer the wheel coming on to the tool as I don't hone, and I used the vertical approach because I found that easiest at the time and I could well have been shown that by Geoff Brown.
I might add that I do very little turning these days and now use my Tormek mostly for knives. I'd go with what Jeff Farris recommends as he'd use the Tormek more than anyone and knows it inside out.

As far as updating photos in books:  it's a nice idea but generally deemed far to expensive. Typos and major errors in editing are corrected at the first reprint but that's about it. I'd love to upgrade all my publications on a regular basis but it's not feasible.

I'm not sure this does much to clear the air, but feel free to post on the forum. Cheers, RR.

Richard Raffan

Robin, my offer to purchase one of your extended support bars is still good.  J'm glad your design has passed the two year field test.  Good work.

Ken

This is just a guess, but I think the advantage of the asymmetrical grind would be to offer the benefit of a longer cutting surface with the stability of a shorter grind on the opposite side of the tool.

Ken

Well said, Rhino.

Ken

Two possible (related) gremlins come to mind:

If the blade projection is very long, any unevenness in finger pressure will be magnified.  When sharpening chisels, I like to keep the blade projection very short.  I generally set the Universal Support Bar distance by using the closer setting on the TT-100 tool.  The exact distance doesn't really matter for this application.  Using a block of wood or eyeballing would work just as well.  The point is to keep the blade projection short.

Since the blade doesn't project far, the effect of uneven pressure is moderated.  This is the exact opposite of setting up to sharpen a jack plane blade where you want long projection to add a radius with pressure manipulation.

The constraint with this method is that the three inch Starrett square won't work unless the blade is removed from the jig.  Removing the blade for frequent inspection is self defeating.  Machinists often modify squares.  That would seem outside the scope of sharpening chisels.  However, a small square could be fashioned by sawing and filing a piece of unhardened metal.  One side could be long enough to check the widest chisel; the other just shy of the distance from the edge to the jig.  The accuracy could easily be checked with the Starrett square. A simpler method would be to use a combination or double square.

If anyone from Tormek in Sweden is reading this, a small square would be a very nice accessory.

Combined with careful checking and practice, a short projection and light touch should minimize the problem.  Adding Mike's idea of truing the front jig surface seems like a fine idea.

The problem of being out of square is not unique to the Tormek.  I once carefully sharpened a wide paring chisel with Arkansas stones to a very keen edge.  It was a fine slightly skewed chisel.

Ken

Good thought, Herman.  I do believe Mike's modification will certainly help, although there is no substitute for careful and checked work. 

Ken