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From the looks of the edge, my guess is that the back of that chisel is as pitted as the front. Unless you grind the back flat (or at least the portion of the back near the edge) you will never get all those nicks out of the edge. Nevertheless, an old chisel like that is good to have around for rough work.

I really want the Japaneses Waterstone Wheel, the SJ-200 so I can have mirror edges, I really like shiny edges on knives for some reason.

You can get mirror finishes with the SG and the honing wheel. Make sure the SG is free of swarf by applying the coarse side of the stone grader if necessary. Then use the fine side of the stone grader, but you have to apply a lot of force and spend a lot of time to get the SG properly graded. Then, after sharpening the knife use the honing wheel. In my experience this gives a mirror finish. I've never tried the SJ.

Knives that are sharpened in this way may not perform well for some kitchen tasks. For example, when slicing a tomato I like the knife edge to be a bit rough so it cuts through the tomato skin better. On the other hand, that nice smooth finish is good for carving wood. I'll never forget the first time I got a wood chisel sharp with my Tormek. The chisel performed like a completely different tool. I spent several years working as a carpenter and had never appreciated the value of a chisel because I never had a truly sharp one.

The chipping shows up during grinding, if I continue grinding chips continue to show up. The stone is well dressed and trued. The picture of the chips is through a 15x loupe. There are deep scratches on the blade in the general area of where the chipping occurs which lends weight to the damaged blade theory. I'm new at this so just wanted to get some feedback. I have been picking up knives at yard sales to practice on. This is the first time I have encountered something like this.

I have encountered it only once on a pair of cheap pocket knives. The only thing I could do was sharpen them at a very blunt angle, making them useless for all but the roughest of purposes.

So you don't know if the chipping was there before you started sharpening, or were created by the sharpening process?

Inspect the edge with good light and a magnifying glass. Sharpen and see if the chipping gets worse or better.

If the sharpening process itself is creating the chipping, then I recommend you sharpen at a more blunt angle. It's poor quality steel.

On the other hand, if the chipping is reduced by sharpening, I recommend dressing the grindstone coarse and sharpen until the chipping disappears. Then you can dress the grindstone fine and sharpen again. Finish off with the leather honing wheel.

I bought their best buy, J.A. Henckels take-apart kitchen shears, a few months ago from Amazon. I ordered one pair but got three! The take-apart feature makes them easy to clean and will make them easier to sharpen. Years ago Jeff Farris told me to sharpen only the non-serrated blade of a pair of kitchen shears on the Tormek, and that the serrated blade could be lapped by hand.

I understand that the Tormek Japanese Waterstone's 4,000 grit designation is based on the JIS (Japanese system) - am I right?

I don't know. Do you have a reason for your belief? It would be hard to imagine Tormek departing from its own established use of grit numbers (220 coarse and ~1000 fine).

But I have no idea.

I can't imagine a 10 000 grit doing anything other than a polish.

I believe Tormek users will be in two groups in the future. The first group will continue to use the original Tormek SG wheel. The stone grader, or at least stone grading, will continue to be important. The second group will invest in diamond stones and have little or no use for stone grading.

Perhaps it will become cost effective for many of us to have one of each type. With each being used for one of its particular tasks, the two will last much longer and in the end save money.

I've found out the stone get clogged by the steel of the blade and gets smooth after a few seconds.

If enough of that swarf gets embedded in the grindstone then grinding becomes very inefficient. I apply the coarse side of the stone grader, often using the edges, to remove the swarf. Then I spend a few minutes applying the fine side of the stone grader, if a finer grind is desired.

Over time the fine side of my stone grader has become dished - is it still useable or should I replace it? (I'm concerned it might change the shape of the wheel, although I haven't been able to ascertain the veracity of this.)

You control the shape of the grindstone with the truing tool. The fine side of the stone grader will conform to this shape. Jeff Farris used to tell us that having the fine side concave makes it work better. I agree.

Ken, I think I sort of stumbled onto the 600 grit thing. I do as I describe above, but I did't bother spending a lot of time or applying a lot of pressure grading with the coarse side, either.

Of course, it's occasionally necessary to apply the rough side with lots of pressure when the grindstone gets filled with swarf.

I used the TT-50 grader the other day before sharpening a badly damaged knife.

The original truing tool produced a surface so rough you'd use it on a badly damaged chisel or axe.   

In the last few days I've sharpened every one of the four pair of pruning shears we own. Every one was very dull. I first prepared the grindstone with the coarse side of the stone grader, and then used the fine side very briefly with light pressure. I needed something in between coarse and fine.

So, Ken now has my old ADV-50 in his Tormek museum.  That is where this thing belongs :  replace it as soon as you can with the TT-50.

That was the last straw for me. Bought the new TT-50 and used it today for the first time. It is a huge improvement over the ADV-50.

New owners of the T-4 might be able to make use of the museum piece. 

It really is necessary and economical to keep the grindstone true.

By the way, the diamond cluster seems interchangeable between the two jigs.

Okay, so, given that, how do I fix it?  Assuming the problem is that there is not as much "hook" as the original, it seems I need to grind away some of the center area of the trough.

It's almost impossible to believe you could have changed the radius of that "hook" significantly. So what is it that causes the knife to perform differently? I would ask her to demonstrate. Seems more likely that you've sharpened the edge to a slightly different angle, or polished the bevel to different extent. Either of these would affect the way the knife performs the task.

Guys, just bought my first Tormek. a T8. I've watched all the videos and have an idea of sharpening using only a 25° primary bevel.. and that's all... ok. What happens when that edge goes blunt... do I have to do it all over again?     Surely a 30° secondary touch up bevel is more efficient? Please help me to understand the theory / strategy of single bevel only... cheers Gary!

If you have a secondary bevel of 30° that would be equivalent to a single 30° bevel, which would be more efficient provided you have the motor propulsion of the Tormek. The only advantage to a secondary bevel is that it makes it easier to hand sharpen, perhaps when you're away from your Tormek.