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Hey Kids!  Wanna see a burr on a knife at 200X magnification?  Well, now you can, with the new Burr-Omatic microscope!

You are looking down from spine towards the edge at about a 50% angle.

I ground the knife on one side at 80 grit, which forms a burr on the other side.

The side I ground, opposite the burr:



One view of the other side with the burr.  You can see the burr protruding from the edge:



If you look carefully, below you can see that a burr is not just bent shards of metal, but rather it actually rolls over the edge and forms little tunnels of steel.  As you  sharpen with finer and finer grits going from side to side of the knife, some of the burr gets torn off, and the thicker parts get bent back and forth until they break off due to metal fatigue.



I could document this process of going from 80 grit to 9 micron abrasives, but it's sort of a pain to take these pictures.

It also shows that if you are looking for a slightly more aggressive "toothy" edge, that one should not mistake burr junk hanging off the blade for "tooth" left by finishing with a coarse abrasive.  It's always a good idea to give it a light strop to remove the junk, or the junk may end up as a microscopic tasty condiment in your sirloin.

Anyway, I think it is pretty interesting to see what is actually happening when you sharpen a blade. 

I wanted to show off my impressive woodworking skills, so lacking a table saw or jigsaw, I hacked this prototype out of an old piece of wood using a full size ax as a chisel, a small sledge hammer to bash on the ax to split the wood, and hand saw. 

I know!...  You are in awe of the fine craftsmanship!  You can tell I have a bright future in handmade fine furniture.

It's pretty obvious how you use it.  Just rest the knife against the guide and sharpen.

It works for any size knife, pen knife, machete etc

I didn't bother to even fasten it to the front of the machine, and just had my wife hold it in position whilst I sharpened a knife.  It worked.  Nice, even, 20 degree bevel.  No slipping down the wheel because it is sharpening into the wheel rotation.

For longer knives you would have to pop off the honing wheel, but that's quick and easy.
It does not interfere with use of the water tray.

Could it use a little refinement?   

You need to be able to adjust the closeness to the wheel.
Adjustable rest angle would be cool.
Needs to be higher on the wheel so the wheel goes slightly behind the bottom of the rest.  This would also probably eliminate the need for popping off the honing wheel.

Anyway, it's a different approach, and for a "slightly" rough prototype, it worked! 

Hey Herman...  I have a pocket knife that I am having difficulty getting sharp.  I've labored away at the thing and no matter what I try it just won't seem to get very sharp.  I've tried coarse wheel, smooth wheel and all in between.  Pressing hard or letting the knife ride on the wheel with almost no pressure doesn't work either.  I've tried thinning the blade with a 15 degree angle and then putting a 20 degree primary bevel on it.  That got it a little sharper, but still not really sharp.

I know Herman has mentioned this before, and now I've seen it on several knives, pocket knives and kitchen knives.  Both new and old knives, I don't think it's an issue that someone used a dry grinder and overheated the knife, or some kind of after production tempering of the blade.

I found the following post about the edge just crumbling away as it's being sharpened.  I can't really tell anything looking at it using a 200X scope, so I don't know if that is happening or not.  http://forum.gon.com/showthread.php?t=729868

The steel on these knives seems pretty hard, but I'm removing metal so I'm doing some-"thing" to it.  Basically just wearing it away. 

The only useful suggestion I've seen is to throw the knife away and get a different knife.

Any metallurgists out there with any ideas?   I'm worry that in my frustrating failure I may start to suffer feelings of inadequacy.

I have a knife that is badly concave towards the spine at the center of the blade.  It needs a lot taken off a good inch at the heel end and some taken from just before the curve towards the tip to get the blade flat.

I have tried increasing pressure at these areas in an effort to remove more metal there, but it does not work well.

I have an old, long, slicing knife that I use for practice and experimentation.  The things that I have done to that poor blade are not things that one should speak of in polite company.  I only do these "things" late at night, down in the basement when I think nobody is looking.

It too was badly concave towards the spine, and needed a good 2mm or 3mm or more removed from the last 1.5" near the heel end to get it anywhere near flat.

So, I just held the knife parallel with the wheel and ground it down unil it was even with the rest of the blade.  This resulted in a "cutting edge" that was .5mm to maybe 1mm wide.  Of course, this was done late at night when nobody was looking...

Then I just put a new edge on it.  It worked!  I can't really tell it from the rest of the blade, and it's sharp.

If you ever run out of knives to sharpen because all of your knives are sharp, this method works very well to remedy that situation.

It worked well, but I have to ask, is this the correct way to do this?

Thought y'all might find this interesting.  I included two pics of a mm ruler to give perspective.  The rest are pics of my wife's knife.  It has very hard steel that is difficult to sharpen.  It has a... (gasp)... pink handle.

I sharpened it not too long ago, but as you can see it needs a little work again.

Ruler 20x:



Ruler 400x:



Blade 20x:



Blade 400x:



Blade 400x:



Blade 400x:

Just in case Tormek is here...

Recently, when sharpening pinking shears, I had difficulty mounting the shears because the jaws don't open wide enough.   

Same with the SVM-45 Knife Jig.

To work around the puny jaw issue, many times I've had to clamp the jigs somewhere other than the middle of the blade.  When sharpening, getting to the end of the off center  blade causes the jig to fall off one end or the other of the US-105 Universal Support bar.  It would be nice if the top bar was longer and also continued in both directions from the two bars that connect to the machine.

Anyone try sharpening shears with the I/H jig?

Bob sez: "This is really very easy to do.  Very accessible". 

I'll bet he can hold any bevel angle precisely without really trying.  He reminds me of the guy who spends three days on calculations, but when presenting his conclusions starts by saying, "...and the obvious result is...". 

Like anything that requires skill, including Tormeking, practice makes perfect.

Four to six pounds of pressure on a 400 grit stone.  I suspect this would  vary somewhat with steel hardness.

"Razor sharp.  Hair popping sharp."

Good stuff, Bob!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kFhMGJYhYpU

Anyone notice the new SVM-00 Small Knife Jig?

I don't even know if it's relevant anymore considering the IH jig.

It also does not help with sharpening a machete, while the IH jig does both.

I'm not sure how, since it's gripping the handle, it compensates for many pocket knives with more than one blade since in that case the blade is off center in the handle.  I need to read further.

But it appears that Tormek does listen.

http://tormek.com/international/en/grinding-jigs/svm-00-small-knife-holder/

I was given a pair of pinking shears to sharpen. I found the below post from Jeff describing how, and I've watched other videos on the 'Net, but I'm curious as to if any of you guys have done it and how it turned out.

Is the Tormek a good solution for sharpening pinkers, or should I leave it to the dudes who do this professionally?  I don't want to mess up this lady's scissors.

Checking around it looks like they are called "vintage".  Wiss CB7.

Hey Tom, (Mamba), any input on this?

Paint the bevel of the pinking shear with the marker in the Break-in & Maintenance kit (or any waterproof marker).  Mount the shear in the blade clamp. Rest the blade clamp against the support plate and adjust the angle of the support plate until it visually appears that the bevel is resting on the stone.  Turn the stone by hand and inspect the scratches.  Adjust if the bevel is too much toward the heel or toe until the bevel is resting on the stone.  Grind away.  For pinking shears, I would use the 220 grit, followed by the 1000 grit finish.  The first step should be used three or four strokes across the stone.  Inspect frequently and continue grinding until a fresh, sharp, continuous bevel is established.  Then grade the grindstone and refine the scratch pattern in the bevel.

Thought you guys might enjoy this video.  Notice when sharpening he uses both flat disks, belt sanders and what looks like about 10" stones.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OCoS81G2CY

"And that was after he used the same knife to cut through a bolt".  But wait!  The first 50 callers will receive an absolutely free, the whacker hacker salad smacker that makes chopping salads a breeze!.  But that's not all... you will also receive 50 steak knives!  280 bread knives...

We surpassed all previous listed records for new posts, and it's only March.  I think it happened early today or yesterday.

How cool, all this enthusiasm and innovation going on here!

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Blade size: 5 mm x 35 mm.  A very small knife.

This is a crude of a proof of concept, made from cutting a small strip of metal from a can of Del Monte Cut Golden Wax Beans. I just bent the strip in half, slipped it over the tang of the blade and clamped in in the small knife jig.  Very sturdy.  Stronger than you would probably think.

Much to my surprise, it worked perfectly the first time, putting a 20 degree bevel on the tiny blade, without interference from the small knife jig. Clamping to the tang keeps the blade centered in the jig.  Only used for grinding with the wheel, but then, on very small knives that's what you do anyway.

I think about three sizes would handle all knives too small to fit in the standard jig. Obviously the design and construction material could stand some refinement.

Once made, it's slip it over the knife, clamp in jig. Done. (Bob's your uncle). You get all the advantages of using the small knife jig.

Jeff has generously agree to make the GSM sticky.  "You guys start the threads and start populating them. I'll make them stickies."  Thanks Jeff!
http://forum.tormek.com/index.php?topic=1543.msg6001#msg6001

Just for simplicity can we call:

General Tormek Questions (Board)
       cheap tools for learning (Thread)
              Reply
              Reply
        cold chisels (Thread)
         ....

It really does not matter what we call them, just that we are all on the same page.  If anybody wants to call them differently, great, but let's all agree on something!

Would it be a good idea to discuss what threads would comprise the GSM before just punting them out there?  For example:
     Knife Sharpening
     Honing
     Wheel Maintenance
     ....

Without some upfront organization we could easily create a mess.

Ideas?

This thing can make a mess!  I found an 18" x 26" stainless tray works well to contain the mess.

It's sitting on one of those white composite tables from an office supply store. The table surface is slightly rough.  The fine gritty slough was very difficult to remove from the table surface.  Household cleaners didn't touch it.  Electronics cleaner dissolved and cleaned it instantly.  I suspect, but have not verified,  that it's the naptha in the cleaner that was the solvent.

Wow!  About 3,000 views each on two different topics.

We may be very interested in this stuff, but I would think that our little world here about a particular grinder is pretty obscure and esoteric to the rest of 'Net land.

I have an 8" chef knife with about 1/2" broken off the tip.  I've read that this should be reshaped from the back side of the knife, forming a nice curve to the tip.

My question is how to approach the wheel?  90 degrees across the width of the wheel using the jig?  Parallel to the wheel?  Into or away from the stone?  I wouldn't want to dig gouges into the wheel if that is even possible.

I'm clueless!  Appreciate any advice.

Thanks,

Mark

After reading the "Does Tormek take hardware suggestions" thread, I'll bump the pocket knife (and knives with very thin blades) jig request again.

Not trying to blab or beat a dead horse as I know this has been brought up before, but maybe this post will add a new record to a database somewhere.

Maybe it could be something that would grip the handle, or pinch around the heel of the blade?

Occasionally, on very small knives, the knife jig will open wide enough to grab the handle, but most times not.

My freehand sharpening has a lot to be desired!

I am a happy T-7 owner.  One issue I have noticed is that the surface of the standard grinding wheel quickly develops rough spots that have more friction than the rest of the wheel.  It's as if the entire wheel is glazed, with areas where the glaze has broken through.  (The wheel is not glazed, it cuts fine, I'm just using that for illustration.)

Using the stone grader I can feel it grab each time one of these areas passes beneath it.  When sharpening blades, it jerks the knife with each pass.  Grading helps, but does not totally remove the problem areas as they very quickly redevelop.  Resurfacing the wheel removes them for a shot while.

Is this just normal, or could I possibly have a funky wheel?

Thanks!