Messages

Ooooh, look what arrived today.   
I'm not that much of a turner - not at all! - really bought this to help with sharpening moulding planes. 

Before I got my Tormek, I typically sharpened our kitchen knives (Henckels) "quick and dirty" using a 320 grit band on my dynafile. So recently I sharpened them all on my Tormek and my wife was impressed!  shortly after however, she started to complain about the bread knife.  On inspecting it I saw that nearly all of the serrations had been reduced to almost nothing - obviously due to overly aggressive "sharpening" on both sides of the knife. Yesterday I had at it with a round file and easily restored the knife to a useable condition. Unfortunaately, I only had a round bastard file, so a Pferd round smooth file is in the mail for me to finish the job.
Anyway, bottom line - restoring the scalloped areas is quite easy with a round file, I used a 12" file and the radius was close enough.

Disgusting the way these Chinese fake name brand stuff.  I have a Devlbiss Prolite spray gun, cost me $440. On ebay they have Chinese fakes which look identical down to the home address of devilbiss imprinted on the gun for $69.  It's not only that you support thieves by buying this junk, you also confuse and devalue the used market for the real thing.

Many of the British and American companies that have Chinese knock off problems do not deserve our sympathy, it is because of greed they laid of local staff for the promise of cheap labor and low Health and Safety.

It's not my area of expertise but a friend of mine is into model railways, and he used a particular brand of track that is distinctive in it's design. During the boom time of the Chinese cheap labor they closed  down the factory in the UK, shipped all the tooling to China so they could make more profits. the Chinese brand of railway track sprung up within a month of the tooling being sent, half the price and from the moldings made in the same factory with the same tooling that was sent from the UK to start with. Of course the company then couldn't sell theirs at the price point they had had held for 50+ years workers were unemployed and the company made less profit.

It is rumored that of the 50 MIG fighters Russia sold to the Chinese in the 1950's despite never ordering service parts 300 of them are still airworthy!!!

The Prolite is exclusively manufactured in the U.K. so I'm not sure how this story - though true - applies.   I suspect Tormek have never used China s a manufacturer either, so again, doesn't apply.  It is Governemnt supported theft by the Chinese.

Disgusting the way these Chinese fake name brand stuff.  I have a Devlbiss Prolite spray gun, cost me $440. On ebay they have Chinese fakes which look identical down to the home address of devilbiss imprinted on the gun for $69.  It's not only that you support thieves by buying this junk, you also confuse and devalue the used market for the real thing.

Thank you both.  My wife was very pleased with the knives last time - I did lift but clearly need more practise to be consistent.

I'm wondering what the consensus is on the proper technique for sharpening knives?  The Tormek video (I keep wanting to say "Tormach" as I have a Tormach milling machine also) shows strictly rotating the guide on the guide bar. Youtube videos show two different techniques, one gentleman shows "lifting" rather than rotating - he states NOT to rotate. Another shows a combination of rotating and lifting the jig/knife.

?

Excellent idea, I think I will copy you!

Welcome to the forum, Kenc. That's good information about bolt grades. Is there any difference between grades in corrosion resistance?

Ken (S)

Thanks for the welcome Ken, I hope to learn a lot about the Tormak here. I have a T7 with a number of the jigs and an SJ250 waterstone.

Regarding corrosion, I don't know off hand, that's a good question. If I were to guess, I would say yes, that grade 8 - which is an alloy steel - would be superior, but I'm not sure what alloying elements are included in grade 8. I know nickel and chromium improve corrosion resistance.

A quick search led me to this which looks pretty complete:
https://www.fastenal.com/content/documents/FastenalTechnicalReferenceGuide.pdf

Hmm, need to sit down and read this, I bet the info is in here somewhere!

Guys,

Grade 8 or even grade 5 hardware is a massive overkill! Grade 2 bolts have a tensile strength of over 70,000psi, the trivial weight of your grinding wheel will not pose a problem for basic low carbon steel hardware.