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My advice, similar to what has been mentioned, is to make sure you get a burr during the sharpening.. Don't worry about counting passes on the coarse grinding - you have to go until you have a burr. Sometimes that will be 3 passes/side, sometimes 20 passes/side etc.   

Honing is probably fine, but you could verify that you are getting the full bevel by using a sharpie.

And finally you could consider a strop as a finishing touch, which usually gives a bit of a boost to BESS scores.  But with the SG and leather wheel you should be able to get close to 150 or so...

I did consider a finer grit, but I'm taking cues from Vadim's work that 160grit was enough to get sub 100 BESS. When I deploy this technique I do it for speed/time so I don't want to get too involved with swapping wheels. My standard sharpening is 160–400–1000 - leather wheel- felt - strop which takes 15-20 minutes, and the 160-composite-ChromOx is about 10min, so there's not a lot of room time-wise to add extra steps.. 

I have tried it using 160 CBN, then composite and then ChromOx.... 100-120 BESS at 15 dps.   I would guess at Vadim's preferred 12dps I might be below 100, but not 70.  I've never been able to match the master

I think I can do better with my ChromOx wheel. The knife doesn't slide smoothly across, it seems bumpy. I'm going to clean it off, sand it down, and reapply the green goop.

Worth checking out the Knife Grinders YouTube video comparing T4 and T8...

And I'll add: the FVB is by far the most game-changing purchase for my T8 yet.

Third edit: I see on your pick you have the belt sander I was thinking of. Why on earth would you want to reprofile a blade with the Tormek ?

Seconding tgbto... Skip the wheels purchases and get an FVB.  In terms of bang for buck it's the best aftermarket investment for Tormek knife sharpening IMHO.

This is so sad.  Vadim was a legend and an inspiration.  His generosity with his knowledge made me a better sharpener by orders of magnitude.  I'll miss his sense of humour and (somehow) charming unwillingness to suffer fools too.  RIP to a great man.

I don't have experience with AUS10, but in the absence of a definitive answer from someone else here I would probably start with the assumption it's positive and see if the results prove or disprove that...

Personally I would send that video to Tormek - they will sort you out very quickly I'm sure - either with the cure or a replacement...

Hi Micha,

I'll play with that idea of slack and report back.  I think there might be an issue that if the edge doesn't land exactly in the centre of the test line then as you press down the apex will slice the media slightly laterally as it makes its way to the lowest point of the 'V' that will be created in the line...  But I'll try it.

Regarding the pre-tensioned clips, you're not the first person that doesn't like them, but my experiences have only been positive so far...

I made a video a few months ago showing the effects of thread tension on BESS score... And also how BESS scores can be artificially lowered by chopping down on the thread, rather than gradual progression of pressure.  On the latter point I managed to get a Mora basic down to 16 BESS 
https://youtu.be/dG2rQ6CjTyc

After having seen the film, I wonder what the value of a BESS measurement means. Even the 'prestressed' measuring bridges do not give any unambiguous measurement.
In my opinion, the tolerance is near ± 30, but at least ± 10.

In my experience +/- 10 is probably fair - I doubt it's as much as 30.  So difficult to know though, because are you measuring, exactly the same part of the edge, and/or did the first test impact the quality of the edge for the second test?  Certainly the operator has to carry the responsibility of working carefully to get good, useable results.  But as others have said, for comparing one's own results I'm confident that my BESS 80 is sharper than my BESS 100...   But how my 80 compares to someone else's 80... no way to know.  Only by using standard weights (100g etc) or the pre-tensioned clips can we narrow that gap a bit, but regardless we have to count on each other to not 'chop' during the measurement.

I made a video a few months ago showing the effects of thread tension on BESS score... And also how BESS scores can be artificially lowered by chopping down on the thread, rather than gradual progression of pressure.  On the latter point I managed to get a Mora basic down to 16 BESS 

https://youtu.be/dG2rQ6CjTyc

Overall an excellent video.  I got a bit worried when they started out with 'edge leading vs edge trailing' as to me that's not really an 'advanced' topic.  But the remainder was very good... I finally got a bit of clarity on Wolfgang's unusual (to me) clamping style with the SVM-45.

I have the PT50A.   With a do-over I would probably get the PT50-B.  I find I don't put much emphasis on the 1g resolution (for example is 80BESS really better than 84).   Also so many variables with BESS testing (thread tension etc).

After a sharpening session I'd definitely want to know if I was more at 125 or 85, but not so much whether I'm 90 or 92 BESS...

Fabulous.  Thanks for breaking the news here! 

Love the idea of quantifying slicing... looking forward to seeing some reviews.