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I was in a similar situation but mine was bought at a auction sight unseen for 1/8th of new price. Whist the machine was fine the shaft was rusted and the wheel had to be replaced. With a new shaft and SG-250 it was as good as new. It is now doing good service in my son's shed.

The BESS tester is just a rough guide to sharpness. It is not designed to provide a repeatable consistent standards based sharpness test. The BESS tester bears no resemblance to a ISO sharpness test.

Your best way is to try to apply the edge consistently as best you can.

Beautiful restoration. Lovely knife.

It is the natural grindstone. Tormek went away from the natural grindstones years ago. I believe that it is a natural Aluminium oxide so is pretty much equivalent to the SG but natural rather than synthetic.

Many purists swear by natural stones claiming that they give a far more robust and sharper edge though much of this is probably perception rather than reality.

Synthetic stones can be produced with much higher consistency are reliability which is why most stones these days are synthetic.

Having said that if you do have the old ES then it should work perfectly fine ... until it wears down of course

The principal is to take advantage of nerve endings. The finger tips are very sensitive so holding something such as a marker lid by the finger tips will detect any discontinuity in the edge as you suggest. That is why the finger nail is so good at detecting any roughness since there is a very high density of nerve endings under the fingernail.

As for the marker lid the trick would be to hold the lid very gently which would make your finger tips more sensitive.

Remember, this is not an exact science

And there you have it. Grit is an extremely complex science. There are different standards and even then a grit is simply the average size of the grain. The number is meant to represent the size sieve that the particles will fall through. So when you say 600G it depends on which standard you are referring to (mostly they don't say but in Tormek's case probably ISO) and even then it is a range where there is overlap between adjacent grits. This is probably why Tormek prefer the coarse/fine/extra fine nomenclature.

If you want your mind blown just look here https://www.gritomatic.com/pages/grit-fundamentals and scroll down to the "Gritomatic" chart. In the early days it was like the wild west but it has now pretty much settled down to a few familiar standards, but still many persist.

Which is a Diamond wheel that matches the grit of the T8 original waterstone

The DC is about the same as the rough graded SG and the DE is about the same as the fine graded SG. The DF is about half way between (600G). For cheap knives I don't go any finer than the DF since there is not a lot of point. But quality knives I will spend the extra and take them to DE.

after a lot of use, the side of the wheel will no longer be flat

Tormek warn against using the sides of the SG wheel. But, really there is no need. The concave on the chisel or plane irons is very small indeed if that is what you are worried about.

I will suggest that new users confine their studies to the handbook and the Tormek online classes. Also, I suggest foregoing purchases from third party vendors initially.

I think that this is good advice. Most sharpening is absolutely fine with the SG leather honing wheel, appropriate jigs, and solid technique with some practice to hone your skills. You can easily achieve better than razor sharp that way with more than satisfactory results.

If in time you want to go ahead and spend time and money on additional equipment then that initial experience will make you better informed to make more wise choices.

There does seem to be a slight ridge at the leather joins on the wheel. A couple of suggestions. If you have a Dremel or similar use a fine sanding drum to level the wheel at the join. Run your fingers around the wheel over the ridge to test the smoothness - your finger tips are really sensitive and you should be able to gauge the smoothness really well. The other thing you can do is use a very sharp knife to pare away the ridge. I have leather skiving knives which are perfect for this. then sand the surface smooth since the knife will leave a slightly uneven surface.

The platform approach

A straight-edge jig

Neither of these work with the skiving knife. It will not fit on the platform and is too short for the straight edge jig.

The only way really is to rest the handle on the support to assist in getting the correct angle.

I have done a video on this. Start at 49 seconds

https://youtu.be/RoR0KjlfKfU?si=eRMKlWdK6VipfW2d&t=49

what kind of jig you guys use to sharpen your tools

Good question. I have been sharpening my skiving knives by hand. I have not yet found a way to sharpen it on the Tormek. Having said that, the knives rarely get chipped or blunt since I keep them pretty sharp and strop them regularly. For general cutting I use a scalpel and Stanley knife with disposable blades. I do strop them occasionally.

As for the edgers I strop them before each use.

And, in that case, after sharpening should I pull the wheel(s) and store flat?

I don't. Just let it rotate for a few minutes before starting your sharpening.

I was watching a video the other day  - I think it was one of the Tormek videos - and they were saying that if the wheel is kept on the machine or stored vertical then the lower side of the wheel dries last. The trick is to let the wheel run in water for about 5 minutes before first use for the session. That way the wheel is evenly water soaked. The wetter side of the wheel is slightly softer and it can wear out of round when in use if the wheel is wetted unevenly.

The other thing they say is to always put the wheel on label up. Because the hole is always slightly larger than the shaft it rests very slightly off center so putting the wheel on label up ensures that it is centered the same each time.