Recent posts

#1

Gardening Tools / Re: Shovels and Hoes

Last post by RichColvin - Yesterday at 11:42:52 PM

Thank you Gerd.  I appreciate your kind words.

#2

Gardening Tools / Re: Shovels and Hoes

Last post by John_B - Yesterday at 09:53:41 PM

Thanks Rich for the reminder.

#3

General Tormek Questions / Re: Good Light

Last post by tgbto - Yesterday at 03:20:20 PM

I fully agree : I have set up an Ikea ceiling light with multiple spotlights so the Tormek is lit from different angles.

#4

Gardening Tools / Re: Approach to sharpening law...

Last post by tgbto - Yesterday at 09:57:18 AM

I believe that whatever burr is still here after sharpening will be taken care of by the grass itself, and a thick branch or loose stone will nick the blade no matter what.

The wear on the SG stone and the hassle of setting up the Tormek for lawnmower blades make it ill suited to the task, especially when one includes the time required to true the SG afterwards.

The system mentioned by GeoBoy makes much sense for people who do that on a regular basis and for people who do that only occasionally, a belt sander,  bench grinder or angle grinder will work better and faster.

#5

Gardening Tools / Re: Shovels and Hoes

Last post by HaioPaio - April 12, 2026, 10:01:53 PM

The link is nothing special, just a string of characters.
The document behind the link is outstanding. Not blindly collecting unverified information from random sources -- there is a lot of common sense and deep knowledge behind it.

#6

Gardening Tools / Re: Shovels and Hoes

Last post by Rossy66 - April 12, 2026, 08:55:00 PM

Great link     

#7

Knife Sharpening / Re: some subtle information ab...

Last post by Ken S - April 11, 2026, 05:17:38 PM

In the ongoing grinding into or away debate, I don't hear much about freehand or guided sharpening. Freehand sharpening favors grinding away for safety. Guided sharpening can be either.

Ken

#8

Knife Sharpening / Re: some subtle information ab...

Last post by Swemek - April 11, 2026, 01:27:05 PM

Isn't it surprising that he said that the grinding direction doesn't matter?

In my experience, the grinding direction doesn't matter (much) in terms of final sharpness. There are some knives, mostly of very soft steel, where sharpening edge-trailing will indeed form a much longer, foil-like burr. However, these steels are so soft that the foil burr will be removed easily anyway ... and edge retention will be bad either way.

That being said, it might be hard to tell from sound and feel alone when you're done honing a foil burr. I'm not sure it takes much longer though.

I also found that grinding edge-leading with the SJ stone might give the impression that there is no burr, when there actually is a line of well-aligned plastified steel just at the edge.

Eventually, I didn't find much of a difference in terms of edge retention between edge-leading and edge-trailing.

Maybe it's splitting hairs in the context?

Or whittling hair ? I don't know if it was intentional, but nice one anyway 

Thanks for interesting post! Yes for me as booth noob and hobbyist there are a lot of variables, like how different steel behaves in one application.

I remember when I've had my T4 for a couple of months and that I kind of saw myself as some kind of sharpening guru..

For hobbyist it's always the risk falling down that famous rabbit hole.

#9

General Tormek Questions / Re: Good Light

Last post by John Hancock Sr - April 11, 2026, 07:08:21 AM

I have good shed lighting, but not quite enough when sharpening. I have two additional 18W rectangular LED lights over the sharpening area which helps a lot.

#10

General Tormek Questions / Re: New Knife Sharpening Kit f...

Last post by Ken S - April 10, 2026, 07:17:07 PM

 Herman,

Let's be fair. Although not quite as fast, the new knife kit is capable of doing almost everything your homemade platform can do.

Ken