Recent posts

#1

Knife Sharpening / Re: 3D printed pre USB setup

Last post by tgbto - Today at 08:22:09 AM

Just so I understand the whole picture, how will you be setting up grinding angle beforehand ?

#2

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

Last post by Ken S - Today at 04:30:40 AM

Good point. I had forgotten about my 2024 post. The video can stand on its own merits.

Ken

#3

General Tormek Questions / Re: expanded TT-50 thoughts

Last post by Herman Trivilino - Yesterday at 09:45:30 PM

I don't feel the wheel is "sharpening ready" right after it has been trued (because of too-high cutting-efficiency ) so I usually add a quick pass with a diamond plate to break down the ridges. Going **very** slowly when truing, both in terms of lowering the USB and in terms of moving the diamond tip left and right, creates shallower grooves. So the stone is closer to "sharpening-ready" afterwards.

I agree, if by "sharpening ready" you mean ready to sharpen something like a good knife or a chisel that need a tune up. However, if I have a dull mower blade handy (and I always do because for many years now I always have two blades, one installed and one dull and near the bench waiting to be sharpened) a freshly-trued grindstone is very effective at removing a lot of steel fast, which is what's needed for a dull mower blade.

Of course, the same is true of an old dull wood chisel that perhaps you loaned to a neighbor who seemed to think it's an all-purpose tool that can be used to bend nails out of the way during demo, or opening paint cans!

After sharpening such a tool, and applying the stone grader, the grindstone is now ready for sharpening more refined tools and good knives.

#4

Knife Sharpening / Re: 3D printed pre USB setup

Last post by Nik3 - Yesterday at 09:05:20 PM

How do you envision these being used?

Hi.

1. The round part will attach to the USB.
2. And then lowered so the flat "bottom" is against the fvb.
3. Tighten the USB tightening nubs, 4. Then lowering the micro adjustment nuts on the USB.

When wanting the to remove the burr with 2° deg higher.
Undo the USB tightening nubs.
Lift up the USB and slide the "washer" under the micro adjustment nuts and press down and tighten USB tightening nubs.

USB = universal support bar
Fvb = frontal Vertical base

#5

Knife Sharpening / Re: Best Knife Sets

Last post by Jamie007 - Yesterday at 02:34:07 PM

Hi, if you are a newbie, I suggest what Plinth has recommended. Get a chef's knife and practice with it. After some time, you can get a knife set from Shun, and you'll be disappointed.

#6

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

Last post by tgbto - Yesterday at 02:31:04 PM

I was having a strong feeling of "deja vu". I think this is why :

https://forum.tormek.com/index.php/topic,5601.0.html

#7

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

Last post by Rossy66 - March 16, 2026, 08:59:25 PM

Great video, nice and calm.

#8

General Tormek Questions / Re: expanded TT-50 thoughts

Last post by tgbto - March 16, 2026, 05:25:12 PM

I also happen to agree with you both :

• A freshly trued stone cuts more aggressively, but settles down quickly back to normal, and not in the progressive manner described by Ken.
• The more out-of-true a stone is, the faster it will get more out-of-true
• Frequent slight truings don't wear down the  stone as much as infrequent heavy truings

To maybe suggest a different wording, maybe the point Ken was making was more about "sharpening readiness" than "cutting efficiency".

I don't feel the wheel is "sharpening ready" right after it has been trued (because of too-high cutting-efficiency ) so I usually add a quick pass with a diamond plate to break down the ridges. Going **very** slowly when truing, both in terms of lowering the USB and in terms of moving the diamond tip left and right, creates shallower grooves. So the stone is closer to "sharpening-ready" afterwards.

Last, I believe that being aware about all this helps develop a technique that brings the stone out-of-true slower : use just enough pressure, use the full width of the stone, use diamond plates with 2 USBs instead of the stone grader, avoid sharpening high-carbide-content tools with a SG, be aware of the noise and water flow, etc.

#9

General Tormek Questions / Re: moving to the stone grader

Last post by tgbto - March 16, 2026, 05:08:53 PM

As mentioned in the TT-50 topic, I believe the stone grader actually brings the stone out-of-true faster (which then requires truing).

Hmmm... I wonder what leads you to this belief?

Well, the "short" answer is : the stone grader has no reason to be held parallel to the USB. And there is no reason for the pressure applied by any hand to be equal to whatever is required to keep the stone true (or bring it closer to true) at any moment in time.

To elaborate a bit, having a human press down on the stone grader with the wheel turning is inherently an **instable** process, as whatever defects will be amplified instead of smoothed:
If the wheel has a low spot, the tool will follow the shape of the wheel and the pressure will increase when the surface of the wheel starts to rise right after the low spot. Conversely, the pressure will drop slightly shortly after the beginning of the low spot and shortly after the end of the low spot. The result will be to dig a bit into the stone at the lowest point, and grind a bit less around the high spots.

The delay in response between the cause and the effect is a perfect way to create oscillations (so called Pilot induced oscillations are an endless source of ... "interesting" situations in aviation or otherwise). Mixing oscillations and instability will not result in a nice result.

The fact that the tool is held by both hands compounds the previous phenomena by introducing variations not only along the circumference of the wheel but also between the internal and external shoulders of the wheel surface at any given point along its circumference.

This is not unique to the stone grader : if used in an uncontrolled fashion, the diamond plates may also create such undesirable effects, although holding them in the SE jig reduces the sideways variations. For a process to bring the stone closer to true (or at least no farther), you have to dampen the oscillations and bring the result closer to whatever "true" means, in this case : any point of the surface of the stone is at the same distance from the USB. The TT tool is well suited for that, the more recent version being less prone to oscillations.

I often use a diamond plate with the far end resting over a second USB, so I can both control the height precisely and grind the high spots first. Whatever flex remains in the setup (or non-parallelism between both USBs) is still a source of out-of-trueness, but it is still better overall.

Oh, and I agree 100% that sharpening brings the stone out-of-true. It does so because the edges being ground are never parallel to the USB, and they are often narrower than the wheel. I'm sure every Tormek user notices some slight variation of the noise or the water flow, that gets repeated with every turn of the wheel. That's a sure sign we're creating low spots.
Still, the steel edges are usually softer than the stone - for obvious reasons - whereas the stone grader is harder. So the latter is very good at rounding out the shoulders of the wheel, but also at bringing it out of true.

#10

General Tormek Questions / Re: moving to the stone grader

Last post by Herman Trivilino - March 15, 2026, 07:21:42 PM

As mentioned in the TT-50 topic, I believe the stone grader actually brings the stone out-of-true faster (which then requires truing).

Hmmm... I wonder what leads you to this belief?

It's quite possible that you're right. It could also be true that the act of sharpening brings the stone out of true. Certainly something must be causing it to happen, since we know for sure that it does get out of true.

Again, I go to my automotive disc brake analogy. Just as the brake pads, and to a lesser extent the rotors, are designed to wear, so is the grindstone. Using it makes it wear. Things like using the stone grader, using the truing tool, or even the very act of sharpening a tool itself, will make the make the grindstone wear faster, so will driving your automobile make the brake pads and rotors wear faster.

This is part of the design of these things. It's how they function. It costs money to operate these devices because of this wear.