Recent posts

#11

General Tormek Questions / Re: Sharpening a Curved 10" Kn...

Last post by Ken S - May 25, 2026, 10:39:06 PM

Welcome to the forum, Johanna.

I do not presently have access to my sharpening area presently, so I am operating on memory. Several years ago, I could not understand why the handbook stated that honing could only be done freehand with the T4. Upon my T4 and SVM-45, I found the problem and the solution. The plastic locking knobs on the knife jig and the horizontal support bars prevented the knife jig from moving smoothly across the support bar. Switching the plastic locking knobs with grub screws corrects most of the problem. I found that I needed to grind just a little off the knife jig. This is easily done with the T4. Your local hardware store should carry the M6 grub screws.You will need a metric Allen wrench for this. The metric wrench set costs around $10US. Three M6 grub screws cost around $5. A more elegant solution is an MB-102. For a very occasional long knife with your T4, the grub screw solution will work. The MB-102 or a regular frontal vertical base will do the same function more efficiently, but at considerably higher cost.

For longer knives, like your 10" knife, you will also need a US-430 to handle the extra blade length.

If this does not solve your problem, please post again. We will solve this.

Ken

#12

General Tormek Questions / Sharpening a Curved 10" Knife ...

Last post by johannaguzman - May 25, 2026, 12:24:28 PM

Helping a neighbour. Tried to sharpen a 10" knife, max 1" depth. Bit of a curve too.
My t4 was scraping the edge of the blade by the time I got to the tip.
Not sure if this was / is possible.
Gave up in the end and used a t-2 which worked well.
Horses for courses?

#13

Scissors Sharpening / Re: The way I found to sharpen...

Last post by Fingures40 - May 22, 2026, 10:10:50 PM

Not all can be taken apart.
Some are a rivet.

#14

Drill Bit Sharpening / Re: History of the twist bit

Last post by John Hancock Sr - May 22, 2026, 04:21:23 AM

The intro is not quite correct. There have been many refinements over the years which is patently obvious but otherwise quite interesting.

#15

Drill Bit Sharpening / History of the twist bit

Last post by Ken S - May 21, 2026, 11:03:59 PM

For those with a deeper interest in twist bits:

https://youtu.be/E02vkgwyzjw?si=qLfyFYfjoE2z7zOj

Ken

#16

General Tormek Questions / Re: Angle Master Degree Differ...

Last post by tgbto - May 21, 2026, 10:35:54 AM

As a side note, you can also get an accurate value of this offset if you use one of the many calculators available (calcapp, tormekcalc, etc.) by both changing the diameter of the wheel to 254mm *and* reducing the distance to top of the wheel by 2mm.

#17

Drill Bit Sharpening / Re: SPAs on Twist Drills

Last post by John Hancock Sr - May 21, 2026, 03:51:47 AM

That can be a life saver (figuratively of course) for larger holes on lower power drill presses where the burr on the underside of the material can catch and stall the machine. 

#18

General Tormek Questions / Re: Angle Master Degree Differ...

Last post by Rossy66 - May 20, 2026, 11:40:29 PM

I apologize if this is a stupid question but, I was wondering if anyone knows the degree difference on the angle master setting of 250mm to the middle scale of 10"?

It's not stupid at all. If you play with the model here, you'll see that for a given setup (USB height set, projection distance set), the difference in angle when the stone diameter varies from 250 to 254mm is about 1 degree. So for a given position of the WM-200 on the wheel while resting on the flat of the blade, the angle read on the WM-200 should be off by the same amount.

Thanks for the info and link

#19

Knife Sharpening / Re: SG-250 - Oil Better Suited...

Last post by tgbto - May 20, 2026, 05:37:30 PM

The work being done can be measured by the material being removed (bonds being broken within the steel) and the generation of heat. You need to maximise the first and minimise the second. We want as little heat as possible and as much material removal as possible for maximum efficiency.

Agreed 100%.

To complement my response to OP's objection, the Higher MOH of the abrasive relative to the material being ground allows it to scratch said material. In doing so, there is resistance to the relative motion of the abrasive and the material. This resistance is precisely friction, and overcoming it generates heat (due to resistance to gliding at the molecular level AND to the the energy released by the breaking bonds within the material AND to the wear within the abrasive).

Lubricants work by separating surfaces. A lubricant that would work so well that there would be no resistance to the relative movement of the abrasive with respect to the ground material would also prevent the abrasive from scratching the material. For grinding to be effective, surfaces have to be allowed to come into contact. Where they come into contact, the kinetic friction coefficient depends only on the surfaces, not the lubricant.

Machinists know that a dry bit removes material much faster than a lubricated one. Unfortunately, it also breaks down so much faster that it is impractical to use it dry.

Water for the Tormek is a good compromise : it properly transfers heat away from the point of contact, lubricates a bit but still allows grinding to happen quickly enough.

TL/DR : the better the lubricant, the less abrasive and steel come into contact, the slower steel is being ground.

#20

Tormek T-1 and T-2 / A good video presenter from th...

Last post by Ken S - May 20, 2026, 05:12:15 PM

I like Ukulele Jay's videos. He is an experienced barbecue chef who sharpens his own knives, an ideal T1 user. Here is a link:

https://youtu.be/CRoeRtjUymE?si=T7RUW27F0u-12gAe

Ken