Recent posts

#11

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

Last post by GeoBoy - Yesterday at 04:19:06 PM

Go to allamericansharpener.com if you want to sharpen your mower blades. This product is fantastic.

#12

General Tormek Questions / Re: 10 inch honing wheel for T...

Last post by Ken S - Yesterday at 03:20:11 PM

I have two suggestions:

The first is to use the standard leather honing wheel. use the KS-123 set up jig to set the grinding wheel and the leather honing wheel. Use one support bar in the vertical position for grinding. Use a second support bar in the horizontal position for honing. The KS-123 makes this set up very fast. There is no need to remove a wheel.

The second suggestion is to devote some time to learning how to hone free hand. This is the  way the Tormek instructors work. While this skill may require some time to learn, once learned it will serve you for a lifetime.


Ken

#13

General Tormek Questions / Re: DF-200

Last post by Ken S - Yesterday at 02:56:37 PM

I agree with Sir Amwell. In my opinion, the use of CBN wheels dry evolved from one vendor being fed up with warranty complaints from customers carelessly leaving grinding wheels in the water troughs when not in use. I think Tormek reluctantly went along with dry use to placate the dry customers. The Tormek is a wet grinder.

I have watched very skillful Tormek users work with almost no spillage. I believe excessive spillage is largely caused by overfilling the trough. The Tormek instructors use their machines with ACC in the online classes. If users can afford several diamond or CBN wheels, the cost of ACC should not be a problem.

Ken

#14

General Tormek Questions / 10 inch honing wheel for T8

Last post by Rossy66 - Yesterday at 02:31:03 PM

I did a search on the forum but didn't find any answers so I decided to ask here, I have honestly tried to hone free hand and not with any success, it gets frustrating to sharpen a knife with a great edge and then mess it up on the honing side. I have watched lots of videos bit I still seem to take the sharpness out of the knife but when I hone with the USB and KS-123, my results are perfect and I couldn't be happier. Obviously, I have to keep taking my wheel off to hone most of the knives so I was wondering if anyone has bought and tried a 10 inch honing wheel and the results. I have watched some videos from different YouTubers and I am impressed watching them move from sharpening to honing without removing any wheels.

Thanks

#15

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

Last post by RichColvin - Yesterday at 03:17:10 AM

I use a machinist's hand file.  It works fine. 

#16

General Tormek Questions / Re: DF-200

Last post by Sir Amwell - Yesterday at 12:12:04 AM

Hi Mr Duster.
I don't think there will be any noticeable performance differences between wet and dry.
2 implications using dry:
Dust.
Possible clogging of wheel (running through water cleans the wheel as you go and leaves dust in the water)

Using wet with AC:
No dust.
Water all over the place( though this can be countered).
Mixing up AC to correct proportion and not wasting it. ( you will get spillage. It adds to your cost and time. It can be reused by filtering but adds time and fiddle faddle.

I think a Tormek should really be used with water. That's what it was designed for.
Ive said this before but worth repeating:
Give me water splashes and slight inconvenience any time rather than metal dust everywhere.

#17

General Tormek Questions / DF-200

Last post by GDuster - February 19, 2026, 08:24:25 PM

I recently bought a Df-200 wheel for my T1200 and see in the description that it can be use wet (with the additive) or dry.
Can anyone tell me what the difference in performance is between wet and dry?
Thanks
Phil

#18

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

Last post by John Hancock Sr - February 19, 2026, 04:20:09 AM

Lawnmower blades are very forgiving and any sharpening will be infinitely better than how they come from the factory. I have typically used an angle grinder in the past. However a flat single cut file will produce as fine an edge as you will ever need. I would not even bother with the tormek to be honest.

#19

Knife Sharpening / Re: Dc-250 - Df-250 - Sg-250?

Last post by John Hancock Sr - February 19, 2026, 04:14:41 AM

I'm not sure I understand what you mean. But do you mean that aluminum oxide won't cut mentioned steels?

Yes and no. It is a matter of hardness. More specifically MOHS hardness. There are different forms of harness but it is MOHS hardness which determines the abrasive for each material. In the MOHS hardness cscale each material is given a number form 0 to 10, 10 being diamond and 0 being talc. For an abrasive to be able to sharpen it has to have a higher MOHS hardness that the material being sharpened.

For steels it depends on the composition and the temper. Different steels of ther same composition will have different harnesses depending on the temper. Knives often consist of several different steels so you may easily be able to sharpen the casing but have difficulty with the core.

Aluminium oxide has a range of MOHS hardness depending on the impurities but in general it can harden carbon steels but not so much high speed steel. So it will vary. When I was sharpening a very hard Japanese knife, my HSS thicknesser blades or my HSS drill bits the SH wheel glazed rapidly. It did cut the steel but was very slow and the wheel had to be constantly graded. It proved to be extremely inefficient. The issue was that the steel had a higher MOHS hardness than those steels. It may have been that the steel fell into the range of the softer to harder particles within the SG wheel this glazed rapidly.

The glazing happens when the steel being sharpened breaks the grit down since it is harder than the grit and you end up with a smooth wheel unable to cut the steel. This is an indication that the wheel is too soft.

Bottom line is that for efficient sharpening you need a harder grit that the material being sharpened.

#20

General Tormek Questions / Re: Microscope to check burr r...

Last post by Rossy66 - February 18, 2026, 10:59:53 PM

I'm also looking at this model, it's more expensive but gets fantastic reviews so I may go with this.

https://tomlov.com/products/tomlov-dm602-pro-10-1-inch-hdmi-digital-microscope