Interesting Video on Sharpening

[John_B]

I watched this video today and even though it is made using sharpening stones I think his points on how to achieve hair splitting sharpness translate directly to our Tormek system. He also demonstrated how honing with too much pressure will dull a knife quite quickly. Something he did not mention that occured to me is that dragging your sharp blade across the cutting board to remove food can be analogous to honing with pressure. It is not a long video but informative with many high power shots of the burr.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwlWVmUEsH8

[Ken S]

John,

Thank you for posting the link to this informative video. While not actually being demonstrated on a Tormek, the principles certainly apply.

One of my influential sharpening mentors is Jeff Farris, the founder and first moderator of this forum. Jeff wisely took steps to eliminate as many gremlins as possible during his demonstrations. His demo knives of choice were Victorinox Fibrox chef knives. These have a long reputation for good steel at a reasonable price. They are consistently highly rated popular knives for culinary students. I have long advocated them for learning how to use the Tormek. I totally agree with tip number four in this video.

One lesson I learned slowly was the importance of using the stone grader to lessen the scratch pattern, especially when used in combination with lighter final passes. A lighter final pass was highlighted in the T2 online class, although the benefit applies to all Tormeks.

I have made it my custom to study sharpening videos almost daily. My sharpening is almost entirely doen on a Tormek, although many of the videos I study, like John, use different tools. Sharp is sharp, regardless of the tools employed, although I confess a preference for Tormek.

Keep up the good work, John.

Ken

[John_B]

I too mainly use the Tormek but revert to a coarse stone when I get a badly damaged knife. I only use the SG-250 stone but it takes a while to remove a lot of material. The other interesting part I liked was on stropping and I think this applies to the Tormek wheel as well as standard strops. I can recall dulling a sharpened knife on the honing wheel before I started using guided honing and a light touch.