plane iron sharpening on Tormek T7

[mike40]

Thanks Rob,  I think I'm at that same place myself, plus to be honest, I like the idea of being able to easily and accurately sharpen other tools besides my chisels and hand planes. Spoke shaves, Scissors, knives and carving tools would be some of these. I'm not sure about turning tools. Since they are HSS steel I usually just use them directly from my bench grinder except for my skew chisel which I hone after grinding. I would sure try them out on the Tormek though. I know they would be sharper and give a smoother cut, but I'm not too concerned about smoothness until I get to my final shape and then I can use the skew or a scraper depending on what I'm turning to get the final finish. My son lives in Sweden, so I may buy a Tormek there if we drive over to visit later this summer. They are cheaper there, about the same as you pay in the US or Canada. If you were buying now, which jigs would you find most useful?

[Rob]

Well....funny you should mention jigs.....and turning tools.

I found the Tormek to be first class with turning tools and I use mine daily.  I've actually just built a sharpening station right next to my lathe which has the BGM-100 bolted to the table top aligned with a dry grinder.  In case you're not familiar, the BGM is a Tormek universal support so it allows you to use your Tormek jigs on your dry grinder.

Now I touch up all my skews and round nose scrapers on that setup but do my gouges on the Tormek.  So the T7 is setup for front grinding ie not on top ie wheel spinning away from you.  I do all my bowl and spindle gouges on the T7 and either use the articulated gouge jig (which is brilliant by the way) or a custom spacer block per tool and the svs multi jig(as per Jeff's videos).

The dry grinder and the BGM is setup with the Torlok toolrest on all the time and for scrapers and skews I just adjust it by eye and match the existing grind.

That just leaves my parting tool which I freehand on the T7 because its easy to draw the temper of that fine edge on the dry wheel...and impossible on the T7.

Every one of my turning tools has a consistent single facet bevel and they are razor sharp....It never takes me more than a minute to put a new edge on any of them.....often considerably less.  When roughing out between centre spindle stock, I leave the 3/4" roughing gouge attached to the jig for 10 second touch ups....it doesn't interfere with the toolrest as you only ever offer it to the work relatively straight on. 

Tormek coined a marketing buzzword/phrase called touch n turn for their set of turning jigs and in my view it's the best value I've had from them.

[mike40]

Good to know Rob. I have had my Record lathe for about 17 years now and I've never even had to replace a pulley belt on it or anything else for that matter! There are better lathes, but I'm just glad it's still functioning as well as when I bought it. I have a Wolverine jig for my bench grinder with a special jig for fingernail grinds. It works real well, so I will probably stick with that instead of spending even more on Tormek jigs, since I'm not doing so much turning these days anyway. I love turning, but currently I'm hooked on marquetry work. I still do general woodworking and turning though. I guess I just like to try out new stuff all the time, as that is and always has been my main motivation besides my love for wood in general. Not a great recipe for mastering any particular skill, but lots of fun anyway.

One thing I would like to say is that I have great respect for English woodworking and the no nonsense way they go about it. I have acquired quite a few cherished skills from articles, videos and books by English woodworkers, although most of my woodworking education, such as it is, comes from the US.

[Rob]

That's very kind Mike.....you sound like a decent chap if you don't mind me saying.  How odd...I have a Record Power lathe too :-)

I think we've come at it from different angles.  I left manual oil stones and went to the Tormek because of sore fingers on planes and chisel blades, then got into turning (in probably much the same hunt for something new in wood that led you to marketry) and then I found the T7 had all these lovely turning jigs. That was some years after I bought it.

Than I discovered it was rubbish at shaping high speed steel with large surface areas, not sharpening but shaping ie lots of metal to remove.  So I've reversed back into a dry grinder approach for those big metal removal jobs.  But with the addition of all the control of the Tormek jigs due to the permanently mounted universal support.

It appears through other means you've already got that kind of setup...I twisted and turned (no pun intended) for years before I've arrived at my latest setup. 

Marketry you say.......I can almost hear my wife groaning in the background :-)

[Herman Trivilino]

I think there will always be room for the secondary bevel.  For example if I'm experimenting with a sharper angle on a chisel whose edge  just doesn't seem to be standing up, it's easy to put a secondary bevel on it to quickly increase the edge angle.

For me, though, under normal circumstances there doesn't seem to be much of an advantage to a secondary bevel.  The Tormek makes easy work of grinding a precise angle across the entire width of the bevel.

[Rob]

I would agree with that in general Herman. But if I'm planing a quite forgiving wood I still try and avoid remounting it in the jig, instead just touch it up on the leather strop by hand. I've been quite impressed by how that can redress an edge that hasn't got too far gone.

Mind you it probably doesn't make a whole lot of difference in having a micro bevel or not when you perform that step to be fair.

It's quite possible that my love of micro bevels goes all the way back to hand honing days and its a habit that just won't die.

[RobinW]

A note to Mike who is contemplating buying a T7 -

When you buy one, you will either have instant success followed by sessions of pulling your hair out; or pulling your hair out from the start! You may even query why you have spent so much money and the results are disappointing. However, when you do get up the learning curve you will not be disappointed!

You have commented about plane blades. The first problem I expect you to experience is not getting a square edge on a plane blade when using the SE76 square edge jig. There are several minor factors (which have noticeable effects) that come into play, as detailed elsewhere. They can be readily overcome when you understand the causes.

I bought a T7 because my fingers could no linger take the strain of hours on the waterstones. I had issues with the SE76 in particular, but as I understood the causes, so the solutions and tweaks became effective.

Regarding chisels, I now do some of my chisels with 30 degree micro-bevel, and some I leave at 25 degrees for paring work. It is easy enough to just hone them up without the micro-bevel.

I have also made a couple of jigs, as posted elsewhere. One for handling small blades eg spokeshave blade which did not fit the SVM45, and another for ones so wide or short they do not fit the SE76.

Like most contributors I have developed my own processes about how to get the desired end result eg if and when to regrade the stone surface; grinding to or from the edge; if and when to use the honing wheel; if and when to use a waterstone. So be aware that you will have a learning curve to get up, but the end results are very good and your fingers will be fit to do other jobs! And most importantly, make sure that you always have a felt tip marker pan to hand as marking the surfaces of any tool (gouges/planes/chisels) gives instant feedback on how you are doing.

[Herman Trivilino]

I would agree with that in general Herman. But if I'm planing a quite forgiving wood I still try and avoid remounting it in the jig, instead just touch it up on the leather strop by hand. I've been quite impressed by how that can redress an edge that hasn't got too far gone.

Mind you it probably doesn't make a whole lot of difference in having a micro bevel or not when you perform that step to be fair.

It's quite possible that my love of micro bevels goes all the way back to hand honing days and its a habit that just won't die.

It's been mentioned here before that freshening up an edge on the leather honing wheel is very much akin to creating a micro bevel.

[Rob]

aye you're right...I'd forgotten about that thread.

[mike40]

Thanks much Robin for that sound advice, although I had pretty much figured that out already from reading a lot of posts on this forum. I'm sure I will experience both the good and the bad, especially in the early days, just like when I learned hand honing. Once I get started, I will probably be searching for relevant posts and asking a lot of questions. I'm not getting any time in the shop right now due to work in the garden.

We lost almost all of our evergreens in the hard winter this year and we have had to cut down quite a few trees,  about 18 altogether, not to mention numerous bushes and ground covers. I guess this is a kind of woodworking, at least according to my wife. I'm saving some of the larger ones for turning. I haven't tried Juniper before, so maybe it will be fun. At present I have assembled my T7 in the living room (lounge?) and I've been familiarizing myself with it by reading the manual, which by the way is in Swedish since I live in Norway. I can read and understand it, but i get a headache after awhile, so I've downloaded the English version. I wish I could get the booklet in English to take out to the shop. I guess I can print out the pages I'll be needing in the start and add to it as I go.

Now, I am interested in knowing  why your wife groaned when you mentioned marquetry. If it's because she has done it using a knife and found it tiring, you can tell her that I am using a scroll saw and I have a special method which makes it easy and accurate and fun, even for the smallest pieces.

[Rob]

Hi Mike

No...you misunderstand, the notion of my wife groaning would be because of me contemplating yet another branch of woodwork (we have the concept of the workshop widow here in the UK) :-)

[mike40]

For me the main fun of woodworking is learning and trying new things. Maybe you are the same Rob. Just prior to buying the Tormek I told my wife that I didn't think I would be making any more large expenditures on tools in the future, but she wasn't surprised, but perhaps a bit dismayed, when the Tormek popped up. There just seems no end to it.

[RobinW]

The wife of a cabinet maker I know commented about the time he was spending in his home workshop (not the one he operated his business from) to which he replied -

"Would you rather I spent time with my friends Black and Decker, or going off down the pub?"

No further comment!

Regarding more tools, there is always something you don't have, which would help the current job go easier.

[Rob]

wise man say that man without hobby is probably having an affair!

[mike40]

Yes, we are walking on a thin, if not always sharp edge, trying to balance home life with our time in the shop. Luckily, having tools and a wife need not be incompatible. It all depends on how much time you spend with the one or the other. Don't forget to include sleeping time if you are forced to make a comparison!