Worth it to even attempt?

[Morne1312]

I Have bought the PDF version of WOOTZ on knife grinders and have read it through probably twice from cover to cover which gave me whole new understanding of sharpening with the tormek that got me all fired up, but now the dilemma.

From what can be understood you wont be able to probably remove the burr at the root and have a clean apex if you don't have the frontal mount with the XB 100 to control the angle at which you de burr edge trailing. On the site it says that they are waiting from spares for tormek and they don't have stock.

So my question is do I even attempt to use the SJ 250 and still hone edge leading to be able to get it to true razor edge I crave or do I wait for the spares to come in and order it and wait 4 weeks for it to go through customs and get lost through the mail and found and and and?

[Ken S]

Morne,
Your problem may be easily solved. I had the same situation when I purchased my FVB from Wootz. I happened to have a spare XB-100. Wootz reduced the price by the cost of the XB-100 and shipped my the FVB. While the XB-100 is rare in Australia, it is readily available in most parts of the world where demand is lower. Contact Wootz.

Ken

ps The difference between using and not using the FVB is not sharp and dull. It is sharp and sharper.

[Morne1312]

He had the option on his site to just buy the fvb buddi dont have xb 100 spare like you and here in south Africa i cant even buy spares for my tormek nevermind essentials like the xb 100. I bought the diamond wheels and i cant even get acc solution for them here so i am screwed in some sense. I will wait till they get stock and see if i can get it here in some way

[John_B]

I Have bought the PDF version of WOOTZ on knife grinders and have read it through probably twice from cover to cover which gave me whole new understanding of sharpening with the tormek that got me all fired up, but now the dilemma.

From what can be understood you wont be able to probably remove the burr at the root and have a clean apex if you don't have the frontal mount with the XB 100 to control the angle at which you de burr edge trailing. On the site it says that they are waiting from spares for tormek and they don't have stock.

So my question is do I even attempt to use the SJ 250 and still hone edge leading to be able to get it to true razor edge I crave or do I wait for the spares to come in and order it and wait 4 weeks for it to go through customs and get lost through the mail and found and and and?

I do not have a Japanese wheel for my Tormek so my reply is based on what I have achieved using the standard wheel and leather honing wheel with FVB. If you follow the steps for honing in Wootz's book and use the Japanese wheel instead of the leather wheel I think you will see comparable results. Make sure you pay close attention to the final honing angle based on the steel you have. If you do not have a SJ-250 I would probably would not buy it just for this but pursue Ken's recommended path. I have wanted the SJ-250 but have resisted until I have a real need. I also would like a DE-250 and I think it is ahead of the SJ-250 on my list. #1 on the list is a new leather wheel for final honing using the low micron paste that Wootz recommends. I want to try this in lieu of the paper wheel setup.

BTW when I ordered from Wootz my package came much faster than I expected and there were no issues.

[Morne1312]

Do you also stay in south africa? And yes you can get acceptable results with the DJ 250 but following the recommendations especially with honing if you don't get the fab and the software to get the exact angle then I believe you are wasting your time as you will not be able to accurately set the honing angle as per recomendations

[John_B]

Do you also stay in south africa? And yes you can get acceptable results with the DJ 250 but following the recommendations especially with honing if you don't get the fab and the software to get the exact angle then I believe you are wasting your time as you will not be able to accurately set the honing angle as per recomendations

No I am in the US. With the SJ-250 you do not need the FVB as you are using essentially the same settings you used for initial sharpening if you sharpen with the wheel coming towards you.

[Morne1312]

That's true yes and I've been using the SJ 250 for n few years with acceptable results but I want to get to the next step of sharpening. Like they say sharp enough is not sharp enough. I want to get to the ultimate in sharpening and I wont get there with the SJ 250 alone and no perfect honing angles on the leather wheel as well as without some half speed grinders and paper wheels with diamond pastes