Clamp Placement

[Gary@QSS]

Here are three photos that illustrate clamp placement. They go counter to the general adage of always clamping the front edge of the clamp parallel with the straight edge of the blade. The photos are from Tormek's Instagram page.

[Ken S]

Gary,

Thank you for posting this. It illustrates one of my pet peeves with today's marketing, including Tormek's marketing. I do not mean to single out Tormek for this practice; Tormek is only conforming to the unfortunately accepted norm.

I resent the marketing stereotype that consumers lack the mental capacity or interest to watch a video longer than two minutes. Any experienced Tormek user watching this video would have noticed the clamp placement. Since the clamp placement was contrary to Tormek's established good practice and was not explained, one might conclude that the persons doing the video for Tormek were part of a video crew with no or limited knowledge of how to correctly use the Tormek. Could this be so? Possibly, however, I believe that a more likely scenario would be that, especially with a short knife, the placement of the knife is not so critical. In my opinion, if this is the case, Tormek has a burden of proof to explain it.

These cute little videoettes generally fall short of their educational potential. I have no problem with  Tormek following contemporary marketing fashion of facebook and instagram sound bite videos as part of their marketing. I do resent Tormek's persistent ignoring of their established faithful customers who want more than their soundbites. Using this video as an example, it would seem far more cost effective to me to also make a more in depth version than face the posdibility of several hundred individual support questions.

Ken

[Gary@QSS]

Here is the response I got from Tormek -

"We used this position due to the strong curve of the blade at the tip. This means that you get a more even angle all along the blade especially near the tip. The jig is placed as near as possible to the "radius" of the rounded part of the blade. If we had used the "normal" position we risk making the tip rounded after a while. This position is therefore chosen to maintain the nice shape of the tip of the blade" 😊

[RichColvin]

That makes sense, but using the pin pivot jig is better.

Kind regards,
Rich

[Gary@QSS]

That makes sense, but using the pin pivot jig is better.

Kind regards,
Rich

I agree. The pin pivot jig makes it much easier to deal with curved blades long and short. It's a great addition to the tool chest.

[Ken S]

Gary,
The statement from Tormek is sound advice. My question would be, why did Tormek state it in a message to one person instead of including it with the video to a wide audience? And, why use a here today, gone tomorrow format like Instagram instead of a longer lasting platform like the forum?

Rich, I agree that the pivoting collar is a good tool for this application. Unfortunately, it is not sold by Tormek, so I would not expect to see it in a Tormek video. (Too bad) I believe the well prepared Tormek sharpener should be fluent with both methods. This is another example of how the versatility of the Tormek can be increased by not being limited to "Tormek only".

Ken

[Gary@QSS]

Gary,
The statement from Tormek is sound advice. My question would be, why did Tormek state it in a message to one person instead of including it with the video to a wide audience? And, why use a here today, gone tomorrow format like Instagram instead of a longer lasting platform like the forum?

Rich, I agree that the pivoting collar is a good tool for this application. Unfortunately, it is not sold by Tormek, so I would not expect to see it in a Tormek video. (Too bad) I believe the well prepared Tormek sharpener should be fluent with both methods. This is another example of how the versatility of the Tormek can be increased by not being limited to "Tormek only".

Ken

Yes, my thoughts too. They added the info to the video after I asked about it.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bzu58s4Hisk/

Gary

[Jan]

I am not convinced that the skewed clamp placement shown in the video is the optimal solution.

Form a general point of view to get the same bevel angle also along the belly and at the tip of a blade requires correct compromise between lifting and pivoting the knife handle.

The measure how much pivoting and how much lifting is necessary depends among others on the way how the blade is mounted in the knife jig.

In the normal situation when the clamp edge is parallel with the straight part of the cutting edge we get very consistent bevel angle along its straight segment, because the jig stop collar fully rests on the USB. We have to pivot and lift the handle to grind the belly and tip correctly.

The skewed clam placement will probably require less pivoting and lifting, but the bevel angle consistency along the straight part of the edge will be not as good as in the previous case. The reason is that only periphery of the jig stop collar's rests on the USB in this case.

Jan

P.S.: For more than 50% of blades I use my "Knife Point Setting Template" which works for kenjig projection length of 139 mm. https://forum.tormek.com/index.php?topic=2654.0

[Ken S]

Jan,

I suspect that several members of the forum including you have devoted more time to setting up knife jigs on the Tormek than the Tormek staff. I do not mean this to be as critical as it might sound. While we use the handbook as a starting guide, we are not obligated to closely follow it or use only Tormek products.

It may be starting to sound like a broken record, however, I do believe that the wise sharpener who chooses to deviate from orthodox Tormek technique should first master the standard technique before choosing to go his own path.

Ken

[Fernando]

Here are three photos that illustrate clamp placement. They go counter to the general adage of always clamping the front edge of the clamp parallel with the straight edge of the blade. The photos are from Tormek's Instagram page.

The clamp is not parallel to the base of the knife's edge, but seeing the image it seems that what was once mentioned in the forum had been done, which was to draw a straight line between the tip of the knife and the end of the knife's edge, and locate the clamp parallel to that line, to avoid the curve in the edge of the tip of the knife
I don't say this is the truth, but if you look at it, it's what it seems

Use this method with another knife sharpener with a very sharp curve, and i got a good result.