On 8 Oct 2005 22:30:37 -0700, "brianlanning"
wrote:

I received my $299 tormek the other day from the amazon sale, the
planer knife jig, which I got for 40% off, will be here in a few days
(there's my dual drive-by). I just got around to playing with it
tonight. I haven't seen the video since I don't currently own a
working vcr, but I did read the book cover to cover. I sharpened two
chisels and noticed a couple things. I also have some questions.

I was shocked by how much water the stone soaked up.

I used the angle-finder thingy to to start off. I had a 1" marples
that was in sad shape. It took far longer to grind than I think it
should have. I would say that I ground on it for maybe 10 minutes.
Each time I looked at it, I could see a line moving slowly up the
bevel. This is sort of what I expected, but it just went too slow.
Mabye it's because it was a larger chisel. The quarter inch chisel did
go a lot faster.

you may want to pick up a generic dry bench grinder for roughing in.
be careful with it- it's pretty easy to burn steel with one of those.





The book says to flatten the backs of the chisels on the side of the
wheel. I'm thinking that I should be able to get literally a mirror
finish on the back and the bevel, but it just isn't happening. It's
really sharp, but I can still see lines on the back for example from
the original machining. Should I go back and do it again to get the
complete mirror finish?

if it's cutting well now, I'd use it as is. you'll be back to the
tormek soon enough.




I have exactly one hand plane, a stanley jack plane I think. I plan on
buying a lot more once I have a few more machines. I noticed that the
iron has a curve, to stop the corners from digging in I guess. How
would you grind this curve on the tormek? The manual suggests a
technique that doesn't seem very doable to me. I think it would just
square off the iron anyway. Do you have a technique for this?

grind it straight. if you end up with a problem with the corners that
you can't tune out of the plane then the plane probably isn't good for
more than a scrub anyway.





I'd say I'm probably 90% of the way there. The chisels were in bad
shape with nicks in the edges. Now, they're completely straight,
square, and sharp. They're also a lot shinier than when they started.
I was able to shave thin pieces of end-grain off of some southern
yellow pine I had handly. So I'm very happy with it.

tia, brian


congrats.