I know some respected woodworking professionals who sharpen their
planes and chisels with a Tormek machine. I need a really high quality
edge for musical instrument building and I have always succeeded with
my age old oilstones. The Tormek only has a 220 grit wheel-then one
presumably skips everything in between and jumps to the leather wheel.
My stones are of course much finer.
I reached a decision to buy water stones thru 8000 grit, but I am
curious why the Tormek receives such acclaim. I can't imagine it's 220
wheel procuring results better than an 8000 waterstone.
Any comments on this appreciated

Fritz

On Sat, 1 Dec 2007 06:52:46 -0800 (PST), Fritz
wrote:

I reached a decision to buy water stones thru 8000 grit, but I am
curious why the Tormek receives such acclaim. I can't imagine it's 220
wheel procuring results better than an 8000 waterstone.
Any comments on this appreciated

I have a full set of stones, and still bought a Tormek after using the
stones for a few years. The stones technically make a "sharper" edge,
and I still use them to shape new tools and flatten backs.

The edge left by Tormek stone is much than my 220 grit Norton stone,
more like my 1200 grit King. A Tormek user will use a "grading stone"
to make the wheel coarser and finer.

A 4000 grit stone also sits near me, if I'm doing a lot of hand work,
for quick touch-ups.

Quite simply, the Tormek very fast and works great! If I were
starting over, I'd probably buy the Tormek first, and use Scary Sharp
for flattening backs.

If you do it every day, you'd probably develop better sharpening
skills than me, so the stones would be fine. I use machines and hand
tools, so I don't sharpen that often and therefore don't really have
"the touch". G

On Sat, 01 Dec 2007 17:18:06 GMT, "Bonehenge (B A R R Y)"
wrote:


Sorry about the English...


Lots of coffee and spraying today! G

Danke!
your English is quite fine, but I understand what you mean about
getting "spray drunk". I am usually careful about this but I restored
a few fabric airplanes a few years back and was able to save on my
after work bar bill-I got intoxicated for free g
You answer concerning the Tormek makes perfect sense to me and was
very helpful. I think I will persist in using a 8000 stone for my
small planes as they need to be razor sharp. I have an old Delta 220
grit Wet grinder which serves a similar purpose to the Tormek and has
usually done justice to my lathe tools.

Fritz

On Sat, 1 Dec 2007 14:32:45 -0800 (PST), Fritz
wrote:

Danke!
your English is quite fine, but I understand what you mean about
getting "spray drunk". I am usually careful about this but I restored
a few fabric airplanes a few years back and was able to save on my
after work bar bill-I got intoxicated for free g

Ahhhh... The dope! G

My airplane mechanic was recovering a Cessna 170 in the hangar while
mine was in for annual. No extra charge for the buzz while we buffed
out plane! G

Actually, I was spraying a WB finish all morning. It's not as bad as
NC lacquer or butyrate dope, but it adds up with the coffee. Lots of
folks think WB is safer than solvent, but it's often not. It's just
non-flammable, and can still sneak up during the times the respirator
is off.

You answer concerning the Tormek makes perfect sense to me and was
very helpful. I think I will persist in using a 8000 stone for my
small planes as they need to be razor sharp. I have an old Delta 220
grit Wet grinder which serves a similar purpose to the Tormek and has
usually done justice to my lathe tools.

Glad I could help!

"Fritz" wrote in message
...
I know some respected woodworking professionals who sharpen their
planes and chisels with a Tormek machine. I need a really high quality
edge for musical instrument building and I have always succeeded with
my age old oilstones. The Tormek only has a 220 grit wheel-then one
presumably skips everything in between and jumps to the leather wheel.
My stones are of course much finer.
I reached a decision to buy water stones thru 8000 grit, but I am
curious why the Tormek receives such acclaim. I can't imagine it's 220
wheel procuring results better than an 8000 waterstone.
Any comments on this appreciated

Fritz

I have the Tormek and did sharpen with water stones. I am sticking with the
Tormek. If nothing else it is FASTER than the water stones. As Barry
mentioned the stone can be regraded to a finer grit and the leather wheel
will put a mirror finish on the edge.

"Leon" wrote in message
t...

"Fritz" wrote in message
...
I know some respected woodworking professionals who sharpen their
planes and chisels with a Tormek machine. I need a really high quality
edge for musical instrument building and I have always succeeded with
my age old oilstones. The Tormek only has a 220 grit wheel-then one
presumably skips everything in between and jumps to the leather wheel.
My stones are of course much finer.
I reached a decision to buy water stones thru 8000 grit, but I am
curious why the Tormek receives such acclaim. I can't imagine it's 220
wheel procuring results better than an 8000 waterstone.
Any comments on this appreciated

Fritz

I have the Tormek and did sharpen with water stones. I am sticking with
the Tormek. If nothing else it is FASTER than the water stones. As Barry
mentioned the stone can be regraded to a finer grit and the leather wheel
will put a mirror finish on the edge.

This reminds me of just how little of the mirror finish on the edge matters
at all. As you concluded, I think which is better just depends on your
priorities.

-Bill

"Bill" wrote in message
...

This reminds me of just how little of the mirror finish on the edge
matters at all. As you concluded, I think which is better just depends on
your priorities.


You think? I was under the impression and or felt that the mirror finish on
chisels helped to ease friction when the waste slides up the polished bevel.

"Leon" wrote in message
...

"Bill" wrote in message
...

This reminds me of just how little of the mirror finish on the edge
matters at all. As you concluded, I think which is better just depends
on your priorities.


You think? I was under the impression and or felt that the mirror finish
on chisels helped to ease friction when the waste slides up the polished
bevel.

It almost sounds like you are asking for "tear out".

I own a Tormek T7 with a 4000 grit Japanese Waterstone Wheel.
http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/i...OD&ProdID=2053

I use it to sharpen grooming and beauty shop shears.

If you need a high quality edge, I highly reccomend spending the
$170.00 for the Japanese Waterstone Wheel.

As slow as the Tormek rotates (90rpm) in is next to impossible to
damage a tool.

Richard

On Dec 1, 9:52*am, Fritz wrote:
I know some respected woodworking professionals who sharpen their
planes and chisels with a Tormek machine. I need a really high quality
edge for musical instrument building and I have always succeeded with
my age old oilstones. The Tormek only has a 220 grit wheel-then one
presumably skips everything in between and jumps to the leather wheel.
My stones are of course much finer.
* I reached a decision to buy water stones thru 8000 grit, but I am
curious why the Tormek receives such acclaim. I can't imagine it's 220
wheel procuring results better than an 8000 waterstone.
* Any comments on this appreciated

Fritz

The Tormek will do the bevel - but not the back of the chisel or plane
iron.
You "can" use the sides of the wheel to "flatten" - but it doesn't do a
very good job of it. The One Wheel Does Both Coarse and Fine thing is
a bit deceptive. They say it'll go to the equivalent of 220 grit but
it'll
actually go finer - if you don't use the coarse/fine "stone" on the
wheel.
The leather stop wheel I got wasn't flat - or round. Tormek recomends
taking a file to it to make it flat and round but I never was able to
get
mine either flat or round. Their "accessory" carving strop seems to
work better when I use it's flat side to polish with. But both leather
"strops" are too soft for my liking - and can round the edge because
of their give. If I want sharp and shiny I use a flat, smooth piece of
shoe leather - sole leather - and some aluminum or titanium oxide.
The leather has almost no "give" to it so it's harder - though not
impossible - to round my sharp edge.

As noted by another responder, you can get a Japanese Waterstone
for the Tormek. But since it's the slurry that makes them work best,
and since the Tormek's wheel runs through a water bath on each
revolution, I'm not sure how much slury stays on the wheel. And,
as you know, Japanese Waterstones need to be flattened often
as the finer ones wear pretty quickly. While Tormek's diamond
dressing tool sort of works on the regular wheel, I don't know how
they dress the japanese waterstone wheel. I don't think I'd want
to use a diamond dressing tool on a japanese water stone.
Keeping the wheel flat - AND parallel to the jig support arm is
critical to wheel sharpeners/grinders.

For smaller (under 1 1/2" width) flat chisels and plane irons there's
the Lap-Sharp (tm) which is the heavy duty, precision high end lapping
disk
system. Definitely pricey.

http://www.lapsharp.com/

It's less expensive, not as heavy duty nor as precise clone is the
WorkSharp
which will also handle turning and carving gouges and chisels using
slotted
disks with the abrassive on the bottom. That lets you sharpen from
below
while seeing through the disk. Lets you see what you're doing - as you
do
it rather than the grind-chek-grind-check method.

http://www.worksharptools.com/

Both will do the bevel AND the back. The guy who invented the Lap-Sharp
(tm) is a precision phreak and carries a little 100x pocket microscope
with him to show customers the difference between "shave hairs off
your arm" sharp and a truly sharp - polished to a mirror finish -
cutting edge.

The "consumables" for these lapping disk set ups is a potential issue.
The Lap-Sharp (tm) uses some pretty high end 3M abrassives which,
because they're "single source", are not cheap. The WorkSharp can
use any PSA abrassive 6" disks.

But, given your described uses, I supect that the japanese waterstones
you have and know how to use are your best bet.

Here's some stuff I put together on my WorkSharp

http://web.hypersurf.com/~charlie2/S...JoolTool3.html

charlie b