Folks,
Just in case anyone was thinking of a Tormek, I just bought a new
unit.

Pros
1) Well built
2) Super book on how to use it
3) Simple to use
4) Following their guidelines will restore even the severely damaged knife
easily.
5) The final edge is good, not great , but better than almost any normal
household knife would have
6) The system lets you grind the edge either with the wheel moving away or
towards the edge.
Book explains the advantage of both approaches
7) No matter how aggressive you push the blade into the stone, the blade
will not over heat

Cons
1) The method for "grading" the wheel does not truly make the wheel fine
enough in grit
2) The water tray is almost impossible to lower and empty without making a
mess
3) Setting the angle is very much a "art" the knife angle guide is useless
on kitchen knives to set the jig angle up
" This might be rectified if different instruction videos were provided"
4) If you try to restore a knife with a really worn edge, you must regrade
the stone first. This process wears the stone down faster.

Redesign ideas.

1) The jig they sell for sharping joiner blades would be a better
approach to straight knives such as carving knives. needs some rework to do
this
2) Redo the water cooling tray mechanism. This needs to be easily
removable without causing floods. Something a Jr designer engineer could do.
3) Create a video that shows CLOSE up how to set the proper angle for a
kitchen knife. The very thin area that a kitchen knives has for the
angle simply does not work well with the jig.
4) Include a light that is LED based (real bright, they exist) on a
goose neck. This will solve the "being around water issue with a hot light"
Without a really good source of light, you simply can not see what
you are doing.

I really do not sharpen much else than mentioned. No lathe knives etc. so I
can not offer a opinion.

Would I buy it again. Unlikely, There are other systems that work by
keeping the knife fixed and moving the stone. This will allow you to use
almost any grade
stone, and is easier to set the angle to the blade. Hope this helps

Paul

I seriously considered a Tormek and gave it a close examination. I
really liked it...until I saw the price. I bought a Makita wetstone
instead and it works well for knives, chisels, blades, most
straight-lined cutting edges.

"goaway" wrote in message
...
Folks,
Just in case anyone was thinking of a Tormek, I just bought a new
unit.


Would I buy it again. Unlikely, There are other systems that work by
keeping the knife fixed and moving the stone. This will allow you to use
almost any grade
stone, and is easier to set the angle to the blade. Hope this helps


I don't think that I would purchase again either. It was a gift a few years
ago and I was really excited when I first received it. I noticed a lot of
the same problems that you listed but the biggest issue for me is that I
have found it hard to keep chisels and plane blades square to the stone. As
a last try I just ordered the new straight tool jig that ships with the
current machine.

I like the idea of the WorkSharp but a my wide chisels and plane blades are
too wide.

"goaway" wrote in message
...
Folks,
Just in case anyone was thinking of a Tormek, I just bought a new
unit.
Snip



Cons
1) The method for "grading" the wheel does not truly make the wheel fine
enough in grit.

I have had the Tormek for about 6 years and have not had a problem with the
grit grading, basicly it works fine for me.

2) The water tray is almost impossible to lower and empty without making a
mess

Have they changed the design? You do have to be careful but since the
grinding wheel generally puts water on the item being sharpened water
naturally gets every where anyway. I have never spilled the water tray.


3) Setting the angle is very much a "art" the knife angle guide is useless
on kitchen knives to set the jig angle up

I don't feel the same about this. But like anything else you develope the
knack and then it works great.

4) If you try to restore a knife with a really worn edge, you must regrade
the stone first. This process wears the stone down faster.

Yes it does wear the stone down faster but 6 yrears later I suspect the
stone will out last me. ;~)


Redesign ideas.

1) The jig they sell for sharping joiner blades would be a better
approach to straight knives such as carving knives. needs some rework to
do this

I susppect that few knives have a strait edge from one end to the other.

2) Redo the water cooling tray mechanism. This needs to be easily
removable without causing floods. Something a Jr designer engineer could
do.

Just be careful. ;~)

3) Create a video that shows CLOSE up how to set the proper angle for a
kitchen knife. The very thin area that a kitchen knives has for the
angle simply does not work well with the jig.
4) Include a light that is LED based (real bright, they exist) on a
goose neck. This will solve the "being around water issue with a hot
light"
Without a really good source of light, you simply can not see what
you are doing.

Humm,, I typically use daylight as my source.


I really do not sharpen much else than mentioned. No lathe knives etc. so
I can not offer a opinion.

I do, plane knives, lathe gouges, etc, planer knives, kitchen, and pocket
knives. I have no problems.


Would I buy it again. Unlikely, There are other systems that work by
keeping the knife fixed and moving the stone. This will allow you to use
almost any grade
stone, and is easier to set the angle to the blade. Hope this helps

Would I do it again? Probably the Jet clone over the Tormek, it is cheaper.

On Dec 5, 5:33 pm, "goaway" wrote:
Folks,
Just in case anyone was thinking of a Tormek, I just bought a new
unit.

Pros
1) Well built
2) Super book on how to use it
3) Simple to use
4) Following their guidelines will restore even the severely damaged knife
easily.
5) The final edge is good, not great , but better than almost any normal
household knife would have
6) The system lets you grind the edge either with the wheel moving away or
towards the edge.
Book explains the advantage of both approaches
7) No matter how aggressive you push the blade into the stone, the blade
will not over heat

Cons
1) The method for "grading" the wheel does not truly make the wheel fine
enough in grit
2) The water tray is almost impossible to lower and empty without making a
mess
3) Setting the angle is very much a "art" the knife angle guide is useless
on kitchen knives to set the jig angle up
" This might be rectified if different instruction videos were provided"
4) If you try to restore a knife with a really worn edge, you must regrade
the stone first. This process wears the stone down faster.

Redesign ideas.

1) The jig they sell for sharping joiner blades would be a better
approach to straight knives such as carving knives. needs some rework to do
this
2) Redo the water cooling tray mechanism. This needs to be easily
removable without causing floods. Something a Jr designer engineer could do.
3) Create a video that shows CLOSE up how to set the proper angle for a
kitchen knife. The very thin area that a kitchen knives has for the
angle simply does not work well with the jig.
4) Include a light that is LED based (real bright, they exist) on a
goose neck. This will solve the "being around water issue with a hot light"
Without a really good source of light, you simply can not see what
you are doing.

I really do not sharpen much else than mentioned. No lathe knives etc. so I
can not offer a opinion.

Would I buy it again. Unlikely, There are other systems that work by
keeping the knife fixed and moving the stone. This will allow you to use
almost any grade
stone, and is easier to set the angle to the blade. Hope this helps

Paul

As long time Tormek owner, I would have to agree with all you "pro's"
and could add a few others, but I will have to disagree with con 1 and
2. I can grade the wheel quite acceptably. You may just need to hold
the grading stone to the wheel a little longer. It grades fine, just
not super fast. Also, the cooling tray will works fine provided it's
not past the "full" line. It could be better, but it works if not
filled past the full mark.
As far as redesigning, the water cooling tray could be longer. When
using the planer knife jig, the water will run just about everywhere
but back into the water tray. I just put some shims under the rubber
feet on the right hand side when grinding so the water will run back
into the tray. Somewhat of a PITA, but only a prob when grinding
longer planer/jointer knives. Hey, a LED light would be great!
Don't write your Tormek off yet, it really will do a great job at
sharpening. Although I've never sharpened kitchen knives with mine, I
have sharpened about everything else. Some things had a little
learning curve to get right, but I can now put a scary sharp edge on
damn near anything. Keep at it, the machine is a keeper in my book
(and I'm picky about edge tools...) --dave

"goaway" wrote

6) The system lets you grind the edge either with the wheel moving away or
towards the edge.
Book explains the advantage of both approaches

If you could spare the time to summarise, it would be interesting to know
what they say.

Jeff

--
Jeff Gorman, West Yorkshire, UK
email : Username is amgron
ISP is clara.co.uk
www.amgron.clara.net

wrote:
On Dec 5, 5:33 pm, "goaway" wrote:

Folks,
Just in case anyone was thinking of a Tormek, I just bought a new
unit.

Pros
1) Well built
2) Super book on how to use it
3) Simple to use
4) Following their guidelines will restore even the severely damaged knife
easily.
5) The final edge is good, not great , but better than almost any normal
household knife would have
6) The system lets you grind the edge either with the wheel moving away or
towards the edge.
Book explains the advantage of both approaches
7) No matter how aggressive you push the blade into the stone, the blade
will not over heat

Cons
1) The method for "grading" the wheel does not truly make the wheel fine
enough in grit
2) The water tray is almost impossible to lower and empty without making a
mess
3) Setting the angle is very much a "art" the knife angle guide is useless
on kitchen knives to set the jig angle up
" This might be rectified if different instruction videos were provided"
4) If you try to restore a knife with a really worn edge, you must regrade
the stone first. This process wears the stone down faster.

Redesign ideas.

1) The jig they sell for sharping joiner blades would be a better
approach to straight knives such as carving knives. needs some rework to do
this
2) Redo the water cooling tray mechanism. This needs to be easily
removable without causing floods. Something a Jr designer engineer could do.
3) Create a video that shows CLOSE up how to set the proper angle for a
kitchen knife. The very thin area that a kitchen knives has for the
angle simply does not work well with the jig.
4) Include a light that is LED based (real bright, they exist) on a
goose neck. This will solve the "being around water issue with a hot light"
Without a really good source of light, you simply can not see what
you are doing.

I really do not sharpen much else than mentioned. No lathe knives etc. so I
can not offer a opinion.

Would I buy it again. Unlikely, There are other systems that work by
keeping the knife fixed and moving the stone. This will allow you to use
almost any grade
stone, and is easier to set the angle to the blade. Hope this helps

Paul


As long time Tormek owner, I would have to agree with all you "pro's"
and could add a few others, but I will have to disagree with con 1 and
2. I can grade the wheel quite acceptably. You may just need to hold
the grading stone to the wheel a little longer. It grades fine, just
not super fast. Also, the cooling tray will works fine provided it's
not past the "full" line. It could be better, but it works if not
filled past the full mark.
As far as redesigning, the water cooling tray could be longer. When
using the planer knife jig, the water will run just about everywhere
but back into the water tray. I just put some shims under the rubber
feet on the right hand side when grinding so the water will run back
into the tray. Somewhat of a PITA, but only a prob when grinding
longer planer/jointer knives. Hey, a LED light would be great!
Don't write your Tormek off yet, it really will do a great job at
sharpening. Although I've never sharpened kitchen knives with mine, I
have sharpened about everything else. Some things had a little
learning curve to get right, but I can now put a scary sharp edge on
damn near anything. Keep at it, the machine is a keeper in my book
(and I'm picky about edge tools...) --dave

I just put the whole machine on an old baking sheet to catch any stray
water.
What I liked as a beginning turner was that Tormek took most of the
skill out of sharpening lathe tools so I could concentrate on learning
how to use the tools. Learning both at once seemed a hard approach,
especially since poorly sharpened tools make turning that much harder.
John

On Thu, 06 Dec 2007 23:46:22 GMT, John Siegel
wrote:


I just put the whole machine on an old baking sheet to catch any stray
water.
What I liked as a beginning turner was that Tormek took most of the
skill out of sharpening lathe tools so I could concentrate on learning
how to use the tools. Learning both at once seemed a hard approach,
especially since poorly sharpened tools make turning that much harder.
John

I found that until I got a pretty good idea about how to turn and why different
chisels had different angles, I really didn't have a clue on sharpening..

My wife used to sharpen my chisels, because she used to own a sharpening
business..
As I did more and more turning, I realized that she might do a killer job on
knives and saw blades, but she didn't know what I needed on the chisels..
Once I found out, a few experiments with shop made and purchased jigs got me
going pretty well..


mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

On Thu, 06 Dec 2007 23:46:22 GMT, John Siegel
wrote:


I just put the whole machine on an old baking sheet to catch any stray
water.


Great idea. Consider it borrowed!

"Jeff Gorman" writes:

"goaway" wrote

6) The system lets you grind the edge either with the wheel moving away or
towards the edge.
Book explains the advantage of both approaches

If you could spare the time to summarise, it would be interesting to know
what they say.


Since this wasn't answered.....

Grinding towards the direction of the wheel is more agressive. The
edge tends to "dig in" as the wheel spins. It reduces the risk of
glazing the stone. The burr is shorted and stiffer.

A disadvantage is the greater risk of a blade digging into the
stone. Doing it freehand (without a jig) is therefore riskier. At
steeper angles, vibration can occur.

If you sharpen away from the wheel direction, it's slower.
Use this for delicate tools (carving, small blades, etc.)

Best for free-handing.

The book describes which direction works best for certain jobs.

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

"Bonehenge (B A R R Y)" writes:

On Thu, 06 Dec 2007 23:46:22 GMT, John Siegel
wrote:


I just put the whole machine on an old baking sheet to catch any stray
water.


Great idea. Consider it borrowed!

That's on page 53 of the instruction book. :-) There's also a tip to
prevent the water from dripping on the machine when doing planer
blades: raise the other side up with a shim.

I've seen people have problems with the Tormek, and in many cases,
they didn't follow the instructions. There's a lot of detail in the
book, and it's easy to "skim" and miss something useful.

The forum is also useful, but I asked a question 3 weeks ago, and
still haven't had it answered. :-(



--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

On Thu, 27 Dec 2007 10:42:39 -0500, Bruce Barnett
wrote:

The forum is also useful, but I asked a question 3 weeks ago, and
still haven't had it answered. :-(

The only two posts from you on my server are the two Tormek posts.