Originally Posted by
Pete Taran
+1 about sharpening using a Tormek.
I haven't found it laborious or time consuming to sharpen a plane iron on a Tormek. A week or so ago I had an new/old smoother iron I needed to regrind and sharpen. I spent a couple of minutes on a high speed wheel getting it square and partially creating the bevel. I left about a 1/16" of thickness at the cutting edge. It's really pretty hard to get a blade so hot that it ruins the temper if you are holding to with your bare hands. Think about it, if you touch a 400 degree oven pan, you get an immediate burn. Your fingertips will tell you long before it ever even gets remotely close to that.
Once complete, just use the standard jig to complete the hollow grind. When you grade the stone with the coarse side of the dressing stone, it cuts very fast. When you draw a wire edge, remove from the jig and flatten the back. You can finish by buffing the back and cutting edge with the leather strop, or put a nice secondary bevel on the blade with your favorite high grit waterstone. The entire process took me about 15 minutes. Once it's sharp, it is super easy to regrind the bevel when it dulls.
The tormek is expensive, but it really is worth it. All that jazz about various stones, flattening techniques, paper types, just forget about it. Sharpening on the Tormek is fun instead of a chore. It's really that good. The best part is the machine comes with a dressing jig to get your stone round again if you dish the center or want to expose a fresh surface after repeated use.
It's awesome.