Sharpening systems

[Pete Ortan]

Hello, Im Fairly new in this forum .so, pls easy on me my question may already been asked before but I will ask anyways. To owner/users of Sharpening system like Tormek, Makita, Delta etc. Is it worth the money to buy this machine ? my usage will be on sharpening chisels,planer blade,Hand plane blade etc...

Thanks,
Pete O.

[Dennis Peacock]

Pete.....woo-hoo.......

You have opened a can-o-worms here. For what you listed to be sharpened...I would highly recommend the Tormek. No...it's not cheap, but it does what it does very well and consistantly. Just last night I cranked up my Tormek and sharpened all 14 of my chisels in less than one hour and had time to sharpen a plane iron.

You can use what you like....but once you try a Tormek...you'll be glad to got it. Others will pipe in here and some will disagree with what I have said....and that is cool with me....Free Nation....and I like that...But for me....I needed something that I could depend on to be repeatable, not ruin the edge of my tools due to too much heat AND give me the ability to sharpen something several times without grinding away much steel....saving me money on replacements over the long haul.

In short....I use a bench grinder for a few things, but my finer edges? I use my Tormek.!!!

[Keith Outten]

I can't say about chisels and such, but for jointer and planer blades, the Makita slow speed wet sharpener is the only choice. In my neighborhood alone I have seen several of the "other" brands returned to the store as soon as they saw my Makita. I've been using it for ten years now and it is still the best machine on the market.

I'll bet that I've sharpened enough planer blades for friends to pay for the Makita ten times over.

[Steven Wilson]

I have a dry grinder, Tormek, 1x42" belt sander, granite surface plate (for scary sharp), oil stones, and ceramic stones (Shapton). The little belt sander and the dry grinder are fantastic for removing large amounts of metal quickly. The belt sander is especially nice in that it runs fairly cool. During the winter, when my shop (garage), is especially cold I tend not to use sharpening methods that involve water unless I'm going to do a lot of sharpening. Wet stones crack when frozen which means cleaning them up good and bringing them in the house to dry; sort of a PIA unless I really need to.

If I was a production woodturner I would probably just use a dry grinder as the edge it produces is good enough, although the edge from the Tormek is better. The dry grinder is much better than the Tormek for grinding new profiles on turning tools.

The Tormek is great for sharpening most things pretty well. It's great for turning tools, works just fine for jointer/planer knives, does a decent job on most cutlery, and sharpens lots of woodworking edges just fine. It is not however appropriate for all woodworking edges, as some edge tools really need to be flat, and not hollow, ground (i.e. mortise chisels). For these tools you need some other method (belt sander or stones).

I don't believe that the Tormek does a very good job at honing most woodworking tools. Chisels, carving tools, and hand plane irons need to be honed to a degree higher than the Tormek can provide. I find that the grit jump from the Tormek wheel to the power strop is too much for bench chisels and plane irons, although it isn't too bad for smaller carving tools. I also find that jigging up the Tormek is rather slow for chisels and carving tools. For these tools it really does pay to learn how to sharpen them by hand with no jigs (it really is possible to get good at sharpening free hand). For getting chisels and plane irons sharp I use Shapton ceramic stones and find that they cut fast, are easy to maintain, and leave a resulting edge that is absolutly fantastic. I do use the Veritas jig for most plane irons, but sharpen chisels by hand. When my shop is real cold I will switch and use oil stones which leave a very nice edge but I prefer the Shaptons. For carving tools I like to use oil stones and a leather strop, sometimes I will use the Tormek if I need to rework the edge of a carving tool.

The Tormek is a decent grinder and the jig system is uses is great but it is still a grinder and not appropriate for all the edge tools you use. You will need to learn another method to compliment the Tormek (or dry grinder) if you go that route. Also, you need to learn to hone your edge tools to bring them to a state of sharpness that will make your woodworking better and your shavings finer. The Tormek gets fairly close but not close enough IMHO for that I use Shapton stones.

[Donnie Raines]

For what this is worth...I really enjoy going to old fashion route. Good ole water stone, DMT and some elbow grease(..I guess the DMT disquailfies it from the "ole fashion way".. ). I fel as though i have far more control over the cut thatis being made, thus i can control the manner in which that item is being tuned....especially when you talk about plane irons, spokeshave's and of coarse chisels. I have used the Tormek system, and it does work great!, but I could not justify the cost. Sure, water stones are not cheap, and neither is a DMT, but I will again fall back upon the "more control" factor I feel I have when doing it by hand.

DonnieR

[Chris Padilla]

AW had an article a year or two back in which they made a flat grinding system using your drill press. It looked pretty cool and I have always meant to make one.

It was basically a set of 4 or so circular "drums" that had different grits of sandpaper glued to the the flat surface of the circle (not the curvy edge). You then made a stand to attach your chisel or whatever and then adjusted the stand to grind at whatever angle you want. All made of MDF along with some tricks with magnets that I thought was pretty cool.

[Mark Singer]

I use the Tormek and it is great and will probably improve most peoples woodworking ability. Waterstones are also great to hone to a higher degree. I think there has been a bit too much emphasis on super fine sharpening and flattening of planes etc..it is not really that important. Some great furniture was produce on old wood bed jointers with unperfect beds

[Chris Pasko]

I have the veritas deluxe sharpening system and absolutely love it. very clean, and dry best of all. The edges it gets on my blades are just scary! I havent graduated to using it for round or carving tools yet, but hopefully that will be soon!

[Donnie Raines]

I use the Tormek and it is great and will probably improve most peoples woodworking ability. Waterstones are also great to hone to a higher degree. I think there has been a bit too much emphasis on super fine sharpening and flattening of planes etc..it is not really that important. Some great furniture was produce on old wood bed jointers with unperfect beds

Very good points about being "to concerned" on the amount of polishing to the iron......I agree. The only exception I can think of would be on low angle planes, where the bevel is up, thus the true cutting edge is the sole of the iron.

DonnieR

[Dennis McDonaugh]

I have a Tormek and have to semidisagree with Steve on a couple of points and echo what he says on some others.

Turning tools - its great for finishing an edge and honing. Takes too long to put on a new bevel or repair an old bevel because its so slow.

Carving tools - It seems to do a good job on them too, at least for what I do with carving tools.

Plane irons and bevel edge chisels - does okay. Here's where I disagree with Steve, but only a little. The Tormek won't put as good an edge on a tool as a waterstone or scary sharp, but its still pretty sharp and works well for me.

The Tormek system doesn't do a good job at all with the backside of the chisel or iron. My usual procedure is to sharpen the bevel with the Tormek and flatten the back with 500, 1000, and 1500 grit sandpaper. I don't normally go any higher because the front side isn't getting sharpened any better than 1500 anyway.

I also think no one method is good for all tools.

The relative edge of different methods merits a lot of discussion on different forums and I'll just say the purpose of sharpening is to get the tool to cut, not have the best edge under magnification.

[Chris Padilla]

All this sharpening talk reminds me of a vacation my wife and I took from San Jose, through NoCal, into Oregon, into Idaho, into Montana and eventually down through Yellowstone and a pass through Denver before heading back to the Bay.

We visited a place in Oregon just south of Bend called the Newberry National Volcanic Monument. Any way, they had a HUGE obsidian flow there. Amazing stuff...like black glass. Very brittle but it could make an edge that steel could never touch...I even read it could be a few molecules thick! Now that, my friends, is a sharp edge! Unfortunately, I don't think it is anywhere near as strong as steel so it wouldn't work well for wood. A few other things I read were about surgery done with obsidian scalpels over steel healing 2-3x faster and with nearly invisible scarring. Intersting stuff and it was just laying all around us in enormous piles. Highly recommend a visit if you are in the area.

[Dennis Peacock]

So far...everyone that has replied here is correct in many aspects. Steve is correct in using the ceramic stones for the "ultimate" edge. But for what I do in my shop rarely ever requires an "ultimate" edge but one that will cut without using a sledge hammer to drive it or even a mallet to pound the cutting edge through the wood. To me....if it will cut a piece of paper held in one hand without too much effort and not rip the paper but "cut" it....it is sharp enough for me.

Before I got the Tormek...I ruined more chisels and plane irons than I care to count. My turning tools wound up getting shorter and shorter without having a consistant edge on them from sharpening to sharpening. This alone was frustrating and costing me money that I really didn't have to "grind away". The Tormek has improved my woodworking by leaps and bounds and is saving me time and money by being able to quickly jig up my tool edge and resharpen it without loosing much steel at all. Just a few quick touches and its back to the work at hand.

Yes, I do use Japanese Water Stones for flattening the backs of chisels and plane irons......and if I want a highly polished edge, I use the Veritas jig and the water stones. It just takes me a while to get it done.

Dry Grinder, Tormek, Water Stones, Diamond Stones and Oil Stones all have their place in many woodworkers shops....and believe it or not, most if not all of them get used from project to project. Just depends on what each individual is requiring or wanting from a particular cutting edge.

Sure freehand sharpening would be faster, but I haven't developed the skill or talent to freehand any edge right now.......but give me time and I will get better at it.

Sharp? That is in the eyes of each woodworker and their demands on their hand tools. Very sharp? Steve knows how to do just that and I commend him on his developed skill of doing just that.

[Tom Hintz]

I also use the Tormek and am totally happy with it, maybe more. Everything I sharpen on it works better than ever before, and touching up the edges is very fast.
I have a reivew of the Tormek and a growing list of the accessories at the links below (photos too...) if you are interested.

http://www.newwoodworker.com/tormekrevu.html

http://www.newwoodworker.com/trmkjigs.html

I wasted a lot of money trying to find a "low-buck" way to sharpen things when I could have gotten the Tormek in the beginning and been money ahead.

[Mark Singer]

I tink the beauty of the Tormek is that anyone can use it and get good results...and easily. If necessary you can get a 3000 grit waterstone and improve it. The students at Cerritos and Palomar love the Tormek and get great results . If you look at the Krenov bools , he is using a slow speed hand grinder very much like a Tormek...once the hollow bevel is ground it is easy to hand hone or continue on the Tormek to a terrific edge, It is a solid investment and you will not out grow its benifits.

[Mark Singer]

I think the beauty of the Tormek is that anyone can use it and get good results...and easily. If necessary you can get a 3000 grit waterstone and improve it. The students at Cerritos and Palomar love the Tormek and get great results . If you look at the Krenov bools , he is using a slow speed hand grinder very much like a Tormek...once the hollow bevel is ground it is easy to hand hone or continue on the Tormek to a terrific edge, It is a solid investment and you will not out grow its benifits.