Finally giving up on my Veritas mkIi power sharpener.

[Archie England]

My Tormek taught me how to recognize repeatable results: it works consistently. My Sigma stones (along with a few Chosera's and Besters) showed me how much sharper I could get than with Tormek. With that said, my Tormek will achieve about a 4-5000 edge with polishing, and that's plenty good to work most wood. To work end grain, I use stones to achieve 10k+ edges. Such edges leave end grain with a satin shine of smoothness.

I've tried a bunch of methods (and have several grinders with various wheels). Of the grinders, Tormek is the slowest!!! Yet, no other stone grinder can achieve the edge sharpness without temper issues or with the same excellent sharpness of the Tormek. However, one friend with a quite pricey knife belt grinder can surpass my Tormek in every category (including price).

So, IMO, Tormek is king of the stone grinders but doesn't keep that honor compared to the results that can be achieved by ceramic stones or better quality knife belt grinders. OTOH, my buddy's knife grinder will tear up a digit in seconds while the Tormek is very safe. Each method works, has pro's and con's, and can achieve "acceptable" degrees of sharpness.

[Thomas W. Hanson]

How would that help? The problem is the force required.