Tormek and the need for further stone work

[Samuel Butler]

I have a Tormek and have used it for years. My question to the group is: After honing on the Tormek in the fine grit do any of you still use a water stone on the hollow grind created by the Tormek. If you do what type stone do you use and what grit.

p.s I have had trouble honing the back of chisels using the side of the grinding wheel and have recently been using a water stone to hone the back.

[Josh Bowman]

Sam,
I do not use water stones after the Tormek usually. I did have a #8 plane iron that required the ruler trick to get the back flat, but that is the only exception. Most often the Tormek will get the back flat enough. After the leather wheel, I find I can do no better than a mirror. No sometimes I get lazy and don't take the Tormeks grind stone from course to fine with the grader and the finish is not perfect. But the results are still the same IMHO, it cuts wood better that I ever could with hand sharpening.

[Gary Muto]

I use a combination waterstone 1000/4000 after the wet grinder. I have a jet and think the leather wheel polishes but can also round the tip of the cutting edge. The water stone gives me the sharpest edge. I also use it to sharpen the chisel several times before going back to the wet grinder. It only takes a few swipes on the back and a few on the bevel. I wouldn't say that it necessary though.

[roman fedyk]

I got a waterstone for my Tormek and it works great. There were two versions at the time I got mine, Woodcraft sold one and Tormek also sells one. I find they are easy to use to get a very fine sharp edge. Often I can just skip the leather wheel. It also fits the Jet sharpener, so I set up the Tormek with the standard wheel and the Jet with the water wheel as only a light touch is needed. The wheel is a 4000 grit. Tormek part number SJ-250.

[Greg Portland]

I don't use additional stones after my Tormek but I am very careful with the stropping step. You can easily ruin your edge by stropping too much or too hard. If I am starting from scratch (blade in very bad shape, etc.) I will use a diamond stone to lap both sides & then I'll go to the Tormek. My Tormek replaced the sandpaper on glass method for most of my tools. However, I still use the sandpaper system for some items... IMO it's easier to freehand on the paper.

[Russell Sansom]

I always hone my bevels with water stones. For one thing, when a bevel needs a touch-up, I'm not going to chuck up the blade, find the correct length, find the correct tilt, and grind a new hollow. That would use up, say, .004 - .005 of blade length (I'm guessing, but it would be easy to measure).
The hollow grind is just perfect for registering against a stone. 2 or 3 careful strokes per stone and I've got a thin, mirror-bright micro bevel. A touch-up is that same process again. These touch-ups consume, perhaps, .0005" of the blade length. Krenov describes this process quite well.
After maybe 6 or 8 touch-ups, the hollow is gone. Then I grind again.
Another comparison: touch-up takes 20 seconds. Grinding takes at least a few minutes
I'm happy with 1000, 6000, and 8000 Shapton stones (plus that bizarre 30,000 when the sprit moves me). Maybe a 4000 or 5000 middle size would make more sense, but going from 1000 to 6000 works reasonably well.
Touching up is one of the strengths of the Shapton stones since they don't have to be soaked. Just a couple spritzes from a water bottle and they're ready to go to work.