The Tormek System

[John Piwaron]

Just a few idle remarks about the Tormek.

First, for the kind of woodworker I am, the Tormek suits me fine. I prefer to construct things in the time I have available rather than spend hours perfecting hand skills sharpening more unusual shapes like gouges. This gadget takes care of quite a range of sharp steel things.

That said, I learned of it's own peculiarity last night. I had to buy the diamond tipped tool to remove a couple of serious grooves I had inadvertently put in the stone. I so do doing, I learned that the basic "roundness" was in fact both not round, nor parallel to the tool rest. That last bit explained why I could never simply clamp the plane iron or chisel square to it's holder. I've always marked the bevel of what I'm sharpening with a black marker and checked the pattern I was about to grind to be sure I was touching it right. I always had seemed to need to skew the iron/chisel mount just a little to get it to grind evenly.

Truing the stone took care of that. Maybe Tormek should highlight this fact a little more prominently than they do. Turns out to be a big help.

[Jim Becker]

Truing a stone is important on any grinder but because it adds expense to the setup to do it right, many folks don't opt for it. Getting a precisely straight edge is nearly impossible if you have to manually hold the blade/knife to the grinding wheel and as you note, the only way you can clamp it to a holder is if everything is totally lined up!

Same goes for a balancing system for the higher speed dry grinders, such as OneWay's balancing product...ching ching, but makes a world of difference...which is why it's on my list for acquisition when I replace my wheels this spring.

[Tom Hintz]

Tormek mentions truing the stone several times in the manual. You are right though, it does make a big difference.
I have had the review(link below) of the diamond truing tool up for over a year and it still gets more traffic than all the other Tormek jigs.

http://www.newwoodworker.com/reviews/adv50drvu.html

[John Piwaron]

Good advise.

I still say the truing tool should receive more emphasis from Tormek. Even though I have sharpend one tool after truing the stone, it is immediately obvious that a serious improvement was made. I was personally surprised that my stone was slightly conical, I assume it was so right out the box. I've been careful to spread my work over the whole surface, I don't think I've favored one side over the other to cause it.

[Mark Stutz]

John,
I've found that I have to retrue mine whenever I switch from "spinny stuff"--gouges, etc. to flat work--plane irons and chisels. Whever I clampa chisel in the jig and it's not square I know it's time to get out the diamond.

Mark

[Dennis McDonaugh]

I true mine frequently because it wears more on the right side than the left. I assume its because I traverse to the left with my right hand which is my dominant side. The traverse from left to right is done by my weaker left hand. Doesn't take much to make it out of true.

[Steven Wilson]

I now use two stones. My stone wore down quite a bit so I decided to dedicate it to turning and carving tools. The new stone is used for flat blades only. I find that I'm wearing the stones less as I'm not having to true them as often.