John Piwaron
03-29-2005, 9:18 AM
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.
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.