Tormek Grinder

[tonyc1]

Are Tormek grinders any good for sharpening items?

Tony.

[tomcat]

I while ago i watched Norm Abrams from the Yankee workshop do a piece on one, he seemed to like it a lot, and was impressed with the sharpness of his chisles, i have always wanted to get one but was stopped buy the price...

[Rawhide]

I while ago i watched Norm Abrams from the Yankee workshop do a piece on one, he seemed to like it a lot, and was impressed with the sharpness of his chisles, i have always wanted to get one but was stopped buy the price...

I have the small one (T3) and I think it's fantastic. I use it for everything... I haven't bought any of the jigs yet, cause they are expensive too, but man I can get a quick sharpen with no chance of overheating the temper.

I love mine.

[Art]

I profile and do a lot on the Bader or Burr-King belt grinders. I use the Tormek for final edge and have no complaints. Nobody has made a jig for the head knife yet so I turn the Tormek around and sharpen the head knife with the wheel going away, works fine though. I seldom let a head knife get to the point of needing the belt grinder or the Tormek. Kitchen knives do however appreciate the Tormek treatment.

Art

Are Tormek grinders any good for sharpening items?

Tony.

[gtwister09]

As others have already said.....They are absolutely great but like Art said... no jigs for a round knife.

In fact my neighbors like it so much that it has been borrowed a whole lot more than I have used it lately.

Regards,

Ben

[TexasJack]

Maybe the real question is whether or not it's worth the $$$.

I've seen chisels sharpened on one, and it did a nice job quickly. But I've seen them sharpened almost as quickly without a Tormek.

[Rawhide]

Maybe the real question is whether or not it's worth the $$$.

I've seen chisels sharpened on one, and it did a nice job quickly. But I've seen them sharpened almost as quickly without a Tormek.

Jack,

For me it was, because I had a problem with high speed grinders, taking too much off, and overheating the metal. I can do manual sharpening, but it does take a while...

I sharpened a spindle gouge just yesterday with it..., took me all of 30 seconds. I didn't even turn the lathe off, I just walked to it, hit the edge, honed it on the strop and was back to cutting. Worth every penny to me. Now If I can get a jig for a head knife... I'll be set. (Although I did sharpen my head knife on it without a jig.)

[Bree]

Tormek's are the cat's meow of wet grinders. But they are mucho expensive. So what I did is to stop at Grizzly in Muncie, PA and picked up their 10" wet grinder clone of the Tormek T7. Then I bought Tormek jigs. Most fit the Grizzly fine.

The Grizzly cost me $169 vs the T7 at $589. Works like a charm especially with the Tormek jigs. I basically got the jigs free and had some $$$ to boot.

[tomcat]

Here is Harbor Freights verison of the Tormek, and don't forget the 15% off coupon..lol..

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/disp...temnumber=95236

[Spinner]

Another option for sharpening & polishing is the JoolTool system. It's only $279 for the starter package and additional discs are fairly inexpensive.

http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/index.a...amp;ProdID=7280

I used to do woodturning demos at woodturning shows & symposiums = a crap ton of sharpening. About 3 summers ago, I had the opportunity to be a guest demonstrator in the JoolTool booth at the Las Vegas AWFS show and got to know the system pretty well (8 hours a day, 3 days of nothing but sharpening various tools). Just thought I'd throw it out there, with the right discs, it will do more than just sharpen and is well worth the money. I love mine.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with the company at all, I simply did one weekend demo for them and fell in love with the system.