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Have you watched my Tormek angle-setting video? The answer is in there, along with further details…

If you are sharpening very large knives, you might need to buy the extended USB (Universal support bar). Have a look at your nearest tormek supplier for that.

@greatedgeltd thnx

With callipers. You can see exactly what I use in my Tormek angle setting video

@greatedgeltd thnx

It really depends on your needs… Side plating gives you more flexibility but based on your sharpening needs you might never use it…

@greatedgeltd I see, so like correcting chipped knife for example, is side plating necessary for that?

@ia6980 I would say no…. All of my chip repairs are done on the main surface… an example where side sharpening is better is for Scandi grind…

If you are sharpening with that method you are already committing to a fairly long process, so the extra time to set the SJ correctly won’t really be a factor. You’ll get a very nice looking finish that way..

@greatedgeltd why would you say long process? Which one would be faster? I heard if u use sj250 honing with leather is not necessary?

@@greatedgeltd what grit do u finish your knives with? And do you strop them afterwards?

I would start from 160, not 80, unless you have a very worn or damaged knife. It will be easier on your knives and wear less steel. But otherwise it’s fine to jump from 400 to 1000 because you are just refining an already established bevel, so there isn’t much strain on the 1000. I am still on my original 1000.

@greatedgeltd awesome, thank u, i ordered 80 for repairs mostly of like damaged or chipped knifes, or do you think 160 might work for it just fine?

I decided not to show the full grinding because there are so many other videos already showing that process… For efficiency of time, I skip to the punchline. But elsewhere on my channel I have videos of the full process with Tormek, and the full process with the Worksharp if you want to see how I do it…. Thanks for tuning in.

P.S Tormek sharpening was with 3 grits… 160, 400 and 1000 (CBN).

@@greatedgeltd okay thank you

here you go - you might find this video informative: th-cam.com/video/-ap5QRR8Kyk/w-d-xo.htmlfeature=shared

@greatedgeltd thanks

No necessarily…. Have you seen my ‘Which angle is best’ video? th-cam.com/video/1Su3IUXuuLY/w-d-xo.htmlfeature=shared.

@@greatedgeltd Thanks for the link very informative.

🙏

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I agree - the camera angle is terrible. Because I do so many single-shot videos I don’t spend a lot of time on editing and didn’t notice until it was uploaded. I planned to delete it and re-shoot, but it’s consistently one of my top-viewed videos and 96% likes vs dislikes (in line with my channel average). So in the end I’ve decided just to let it ride, and hopefully it doesn’t put too many people off. Thanks for tuning in and also for the frank feedback. Happy holidays!

Thanks very much! This one didn’t get a lot of views so I appreciate you finding it. Merry Christmas.

Thank you for your candour. Despite your strong opinion you must have at least a slight interest in Tormek, or else you wouldn’t be watching TH-cam videos about it. Thank you again

Nice to hear someone talking about speed and Tormek - I agree that in good hands a knife can be prepared very quickly. Thanks for tuning in.

That’s great - nice to know of another local sharpener. I’m in West Sussex and there is also @simonwells6977 in East Sussex. Good luck with the startup. Tormek and 1x30 is a nice combination. If you find a nice way to convey before and after BESS scores to customers I’d love to hear about it. In my experience it’s often a difficult one to explain succinctly.

I tried to explain it to my wife. Lots of nodding but I don't think she got it. Most people consider knives sharp or as my wife describes my knives 'blunt'.

@@brianpage1886It one advantage of the paper slicing - easier for everyone to understand. Most knives are brought to me via my drop box so I don’t get to meet the customer, but when I do see them I try to do a ‘before’ paper slice, and an ‘after’ one when I hand the knife back. That usually makes an impression.

Thanks for video! Just to correct you a bit. I am in south Northamptonshire not East Sussex! And I sharpen under the name ‘The Sharpist’ I agree with your points. I’m using the Bess tester less and less these days. Slicing thin paper can often tell you so much more about a knife edge’s condition once you get a feel for it. Oh and of course how easily it shaves arm hair! But I suppose we shouldn’t be promoting that!

Thank you, Simon. Clearly I need to spend a bit of time sharpening my memory ;)

I like the idea of coloured tubs! That way that can be stacked up, or stacked away when not needed - good solution!

@@greatedgeltd- I use tubs too but I do like the vertical magnet idea as well.

Good question - I don’t really know how this compares to others but I change my Extra Coarse belt every 15 knives or so. As soon as I notice by grinding time is starting to extend due the belt I swap. As the saying goes, time is money so I don’t want to be wringing out a few extra knives by spending more time. However, because I use the Extra Coarse to do all the heavy lifting, the other belts last a very long time… Hundreds of knives each…

@@greatedgeltd Oh okay thats pretty comparable to 1x30 belts actually. Which is funny since they are twice as long :D

You’ll have to check wtih google or other people cleverer than me to understand the compositional differences of CBN vs Diamond, but I explain some of the performance differences and requirements of each in the video….

Thanks for tuning in! I have the stropping belt kit - is that what you mean, or something else?

Ha, thanks for the advice about the Worksharp. Unfortunately it performs too well for me to pack it away. But I know I’m in a rare camp of sharpeners that uses two systems…

And I’m living in West Sussex, in the UK.

@@greatedgeltd .... Hi .... is it a secret as to what country you live in ;) ? As for the Work Sharp as you get older you will get wiser .... I gave up using both systems 32 years ago , I've been professionally sharpening knives for 50 years.... if you listen to what you said about the machine and to other experienced knife sharpeners, you will find the answers, the best time & money saving advice I can give you is to learn from other people's experiences & mistakes .... nothing beats it, unfortunately we don't get to live a second time to do things differently or better.... A majority of the time if you learn to listen and watch you can gain years of experience .... ( Decades) more than if you try and work things out by yourself .... correct me if you think I'm wrong .... I'm always willing to learn from someone else's experience or mistakes.... That's why I'm watching your site ,just looking for something I might have missed or something explained in a slightly different way, you just never know.... Thanks for your great content ! Kind regards Australia 🇦🇺

@@greatedgeltd.... thanks ;)

@@greatedgeltd .... West Sussex .... cheers ;)

Small world. I think he is called iSharpen now, at least on TH-cam

Hi .... thanks for your reply .... I have a question .... Do you use a type of adapter to hold the bar for honing ? Kind regards Australia 🇦🇺

Hiiii there .... firstly some friendly advice.... after 50 years in customer service and presentation, always introduce yourself with your name and thank your new and past viewers , you will create a better connection with viewers and thank them at the end of your presentation and let them know you are looking forward to hearing from them in the comments and you are looking forward to bringing them new information soon ! I hope this helps you to build your confidence and website !!!! (And put your face in please ) actually your finish was good but the start could improve ;) but I would still like to see the face of who's talking .... ;) .... and thanks for mentioning the FVB witch I think is now TOR-MB-102 .... I'm looking forward to supporting you and your chanell in the future, THANKS & Kind regards Australia 🇦🇺 .... ( your name ? ;) ) maybe I missed it ?

@ Thanks very much - feedback is always appreciated especially when given so thoughtfully as you have done. Just for information, it’s a deliberate choice to set out my videos the way they are - very pared back with just core information given… No fancy editing or show. It’s a bit different than what you refer to about customer service or sales, because we don’t have a transaction between us - people can watch the content if they enjoy it the way it is, or they can find another video. For me it’s fine either way.

Fair enough - I think 20 years of use without removal is way out on the tail of the bell curve of typical users. 😉

True, and good point… I take for granted that people remove their grindstone for storage, but realise that’s not always possible.

Well, never saw Tormek advice removal of the stone for storage...but seems to be a good idea!

Es tut mir leid, es ist ein Kundenmesser und ich habe mir die Details nicht notiert, bevor ich es heute zurückschickte

​@@greatedgeltd Sehr schade. Ich habe nämlich auch Zwilling Kochmesser. Aber sie Haben auch mal eine Serie hergestell, die sehr harte Schneiden hatten. 66 HRC. hätte mich interessiert ob es so ein Messer war..

Good advice - thank you for sharing. I take for granted the lead checks sometimes but it would have been good to mention.

@@bobekdj thanks very much - I did try going all the way through all the belts including honing with the Ken Onion but never managed to achieve something competitive with Tormek. I am not sure if it’s because the belts are too flexible or the speed is too high, but it just doesn’t seem to be able to match the leather wheel of the T8.. that was part of the background work that led me to the fusion protocol but also I started to realise that if I was anyways going to end up on a leather wheel I could cut out some of the finer grit belts on the WorkSharp. It’s definitely not the way for ultimate sharpness, but I like the ‘BESS:Time’ ratio of this fusion protocol.

@@greatedgeltd that’s the hard part is from a hobbyist there are optimal ways, but those ways are not viable from a business standpoint. You are exactly right on the ratio of time to sharpness. I started with a wicked edge system and was able to get stellar results. I was spending a lot of time and sweat equity for perfect edges, only to have some clients who put the knives back in the dishwasher the next day lol. My 50% sharper was perfect for them I realized because my standards far exceeded their expectations. I took the Ken onion plunge with their mark 2 system (have the flywheel adjusted as close as it can be to mimic a flat ground edge)… I was shocked a the result and how close it was to the wicked edge. I’d say I’m 95% there with a 6-8 minute sharpening time down to 45-60 seconds per knife if they don’t need a lot of repairs. The other thing that helped is to get different belts than the stock ones. I only use 2 belts and a leather strop and the edges are both grippy and easily push cut magazines. I wish I had a BESS tester at my disposal to quantify, but the real world performance has been my metric for a while and never failed me.

@@bobekdjBingo - well said! 🎉

Thank you, Simon 🙏

Per the demonstration I gave in this video, BESS media can be very consistent, provided the user is aware of its limitations.

@@greatedgeltd Would you be willing to share your perception or data for the bess testing system accuracy ? In terms of consistency . . . +/- 5% . . . +/- 10% . . . +/- 15% ?

@@danielbottner7700 I don’t have a proper a set of data built up, and certainly not from the past 2-3 years. I’m more of a practical sharpener than a researcher. However all of my experience makes me think 10% is wide enough error brackets. One big caveat though is that BESS measurements are on a single point on an edge, which is not easy to repeatedly test without starting to influence the sharpness of the edge.

For woodworking tools I’d always recommend the Tormek SG-250 (standard wheel that comes with the T-8). It’s the most versatile and also allows you to work with pressure and/or steeper angles.

Thanks very much - good to know and I’m going to try that out.

I do something similar sometimes in my shop. 400 grit CBN on the Tormek followed by stropping on a leather wheel.

Good point - I have an SJ-250 but it never features in my videos. Perhaps something I should focus more on…