Topic: Time to sharpen turning tools

[tooladdic]

At a recent wood turners meeting a fellow said he sold his Tormek due to the long time to sharpen turning tools.  Any comments on this?

Don

[Honer]

Same question on the Tormek Yahoo Group.

Too long compared to what?
I am very happy with the sharpening speed.

Now if I want to re-shape a tool, why would I use the
Tormek SHARPENING system?

It's very simple.
If you want a precision sharpened edge use the Tormek.
If you want to wreak havoc on metal, use a grinder and let the sparks fly.
 

[Jeff Farris]

I promise a considered answer tomorrow.  I am too tired tonight to dig into this can of worms.  I will link this thread to the Yahoo group after I decide just how to dump the worms out of the can.

[Honer]

While sharpening knives in a restaurant parking lot, I had three different people come over and check out what I was doing.
I ended up sharpening each of their pocket knives and one guy wants me to come over to his place next week and sharpen some assorted tools he has.
Cool.
The catch is, I haven't had the time to work with all the assorted jigs I got in the complete Tormek package from SharpTools.
So yesterday I would run upstairs to watch the Tormek instructional video then run back down to the shop to use the assorted jigs on my new turning tools.
I had originally just honed the 6 piece turning set and used them to turn some assorted scrap cedar (I am a lathe newbie).
HOLY COW!!!!!
These newly sharpened tools are like night and day!
I thought my tools were sharp, but now that I "Tormecked" them they slice through cedar like it was butter.

It did take some time to figure out how to use the jig for my spindle gouge, but that will get faster with practice.

As far as taking time to actually sharpen the tool - about 3 minutes.
Who could complain about taking 3 minutes to get such fantastic results?

To paraphrase an old saying.
"There are two kinds of people in this world.  Those who own Tormeks and those who should."
 

[KEW]

I promise a considered answer tomorrow.  I am too tired tonight to dig into this can of worms.  I will link this thread to the Yahoo group after I decide just how to dump the worms out of the can.

Jeff,

I was excited to find this issue addressed on your site as I too know turners who bought tormeks but ended up not using them for their turning tools.
However, I cannot find your response. Do I need to find the Yahoo group?

Thanks,
Kurt

[Jeff Farris]

No, I apparently failed to get back to this thread.  Sorry.

At the risk of appearing lazy on my own forum, I am going to link a couple of recent threads from the Sawmill Creek forums. Similar questions came up there, and I spent a lot of time back and forth.  You can get a good feeling for the rationale for TORMEK edges on your tools from these two threads and read some comments from some of the SMC turners using TORMEK systems instead of just me.  If you're not familiar with Sawmill Creek, you ought to be.  It is a great community of woodworkers.

Not Getting The Sharpening Quality I Would Like!

New Lathe; First of Many Questions - Sharpening

My comments come fairly deep into each thread.  If this raises more questions than it answers, you can jump in on those threads or bring it back here.  I promise I won't neglect it any more.  

[boehme]

A factor that I did not see mentioned in the referenced threads as a reason that a finely honed turning tool cuts better and lasts longer than a tool straight off a dry grinder has to do with heating due to roughness of the bevel.  Considerable heat can be generated at the cutting edge of a bowl gouge and this can lead to rapid build up of pitch both on the bevel and in the flute of the gouge.  When the surface has a rough scratch pattern, there is a lot more friction, therefore, more heating.  When the pitch builds up, the gouge stops cutting so the normal reaction is to adjust the cutting angle to compensate.  The cut becomes more of a scraping action as things progress and the heating and pitch build-up has a snowballing effect.  I have not been turning very long and when I bought my Tormek several years ago at a WW show, sharpening turning tools was not the intended use.  Since I have started turning, my limited experience with sharpening things both ways has convinced me that the Tormek is far superior.  I especially like to use it for sharpening my skew chisels.

I took a turning class not too long ago with Nick Cook and before we began turning, he was going around to each student and touching up their skews with a diamond hone because they were not sharp enough.  He got to me and admired the edge and remarked that I must be a Tormek user.  I conceded that I was, almost apologetically.  He said that he also uses a Tormek for some of his turning tool sharpening, but not when teaching classes because dry grinders are what everyone has and uses.

Bill

[KEW]

Thanks for that bit of information. I have been experiencing it, but had not yet stood back and analyzed what was happening. Makes good sense.

I also asked Nick about using the tormek. He said he uses the tormek when he does a show or demonstration because it is one machine which can sharpen all of his tools. However, he said he still uses a dry grinder for sharpening some of his tools at home. It was a quick "in passing" conversation. I'll ask what tools he uses which for the next chance I get.

He is a class act - good of him to address his target audience when training (not many beginnning turners will have a Tormek unless they've done a fair bit with Hand Tools).