Official Luthiers Forum!

Wondering if anyone uses one of these in their shops?

I visited a local furniture repair/restore shop and this is what they use and swear by it for all their sharpening.

I have a JET of the exact same design. JET quit making them. I just had the circuit board replaced. I do not know why it fried, but I have added a surge protector just in case. As far as its usefulness, I am not that busy or skilled that I would be able to give a good opinion. The leather strop on mine is peeling loose. Although any good industrial adhesive might reattach it, I am concerned that the oil that is added frequently to the leather will prevent good adherence. JET recommends that a cobbler can attach leather if you do not want to try yourself, but the oil is still a problem.

http://www.grizzly.com/products/10-Wet- ... it/T10010S

Grizzly has this, which looks the same, but I am not sure. The Grizzly is $200 and my JET was $300 10 years ago.

I have the Tormek version, and use it for nearly all my blade grinding. I rarely use the leather wheel. Typically I go from the grinder straight to an 8000g Norton waterstone. If I strop, I use shop-made horsebutt strops.

I have no idea how the knock-offs compare, quality-wise, with the Tormeks.

Agreed but I use the leather hone quite a bit its super fast/effective for touching up your edge.

I used to do my building in a public park facility. The instructor had a dual wheel grinder with a buffing wheel on one side with jewelers rouge or something similar to use for chisels. He just had me sharpen freehand on the stone side, then move to the buffer. I thought it worked really well, but I imagine you could eat up your chisels. He had an ancient large wet wheel for plane blades.

We use the Tormek in the Marchione studio to grind new chisels or one that are dinged or chipped then lap them on the DMT diamond stones.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

_________________
"After forty-nine years of violin building, I have decided that the search for a varnish is similar to the fox hunt. The fun is in the hunt."
Jack Batts Maker and Repairer of Fine Violins

For general sharpening of chisels & plane irons I use stones.

I do have a Tormek which works well but I only use it for turning tools & if I have to regrind the bevel on chisels & plane irons. For me it's not much faster unless you have a lot of metal to remove but YMMV.

Kevin Looker

_________________
I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

Same opinion here. If you have many blades to sharpen or your blades get dinged up often then its probably a good purchase. Otherwise its hard to justify the cost.
I've used a friend's Tormek machine and was pretty happy with the edge, but just not worth the money and shelf space for the amount I would use it.

We use a Tormek for grinding and for honing carving tools, but as the boss says, it is a grinding and honing system that does a poor job of actually sharpening planes and non-carving style chisels. An extra-coarse/coarse DMT diamond combination stone and a modern synthetic 8000 grit stone like a Norton, Shapton, or Naniwa, etc. is what we currently recommend for planes, chisels and some scrapers.

The other issue with power sharpening systems is that they are slower than manual systems for tools which just need some quick edge touch-up. I spent a good amount of time early on at getting close to a 60 second turn-around on a dull block plane or chisel, and under two minutes on bench planes. A dinged blade or one in need of a regrind benefits from available power grinders, but the diamond stone strips a dull edge in 10-15 seconds, and 15-20 seconds on the 8000 waterstones finishes things up. Just checking the stone tray for water, jigging up the blade, and getting the wheel spinning can take 30 seconds.

_________________
A constellation only takes shape when one maps the whole.
- Beth Brower

Thanks Woodie; that was the answer I was looking for. Seems like it wouldn't replace stones and manual systems, and overall not worth the investment.

I've been using scary sharp for the past couple of years and touch up my edges with a leather strop, and find it great for chisels and planes. I guess it'll take a whole bunch of sandpaper to add up to the price of the electric system!!!