Anybody using a Tormek to sharpen chopper blades?

[bill t.]

A woodworking nut just put an edge my Pootatuck style chopper blades using his home sharpening machine which is called a Tormek. He got those blades mirror polished and SCAREY SHARP (his term) in about 20 minutes. He used the "factory wheel" to "get the curve" followed by a finer "Japanese wheel."

A brand new razor blade is blunt by comparison. Those blades trim mouldings like they weren't even there, you have to look at the debris to make sure you didn't miss the wood entirely. My problem reverse moulding with details where the blade exits no longer chips.

Anybody else doing their own blades this way? I know there are some wood butchers out there. Might be a cost effective option to packing, shipping, waiting, unpacking, second set of blades, etc or even driving them somewhere in town. No planning ahead is required which always comes hard for me. The machine is small and costs something like $400. Should I just let this pass? Unfortunately the guy doesn't want to be sharpener much as he enjoys it, real talent is too often like that.

 

[wpfay]

Divide the cost of the machine by the number of expected sharpenings adding in labor per sharpening plus learning curve...Oh, you'll need to buy a special adapter jig to hold the chopper blades too. Are the bearings replaceable? How often will you have to replace the stones, and how often will they have to be dressed?
During my stint in the cabinet business we purchased a water cooled sharpener. The abrasive wheels were interchangeable and sat horizontally on the drive. You would use the side of the wheel for sharpening so you ended up with a flat grind instead of a hollow grind. 40 minutes to an hour to sharpen a set of chopper blades. A great tool in a pinch, or if a necessity, but we ended up farming out all of our sharpening once we found someone competent.

 

[Baer Charlton]

Bill, I have a Tormek and sharpen my 16" planer blades and 6" joiner blades. But as I will never go back to a hollow grind on the Morso.... the answer is: no.

BUT, I do spray glue 900 and 1200 grit wet/dry emery cloth to a 1" thick glass I have and hone when I need to.

Wally, it takes me about 20 minutes to grind and hone all three blades on my planer.... then an hour to reinstall..... man I want a Tersa head.

The $1k investment has more than payed for itself by sharpening fish knives for the kid across the street. Over the years he would bring me a large box of knives..... then the 20-40 lbs of salmon or steelhead. Over the years, he has stuffed about 250-300 lbs of fish in our freezer. Even at a "on sale" price of $5/lb.... it adds up. Also to have VERY sharp blades [chisels to jointer] on demand is great.
Recently I went on a jag and resharpened all of my turning tools.... oh, I had forgotten how nice it can be..

A friend is coming over this afternoon... he just got back from a tour of the plant.. and he's coming to show me how to sharpen my router bits on the wheel.

Wheel replacement won't happen this decade.... and maybe not next. The wheel has only shrunk 1/2" in the 8 years. Square dressing only takes 1/64". And that is once a year, if that.

 

[Warren Tucker]

Baer,

ESTA replacable knives are a good substitute for a Tersa head. If it weren't such a bear to switch heads on our SCMI jointer, I'd buy a helical head rather than a Tersa. We've got a Tormek but perfer the Veritas machine; it's a heck of a lot faster. We've flatened the backs of plane irons on our belt sander; that's really fast. Sharpened 'em with it too.

I think I've got a set of Esta holders for 16" knives. I know we have a set or two of 16" planer/jointer knives if you're interested. I'd be glad to ship them to you; we're not using them and they're probably gracefully oxidizing in our container out back.

The SCMI uses 4 knives and it was usualy a two hour ordeal with a dial indicator to replace them before we switched to Esta and the head has servicable lifting screws. The real problem was that it was nearly impossible to grind the edge of the knives within .004" straight. Esta knives are within .002" and that means we can set all 4 within .001 of each other. If the knives aren't ground straight, you have to actually bend them.

 

[Baer Charlton]

Warren, I we have 5 sets of 16s.... two sets are still in cosmoline. The planer is a 1953 Oliver White. Yeah, I never knew Oliver made planers either.... and who the heck is White?

My partner's dad bought it for $25 as military surplus in 1958.

One of the woodworkers in our guild has a Inca (Incra? French) and we can change the 3 blades in 20 seconds....... and they are always perfectly alligned. 17"... and if you flop the head.. its a joiner. So you can join your faces and then plane to dead flat and straight. very cool.

I have seen those helical with all those bits..... I like the idea of the shearing cut... it's just all those screws.... and if you miss one.. and it comes off at 900mph...... what a grenade.

 

[Jay H]

I really don't have an answer for this but is it possible to have the blades too sharp? Wouldn't blades sharper than a razor just dull really fast from being too thin? Just a thought.

To answer the question, I pay $5 a set to have my blades sharpend and haven't even considered messing with them myself.

Carry on.

 

[wpfay]

A water cooled power sharpening system does make sense in a woodworking shop...with all those tools and blades to sharpen. For sharpening chopper blades in a frame shop it's a bit of overkill, though we tool junkies would understand.

The cabinet shop I helped to start up is closing.
There's a 24" Oliver thickness plane for sale. Cast Iron body. Would make a lovely addition in a vintage tool collection or possibly an artificial reef. That and the 12" Joiner are the two pieces I would like to keep. Alas...they take up too much real estate.

 

[bill t.]

I really don't have an answer for this but is it possible to have the blades too sharp? Wouldn't blades sharper than a razor just dull really fast from being too thin? Just a thought.

To answer the question, I pay $5 a set to have my blades sharpened and haven't even considered messing with them myself.

Carry on.

The break even point between sharpness and staying power is partly a matter of how easy it is to sharpen the blades. Super sharp blades are a compelling thing for me since my favorite moulding has details on the part of the moulding where the blade exits. Maybe most profiles aren't so touchy.

A shortcoming of the Pootaktuck design is that the blade cuts in a non-optimal direction for reverse profiles. With the super sharp blades, there is no chipping where the blade exits whereas I was getting chipping there with the professional sharpening I got last week.

So if I had an easy way to maintain super sharp blades, woohooh!

Maybe I should just buy a Morso, but they're so danged BIG, the Pootatuck stores in a large drawer and only comes out for my infrequent but intense seasonal framing frenzies. The Poot blades come on or off in about a minute, how does that compare with a Morso?

 

[Baer Charlton]

Wally STOP! You're talking dirty . . . a 12" Oliver joiner?!?!?! I need to go take a cold shower.

A friend had a 12" with a 3 stage 20hp motor.... even before it had completely spooled up.. he hogged off a perfect 1/2" on a 4x4 out of black walnut. Scared the bejeezies out of me.... but I wanted it. He would have delivered it if I had room when he busted up his shop. I think I would have made room for his 8' bed / 32" swing over the ways Oliver with a converted 20 hp DC adjustable speed motor lathe. I did take the head unit for a 58" bowl lathe... just no room to set it up.. and it needs a 16" thick 6'x6' pad inset to bolt to.

bill t . . . once you get a Morso or Jyden.... you'll never look back.

 

[Jerry Ervin]

If you are having problems with chip, maybe you should try a saw.

When I bought my FrameSquare saw, I totally stopped using the Morso.

Then I bought a Ledsome, I almost totally stopped using the FrameSquare.

The FrameSquare works great for really delicate stuff.