Applications
and advantages of the tormek bench grinder
The
Tormek water stone grinding system is certainly one
of the most advanced grinding and honing systems
on the market. With a grinding stone cooled with
water and running at a very low speed, it prevents
overheating of your chisels, blades or knifes, giving
them more durability and longer sharpness. Being
a water cooled grinding system, it does not
produce any sparks whatsoever, which is certainly
an extra safety benefit. Tormek, a swedish company,
also offers an enormous amount of accessories in
order to sharpen nearly every different type of tool.
From chisels, carving knifes over to woodturning
flutes up to straight plane blades - it seems there
is no end to the applications.
Advantages
of this water
stone grinder
The
waterstone grinding system consists basically of a
two wheel bench grinder running at very low speed of
90 RPM. Unlike traditional
bench grinder one grindstone
runs permanently in a tray filled with water. With
the 250mm aluminum-oxide grindstone, it can be used
even for sharpening
HSS steels.
The other disc is a 220mm leather honing wheel which
gives the extra fine edge.
Most important guides and accessories
The
unit already includes a universal support bar with
a fine adjustment where most tormek jigs and guides
are attached to.  The
most important guide for any woodworker is also already
included. The straight edge jig is ideal for sharpening
hand planer blades and chisels. It guides the blade precise
parallel to the grinding stone.
 With
such an enormous variety of different jigs available,
it is difficult to select the most important ones.
The one I like most is called Multi Jig, which is ideal
for woodturning chisels, whereby it does not matter
if there is a straight flute or curved edged.
 Another very versatile guide is the tormek universal gouge.
I use it for my small sized woodturning flutes.
In case you do a lot of carving or woodturning, you might
also have a look at the profiled leather wheel. I
know that every woodcarver and wood turner has its
special way of honing, but the leather disc together
with the right compound produces one of the sharpest
tools I have ever come across.
There
are many more accessories for the water
stone grinder available, which make it even more
versatile. From scissor
sharpening
to knife and axe
grinding, all sorts of jigs are available.
This makes the Tormek
water stone grinder such an important tool for any professional
woodworker.
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