Tormek’s T7 Sharpening Process — Wet Grinder

Tormek’s new T7 is the most recent in a type of widely acclaimed sharpening systems. The grinder is well made and will require years of hard use. The machine comes with a squaring jig, this holds your blades automatically squared to the grinding wheel. Chisels and plane blades are attached using their backs flat against a sizable reference surface, this then prevents rocking or tipping after the jig is tightened down. Added to the machine is Tormek’s new truing and dressing Tool TT-50.

The TT-50 is Tormek’s latest stone truing tool and can make finding a flat parallel surface an easy and quick task. The truing and dressing tool will come in the T7 vijayalakshmi grinder  sharpening system and if like me you’ve an earlier Tormek system you can also use the TT-50 on the present Universal Support, but setting up the cut is more difficult. However Tormek advise one to retrofit the most recent Universal Support with Micro Adjust.

The Tormek T7 system includes a slow running speed which will give you full control over your blades which can be being ground. The reduced running speed and heavy wheel also reduces noise and vibration, giving a better grind and so a sharper blade.

Since the grinding and sharpening system utilizes water cooling (wet grinding – the grinding wheel rotates in a tray of water), there’s no risk of overheating or burning the edges of one’s blades and drawing the temper from them. Honing and polishing is carried out on another leather honing wheel. The leather honing wheel must be lubricated with a grinding paste.

The T7 sharpening system isn’t cheap, except for the professional woodworker the time savings over the life span of the merchandise can make it more than worth while to possess, for the amateur woodworker it could be overkill, but when you have the amount of money it’s a really nice bit of kit, and should last you for years reliving hours and hours of tedious sharpening.