Thread: tormek T7 review - first impressions

Hi all,
I bought a T7 a few days ago and thought i would share first impressions for those considering the purchase. I had considered building a sharpening machine and have made some powerstrops and different types of saws in past with some success. I figured for the perceived high cost of entry of the T7 i could build something that would probably be better and last longer. After having a re-think on this i decided probably not. For me to build i estimated;

motor $100
oversized stainless bearings $130
bright bar for shaft, oversized $ 40
Stone $250
pulleys, belts $ 30
steel for frame etc $ 40
leather and MDF to make wheel $ 25
bolts etc $ 10
plug, switches, wire $ 20
2 cartons of beer for machinist friend $ 80

Total $ 725

This total didnt include anything for my time maybe a day... plus time to run around and buy the parts. While it would leave me with a solid machine that would likely last a lifetime, it left me with no jigs. The machine would likely be speed adjustable, but I'd be sharpening everything by hand. It would also probably leave me with a machine too big to carry, and likely drawing too much current to run off a small inverter. I would also likely be unable to recover the money by selling the machine.

The T7 started to look like a better and better deal. for $915 i got the machine which also has precision tool rests, diamond truing stone, grader, compound for the wheel, square edge jig and a few other things. Another $220 got the hand tool jig kit which has a couple of knife jigs, a scissor jig, an axe jig (really? who would ever....) and a small tool jig. This covers pretty much anything ill ever sharpen, other items can be done by hand. I mainly sharpen knives, chisels, scissors and planer blades.

Compared to the T3 it seemed like a much better deal in terms of warranty, stone life and accessories included.

First impressions....

Its bigger than i expected. its weighty in a re-assuring way (14kg apparently). Stands quite tall and looks to be well built. Everything was well packaged including the jigs which came in foam trays which look like they wont last too long unless treated with care. The foam trays can be screwed to a wall. The stone and leather wheel needed to be attached to the machine which was quick and easy. My machine came with the extended drip tray which is apparently a big improvement over the older style one. It still left some water on the table.

I watched the DVD included (dont let this be a big selling point for you, its just all the short clips from their website), read the book (worth reading) then put the machine together and fired it up. Its quiet, and slow. I trued the stone up with the truing tool included but stone appeared to be pretty good from the factory with no run out. There was a little side runout on the stone which was disappointing and appears to be the stone itself as i checked the shaft with a dial gauge. side runout is about 0.5mm. watching the tormek dvd their sample machine shows the same runout. The leather wheel was even worse but i guess it doesnt affect sharpening.

A big advantage for me is the portability of the machine. I am running it off a 400w pure sine wave inverter (modified sine wave inverters can be used but will cause the motor to get hotter) and it drives pretty easy off my car battery at this draw. With the T7 running its drawing 18A which my car keeps up with at idle.

I then set to work sharpening. over the next 4 hours i sharpened about 20 knives from pocket knives to chefs knives, some cleavers, about 30 chisels, planer and spokeshave blades and some small tools.

Knife Sharpening
Fast and easy. The 2 jigs in the hand tool kit work well with long and short knives. Positioning the knife in the jig is critical if you want the tip angle to be right, you need the jig fairly close to the tip of the knife. Most knives i sharpened were fairly high end and many of them quite hard with some ice hardened chefs knives also. The stone was much more aggressive than i expected. On some chefs knives i had been using a coarse grade diamond stone and still took some time. even with the lightest pressure the stone on the T7 got full sharpness in 1-2 passes. 1 pass each side was enough for most knives. the basic stone is probably too aggressive for most knife sharpening. The stone grader makes the stone finer but i havent tried it yet.

The angle control was impressive. the jigs work very well and are worth the money - very consistent, fast and repeatable. The angle master is priceless to every sharpening process on the T7 and makes things very easy. a lot of my knives have fairly narrow shoulders but the sharpener easily dealt with this. You do need to develop a feel for the jigs, but the capability is impressive.

Honing was done by hand. i started by using a light mineral oil on the leather wheel to help soften it and help absorb the compound. The tube of compound supplied was ok but i have had better results from the sticks of white compound in past. hand honing takes some time to get used to and needs a certain amount of feel. its easy to roll the edge if you're not careful. You can move the tool mount to the front for honing, but surprisingly the distance is not identical to the top mount. I would have figured that you could move the mount to the front and not need to readjust to get the same angle for honing. This is probably due to the much smaller diameter on the leather hone. I guess even if they did make them the same, over time they wouldnt match as the main wheel wears down in diameter anyway.

The hone brought the knives up to a good basic shaving sharpness within about 30 seconds. I was able to crank out 20 knives of about 6" blade size in 30 minutes. I sharpened them all, then honed them all. For dedicated knife use i feel the main stone is too aggressive and would probably want to use a 1000grit main stone )standard supplied is 220) but the stone supplied is up to the task and can be used. its a good compromise.

on to the chisels
I had a good range of chisels from very narrow 1.5mm chisels up to 50mm. most were in a pretty poor state, especially the larger ones which tend to cop a lot of abuse. I started on the largest chisels and found the stone way too fine for re-shaping. You could re-shape a 50mm chisel but it would take 6-7minutes which is way too much time for me. most of my chisels have very specific uses and angles to go with them; the larger chisels are mainly used for roughing out notches in seasoned 50 year+ 4x2 hardwood. they are pounded heavily and need constant attention. I sharpen these at a 30 degree angle. The stone just wasnt fast enough. In the end i sharpened them down quickly on a belt sander, then finished on the T7. this gave me a quick result in 1~2 minutes per chisel.

the next size down of chisel in the 10~20mm range seemed ideal for the T7. I sharpen these mostly at 25 degrees and they get used more carefully, in softer woods sometimes by hand and sometimes lightly with a mallet. I had no need of using the belt sander for pre-shaping, a minute on the stone was plenty. Edges came out shaving sharp even before honing but a hone really gave them a mirror finish. The control of angle provided by the angle master tool and the consistency of the jigs means great repeatability. Once the tools are sharpened, they can be re-sharpened very quickly with very little metal removed at each sharpening. Worth noting is that if you are going from straight grind to hollow grind, or changing angles... then you will probably need to re-set the tool angle as you get closer to being finished.

finally the precision chisels. these are mostly under 1/2" and are used only by hand for true precision work in guitar making. angles for each chisel are specific to the task but is generally 18~21 degrees. These sharped up very quickly on the stone, about 20 seconds each. a minute of honing had them truly beautiful and a pleasure to use. I would have preferred a finer stone for sharpening these. Its too big of a step to go from the stone to the hone.

planer blades, spokeshaves etc
I sharpened up a few planes and spokeshaves from about 60mm down to a tiny thumb plane for guitar use. This is an area where the T7 shines. The stone grit seems ideal; fast and easy. Because of the smaller cross section of a plane blade compared a a chisel, they sharpen quickly and easily on the stone without too much effort. the hone had them very keen and able to effortlessly plane off beautiful curlies.

conclusions
The T7 represents good value for money in my mind, but whether you can justify the cost or not is very subjective. I weighed up the merits of cheaper sharpeners (and a few more expensive) and decided this was the way to go for me. If you have a lot of time up your sleeve and prefer tinkering to simply getting things sharpened and getting on with the job, then building your own machine or going with one that needs fiddling may be the thing for you.

There were a couple of things i wasnt happy about - the runout on the stone wasnt great. but it doesnt seem to affect sharpness. Stone grit is always a compromise, but the 220 provided seems a good compromise all round. The angle master appears to require some careful use also - different readings can be had depending on where you place it on the tool and stone. The machine all round feels refined and well thought out - every little thing has its purpose and everything works well. What ive read of the other jigs seems to indicate they all function properly and without fuss.

A good indication of the ease and quality of the T7 is me sharpening up a handfull of planer blades with a friend this afternoon. Ive done this many times in past by grinder and by stone, paying careful attention under good light, sparks flying and totally focussed. within a few hours of using the T7 i was sharpening up a planer blade in the jig with the stops set so that i couldnt slide off the edge of the stone. I was at the back of the machine on the stone while my friend was honing a chisel on the leather wheel from the front at the same time. We were having a conversation at normal levels about the merits of local restaurants and i wasnt really watching carefully what i was doing - just moving the stone from left to right by feel. I turned off the machine for about 60 seconds while i removed the blade, handed it to him for honing, fitted the next blade, checked the angle then turned on and started sharpening again. The edge was perfect.

Shaun Van Poecke