Thread: Tormek wheels: accessory and aftermarket

This arises out of a recent post and is worth its own thread.

Tormek owners prob know already that there are wheels beyond the standard fitting: a Blackstone Silicon and Japanese Water stone. The first developed for HSS, the 2nd for polishing an edge.

Given the replacement cost of a std wheel Downunder ($300-$350) it's also worth looking at aftermarket wheels in terms of price and performance.

Sun Tiger and Naniwa in higher grits: click

'Japanese' waterstones from the US, #800 & #4000: click

King from Amazon, #800 - but they won't ship to Australia.

As best I can tell they all use 12mm holes so will fit Scheppach and Jet as well. But caveat emptor.

And of course Scheppach's replacement wheel is all of $55. It's softer than the std Tormek but I've had good results with it on HSS.

There are some grumbles recorded in webland about some aftermarket wheels - running eccentric - that I can no longer find but an email conversation with a Canadian woody has revealed one satisfied user of a King #800.

Does not glaze; cuts fast; grinds finer than the nominal #1000 of a fine-graded Tormek std wheel. Applications include O1 and A2 steel. Not HSS (yet).

He has two Tormeks and uses the std wheel for shaping and then the #800 for refining, so does not have to swap wheels much but when he does, marks both the spindle and the wheel for remounting and has not had to retrue.

I'll invite him to comment here with corrections and additions if he wishes.