[pianotech] Of Chisels

[William Monroe]

Having flattened using the side of the Tormek wheel in the past, I would
recommend not.  Unless you only have very minor flattening of the back to
do, it takes an incredibly long time on the Tormek.  Coarse Emery cloth,
coarse sandpaper, x-coarse diamond stones (followed by the finer grades) all
work much, much quicker than the Tormek for flattening backs (and fronts for
that matter).   Don't get me wrong, I think the Tormek is a fine tool, but
is very slow if you have to make anything other than minor changes to the
tool.  And remember - we are talking about using the sides of the super-slow
Tormek wet-wheel here for flattening, not a standard high (or even slow)
speed grinder.  NEVER use the sides of those wheels for grinding.

My 2 cents,
William R. Monroe



On Sun, Oct 10, 2010 at 7:40 PM, Thomas Cole <tcole at cruzio.com> wrote:

>  I'm not sure what you mean by having the natural skills to sharpen by
> hand. If you have a jig to hold a tool at a constant angle to the grinding
> surface, whatever method you use, you're going to get a better result than
> if the tool is hand held in my view. The reason I say so is that the cutting
> edge of a knife/chisel/plane blade, etc., is a microscopic part of the
> tool which can be easily damaged by the slightest clumsiness. This is the
> beauty of the Tormek, that it pretty well eliminates the klutz factor.
>
> Thanks for pointing out using the sides of the wheel for flattening the
> back of chisels. I had forgotten that.
>
> Tom Cole
>
>
>
>
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