Tormek T-1 Kitchen Knife Sharpener

nolaegghead

Got my Tormek.  Sharpened a crappy knife for a trial run and sure enough, few minutes on the unit and it’s scary sharp.  Arbitrarily set the angle to 17 degrees.  

Comes with a fancy package of bandaids hahaha

nolaegghead

Basically, the best by FAR knife sharpener I’ve ever used.  I don’t think this first knife could get sharper.

lousubcap

I have been sucked into many rabbit holes thanks to this forum.  I have definitely gotten past (without falling in) the SV deal (although those here who use it crank out some exceptional proteins).  This has a bit of staying power-I am hoping an upcoming busy weekend will help with the burial rites.
Given my age, my elementary sharpening skills (with stones) will last me til I am history but the allure is there...
Not that you care but the SRF rabbit hole of 11+ years ago is the continual sink hole for me.  I regret that I don't recall the thread but it has well-deserved staying power.  And I am quite pleased with that outcome.  All FWIW-

Ozzie_Isaac

@lousubcap stay strong my friend.  We don't need this sharpener.  We do not need it.  We don't need it I say.

But, seriously, get a Sous Vide.

Langner91

I wish there were a Co-Op model for tools/appliances like this.  I probably only need this thing in my house 3 times a year for a weekend.  Then, it could go live somewhere else for the next 17 weeks before I would like it back.  

Same with an Instant Pot.

alaskanassasin

I left it up on the monitor, swmbo saw it.  Seed planted

Hungry Joe

Knowing someone else had the same experience as I did makes me glad it's not my lousy sharpening skills that made me feel this thing was the next best thing to sliced bread.

Band-aids are a nice plus. 

Ozzie_Isaac

alaskanassasin said:

I left it up on the monitor, swmbo saw it.  Seed planted

I'm txting it to my son, so when my wife asks him.

lkapigian

alaskanassasin said:

I left it up on the monitor, swmbo saw it.  Seed planted

If I could plant a seed by what I left on my monitor, it would not be a knife sharpener 

Botch

lousubcap said:

This has a bit of staying power-I am hoping an upcoming busy weekend will help with the burial rites.
Given my age, my elementary sharpening skills (with stones) will last me til I am history but the allure is there...

Aw c'mon Cap'n; the guys at sharpeningsupplies.com tell me the Tormek purrs like an Ohio-class at 18 fathoms.  Less than the price of two speeding tickets!    

lousubcap

@Botch- Motoring today and fortunately the unmarked gray (too many grays on the road) with the blue lights was doing a light show for the car also on the side of the road.  I slowed down and smiled.
It's quite a challenge these days-friggin SUV's with the lights.  Where to turn?? 
I'm quite sure the Tormek emits more sound at least when doing the sharpening.  

nolaegghead

I sharpened around 25 knives tonight with the T-1.

It will get hot with use.  After running it almost solid for 45 minutes I thought - wonder what the duty cycle on this thing is....(of course I only browsed the manual and mostly looked at the feature list and basic instructions).   30 minutes.  That's my only complaint.

Pros: Sharper knives than I could get from my wet wheel Tormek and way sharper than the Ken Onion Worksharp and a couple other sharpeners with the exception of, don't remember the name but I have the system with the stones and glass polishers on rods...that thing gets knives insanely sharp but it's a chore.

This sharpens from the heel to the tip better than any other sharpener I've used.  Really works great on curved blades which are tough to do on the wet wheel and most other sharpeners.

The honing wheel has the compound embedded in the composite so no messy pastes.  The magnet on the diamond wheel works well but it will still make a mess with dry filings.  The grit is fine on the diamond - 600 grit.  I'm used to much courser grits. 

It will reshape a blade angle fast.  On Japanese steel, you can change the angle from say 17 to 14 degrees in a minute or two. Heavier German knives (did a bunch of old Wustof Grand Prix that we rarely ever use anymore) take longer as you're removing more metal. I have some really "tough to sharpen" steel that are in EDCs that I haven't tried yet.  But no noticeable time difference between V10 core, AUS8, white carbon, German SS so far.

It lets you get right up to the heel or bolster, depending on the knife without trashing the handle or bolster through rogue contact with the wheel.  You could screw up, but I didn't try very hard and managed to not scratch or damage anything.

Unlike the Ken Onion Worksharp, which TRASHES tips if you try saving time and not stopping the blade every time you reach the tip, this machine doesn't mangle the tips.  Sharpens them right up to the edge.  There is some skill in using this, but for me, at least, the learning curve was very short.

I have a couple old sets of steak knives I'm gong to sharpen tomorrow along with whatever EDC folders I can find, will be the ultimate test.  Small, short blades are more difficult to sharpen than most larger kitchen knives. 

Nola out, mothafukkahz!

nolaegghead

Couple additions/clarifications:  duty cycle is 30 min an hour.  I read that as 30 on, 30 off.  It's small, doesn't take up much counter space and really heavy for it's size (around 14 pounds) with sticky legs - doesn't move around.   Very quiet.

It will not sharpen knives with an edge to spine distance greater than around 2.75 inches.  So it won't sharpen the funky Ken Onion Shun or any of my cleavers.  But it will do nakiri fine.  I wouldn't want to use it to sharpen a heavy cleaver anyway.  Japanese or Chinese are thin and tapered, good there, but edge to spine is just a tad too long.

OhioEgger

I hate you guys.
Ordered one.

lkapigian

Thanks Carey , now I want one LoL… I don’t have fancy knives, mainly Mundial and only 2 get regular use , bought the Onion in 2018 ( thank you @The Cen-Tex Smoker) bought new belts in 2020, gets used every 6 months or so…I just don’t like messing with the belts , looked hard at the whetstones based upon @Ozzie_Isaac recent thread , but I think I’m to ADD for that 

fishlessman

going to stick with the stones. put a razor edge on the fish splitter knife last weekend. waiting for salmon season to start

Canugghead

lousubcap said:

I have been sucked into many rabbit holes thanks to this forum.  I have definitely gotten past (without falling in) the SV deal (although those here who use it crank out some exceptional proteins).  This has a bit of staying power-I am hoping an upcoming busy weekend will help with the burial rites.
Given my age, my elementary sharpening skills (with stones) will last me til I am history but the allure is there...
Not that you care but the SRF rabbit hole of 11+ years ago is the continual sink hole for me.  I regret that I don't recall the thread but it has well-deserved staying power.  And I am quite pleased with that outcome.  All FWIW-

Well said cap... I started with stones years ago but struggled big time. Sucked into a motorised wet stone, a basic WorkSharp belt system and a basic motorised Chef's Choice over the years. Tired of the hit-n-miss, aggressive wear on my albeit mediocre knives, and the consumables. Thanks to ewetube, finally getting the hang of elementary stone sharpening, hopefully it's good enough until I'm history too 

caliking

Pros - no fiddling with changing belts on the Work Sharp Ken Onion. Compact enough to live somewhere in the garage. caliqueen wouldn't even know its there. 

Cons- as soon as she slices her finger, caliqueen would  know I bought a new knife sharpener, 

lkapigian

caliking said:

Pros - no fiddling with changing belts on the Work Sharp Ken Onion. Compact enough to live somewhere in the garage. caliqueen wouldn't even know its there. 

Cons- as soon as she slices her finger, caliqueen would  know I bought a new knife sharpener, 

LoL

nolaegghead

This sharpener is a game changer.  Now that all our knives are scary sharp, what could possibly go wrong?

Canugghead

nolaegghead said:

This sharpener is a game changer.  Now that all our knives are scary sharp, what could possibly go wrong?

Well, they are now even more dangerous than guns

HeavyG

Canugghead said:

nolaegghead said:

This sharpener is a game changer.  Now that all our knives are scary sharp, what could possibly go wrong?

Well, they are now even more dangerous than guns

"Sharp knives don't cut people, people do."

Ozzie_Isaac

nolaegghead said:

This sharpener is a game changer.  Now that all our knives are scary sharp, what could possibly go wrong?

A dull knife is a dangerous knife, just a like a voter.

caliking

The sphincters clenched a bit at 5:30 ...

https://youtu.be/xeK6P10kxwU

nolaegghead

Not too bad.  Takes some practice to shape the tip and bolster area.  

womaus

nolaegghead said:

This sharpener is a game changer.  Now that all our knives are scary sharp, what could possibly go wrong?

Clearly you haven't been following the goings on up in Cohassett Massachusetts?

Hungry Joe

nolaegghead said:

Couple additions/clarifications:  duty cycle is 30 min an hour.  I read that as 30 on, 30 off.  It's small, doesn't take up much counter space and really heavy for it's size (around 14 pounds) with sticky legs - doesn't move around.   Very quiet.

It will not sharpen knives with an edge to spine distance greater than around 2.75 inches.  So it won't sharpen the funky Ken Onion Shun or any of my cleavers.  But it will do nakiri fine.  I wouldn't want to use it to sharpen a heavy cleaver anyway.  Japanese or Chinese are thin and tapered, good there, but edge to spine is just a tad too long.

I was curious about not being able to sharpen my cleaver and after looking around I believe you may be able to remove the black plastic knife guide and do cleavers or other knives with a deeper spine.

I haven't tried it yet, I can't see why it won't work. Maybe this weekend.

Edit, I believe they call it the clamp.

nolaegghead

Hungry Joe said:

nolaegghead said:

Couple additions/clarifications:  duty cycle is 30 min an hour.  I read that as 30 on, 30 off.  It's small, doesn't take up much counter space and really heavy for it's size (around 14 pounds) with sticky legs - doesn't move around.   Very quiet.

It will not sharpen knives with an edge to spine distance greater than around 2.75 inches.  So it won't sharpen the funky Ken Onion Shun or any of my cleavers.  But it will do nakiri fine.  I wouldn't want to use it to sharpen a heavy cleaver anyway.  Japanese or Chinese are thin and tapered, good there, but edge to spine is just a tad too long.

I was curious about not being able to sharpen my cleaver and after looking around I believe you may be able to remove the black plastic knife guide and do cleavers or other knives with a deeper spine.

I haven't tried it yet, I can't see why it won't work. Maybe this weekend.

Edit, I believe they call it the clamp.

I didn’t notice that technique in the manual so I bet it’s hard to keep the blade reproducibly in one plane without that clamp.  Not to say you couldn’t solve that problem with some Cajun engineering or using both hands.

If you’ve ever used a flush cut saw to cut a dowel or tenon flush, having your finger from your other hand holding the blade is essential.

Let us know if you succeed, good luck!

Ozzie_Isaac

nolaegghead said:

Not too bad.  Takes some practice to shape the tip and bolster area.  

Just no real good way to sharpen this area without freehand.

Langner91

Hungry Joe said:

nolaegghead said:

Couple additions/clarifications:  duty cycle is 30 min an hour.  I read that as 30 on, 30 off.  It's small, doesn't take up much counter space and really heavy for it's size (around 14 pounds) with sticky legs - doesn't move around.   Very quiet.

It will not sharpen knives with an edge to spine distance greater than around 2.75 inches.  So it won't sharpen the funky Ken Onion Shun or any of my cleavers.  But it will do nakiri fine.  I wouldn't want to use it to sharpen a heavy cleaver anyway.  Japanese or Chinese are thin and tapered, good there, but edge to spine is just a tad too long.

I was curious about not being able to sharpen my cleaver and after looking around I believe you may be able to remove the black plastic knife guide and do cleavers or other knives with a deeper spine.

I haven't tried it yet, I can't see why it won't work. Maybe this weekend.

Edit, I believe they call it the clamp.

Tormec has you covered.  I believe if you dig into their website you will find a much more expensive model that will easily do your other blades.  The T1 was meant to sharpen kitchen / chef's style knives.

From what I have heard.  Trying hard to not visit their website....