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

Great review Shaun. :2tsup::2tsup::2tsup:

certainly provides food for thought.

You don't mention any glitches or flaws, so is it that good?

its still a bit early to tell...
Ill post another review in a few weeks once I've had more time to get familiar with the machine. Most things are a compromise, and the T7 is no exception but i think on ballance it has been well made for most purposes. As others have mentioned on this site, the stone clogs up fairly easy so im wondering what stone life will be like.

will keep you posted~

Shaun

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but any update on this Shaun? I've wondered whether a Tormek should have a home in my shed.

Hi Beetle shirt, I've been meaning to get back to this review and do an update, thanks for the prompt!

Life with the Tormek T7
So what's it like? I brought the T7 home like an expensive hooker I foolishly picked up in a casino one night... The first night was very exciting and we did things I'd always dreamed of. But she stayed, and after a while she started looking more like the girl next door than a penthouse pet, but I'd still keep her. She's good at what she does ;-)

a life less wonderful
There were things I started to notice about the T7 after having it for nearly 3 months, I've sharpened about 700 knives, and 50 or 60 chisels plus a few dozen scissors and other little oddities. That's long enough to get to know the machine pretty well. Lets start with the tool rest;

The tool rest is awesome. It's incredibly solid, and the micro adjuster is fantastic. Its very solid, and nicely true straight out of the box unlike most of the knockoffs which need to be hit with hammers. It can be used upright, in the back... or from the front. But the alignment of the front one could be better honestly. The squareness is fine, what I mean is the height adjustment. when you move the tool rest to the hone wheel, you would hope it would be at close to the same angle. It's miles off. This wouldnt be hard to get right. True that as the stone wears down, the two will no longer line up, but they could also make the front tool rest adjustable for this purpose.

The square edge jig seemed the simplest of the lot to me, and the one least likely to cause any problems. It's great for planer blades, chisels etc. But For some reason i still havent worked out, chisels with curved tops just wont sit in it right. They end up miles out, and are horribly skewed. There are only maybe 3 very oddly shaped chisels (just normal square edge chisels) that have had this problem, but it threw me. They were really expensive chisels too! I ended up skewing them in the holder very severely (about 10~15 degrees) just to get them to sharpen square.

I think before buying it, I overrated the usefulness of the hone. I thought that this would be the best part of the machine, but in truth, I rarely use it. I've tried a few different abrasive pastes, but none of them have been very effective. I think the problem is the wheel turns way too slow. It's also smaller in diameter than the stone so it's even slower in terms of travel speed. I think it needs to be turning about 200~250 RPM to be efficient and effective. I usually just use the stone and skip the hone, unless I have plenty of time and its a special knife.

Let's look at the stone itself. Others have commented on how quickly the stone clogs up, and it's true. I find I get about 20~25 chefs knives before the pace slows down. less in chisels (which I pre grind on a bench grinder) and planer blades. The good news is; It clears fast. about 3 seconds with the grader stone has it hungry again. And it seems to wear very little. Ive gone through a lot of knives and would have expected more wear, but at the rate of about 200 knives/chisels etc a month I would expect to get about 2 years out of the stone.

A future so bright you'll have to wear shades
So some faults have come out. Admittedly most of them are pretty minor. reading back over them, actually... all of them are minor. So what about the good?

It is incredibly rugged. Solid, well made, stainless bearings, weighty, quiet and reliable. I dont think I'll ever be making a claim on the 7 year commercial warranty. This alone makes the T7 worth buying over the T3.

The stone lasts and lasts. It's a great compromise in grit, and gives basic shaving sharpness on most blades in about 25 seconds. If i was given a choice to go with a coarser or finer stone, I'd stick with this one. It's right on the money.

The angle master and jigs are the heart of the system. With the angle master I can easily and consistently sharpen blades to within half a degree, and the bevel looks machined. Factory sharp and fast! Its something that never ceases to amaze. You can take some ratty old chipped horrible hand sharpened knife, give it a few passes on the stone and the bevel is perfect. There is no other sharpening system I've seen that is so controllable, consistent and fast.

The jigs are absolutely worth buying, without them you'd just have a hand sharpening system.

Conclusion
Would I buy one again? Absolutely. During this time I've had a look at a few of the other systems... I had a go on the triton wet sharpener and it was pretty awful. I've tried the worksharp 2000 and I thought it was pretty good... but not really any better and really only limited to chisels and planer blades.

On initial inspection, the T7 seems pricey. It's more expensive than the other systems, sure. But I think its much better value for money. I very nearly bought a T3, and Im very glad i didnt. The bigger stone, longer warranty, square edge jig, truing tool etc... are all fantastic and i wouldn't want to be without them.

This is the kind of machine you buy once in your life. With that in mind, and considering what I've sharpened already, there isnt anything else i would want to consider that's within the price range. I think you would need to be sharpening at least 10 tools/blades a month to need one, and Iif you have need of it, buy one. Every month that is, not just in the first month. I think a lot of guys buy one of these, sharpen 100 things that month, then it sits for a long long time. If that sounds like you, consider paying someone to sharpen your stuff, or go halves in a machine like this with friends or people with similar hobbies.

If not, I'll sharpen your knives for $4 each, or 3 for $10 ;-)

Shaun

You seem quite keen (heh) on it, but raise a good point. There's no way at this stage that I'd be using it enough to justify the spend. It sounds like one of those indispensable tools that unfortunately costs enough to put it out of reach of most of us. Not necessarily the outright cost, just the cost to usage ratio. Once I ramp up my hand tool usage - and I should probably start with finishing the shed and building a bench or two - that may change and I'll look at it again.

In the meantime, thanks for a brilliant review. Very thorough. Worth a greenie!

Your sharpening offer is actually pretty interesting. It's a bit of a hike from Berowra to the Blue Mountains, but that would also give me a demo of it in action by someone thoroughly familiar with it. Hmm.

One of the things you've prob discovered by now, re increasing the grinding rate where a lot of material has to come off, is to mount the bar on top so the wheel is coming towards the tool edge.

Another is to regrade the wheel to fine if you want to improve the honing effectiveness.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Beetle Shirt

Your sharpening offer is actually pretty interesting. It's a bit of a hike from Berowra to the Blue Mountains, but that would also give me a demo of it in action by someone thoroughly familiar with it. Hmm.

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I figure at 10 tools a month, if you were paying $30/month x 12 = $360. startup cost on the T7 + acessories is $1135, so lets round it off a bit and say 3 years to get back to dollar 1. And bear in mind that's an *average* of 10 tools a month... over 3 years.... or, 360 sharpenings over 3 years! Not very many home users would do that much. The convenience of having it there is great. If you do less tools than that in a month, then either get someone else to do it (if your shop time is valuable), or sharpen by hand which is cheap if you have plenty of time. Going for a group buy on a machine like this is realistic if you can find 2 or 3 guys in your area with similar interests.

If you would like to drop by then give me a call. 0409 989 542. In the warmer months I get down to pittwater a bit for sailing, and my machine is run off an inverter so there would be some potential there. Realistically, I almost never charge people more than $30 no matter how many tools they have to sharpen, because once you are setup, its pretty quick. Especially knives! Chisels and planer blades are a bit slower. I'd be happy to give you a demo and let you have a go at sharpening your own tools.

Shaun

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rsser

One of the things you've prob discovered by now, re increasing the grinding rate where a lot of material has to come off, is to mount the bar on top so the wheel is coming towards the tool edge.

Another is to regrade the wheel to fine if you want to improve the honing effectiveness.

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Hi Rsser,

That's the standard sharpening position. Tormek recommend grinding towards the tool for most applications unless you and up with severe chatter (has only happened to me once). If you grind away from the tool you end up with long burrs.

The regrading works better than I expected and i do find myself using it more than I would have thought.

Shaun

Is it?

My recollection from the manual is that for all but one app grinding away from the edge is recommended - but the grey matter ain't what it used to be.

Anyway, that's the way I use the T. with turning tools.

Edit: took a look, and yeah, grinding away from is the way for turning tools except the scraper. Plane irons and bench chisels, towards.

Hi all,
It's been a couple years since I posted my review of the T7. Someone contacted me last week to ask some questions about how the machine was going which jogged my memory so I thought I'd post an update of the longer term.

Married Life
The honeymoon period is well and truly over, and we've got used to each others habits. I've had my T7 for over 2 years now, and there's nothing to hide between us any more. We've seen each other in sickness and in health, for richer and for poorer, and life still goes on.

The Good
It's mostly good. I was trying to work out how many items I've sharpened in this time, it's difficult to calculate but it would be well into the thousands. At least a couple thousand knives, and 400-500 chisels and miscellaneous items. I've also done a couple hundred drill bits. There is a jig for drill bits, but I havent tried it. I do mine freehand.

The wheel is holding up great. I'd say at this rate its got another 5 years in it which works out to be very economical. It does still clog, but using the finishing stone on the rough side gets it hungry again in a few seconds. I also do make use of the fine side of the finishing stone to 'regrit' the wheel to a finer level quite often when doing knives. It seemed like a gimmick but it really does work. The finishing stone looks just like a normal hand sharpening stone with a rough and a smooth side. You use the stone to grind the wheel, the rough side unclogs the wheel, the smooth side grinds the particles in the wheel to a finer size, effectively making the main wheel a finer grit on a few seconds.

The machine in general has held up well and everything on it still functions as it did new. The jigs are all working as they should still. I still have no expectations of making a claim on the 7 year commercial warranty. I did get a little slippage on the wheel at one point, which is driven by a rubber drive wheel. You just need to clean it off and it grips again. I have done this once in 2 years of consistent use.

I rarely use the hone. The rough/fine wheel is suitable for most tasks. I have been doing cut throat razors a bit, and I use the hone for that. Even for most very high quality knives ($400+range), the fine wheel is more than enough for hair popping sharpness in a couple of passes and removes very little metal. The angle master, tool rest and jigs remain the heart of the machine. They are all still true.

The Bad
There isn't much to put in here. The water coolant trough got a crack in it due to my carelessness. It's tricky to get the thing on and off the machine without spilling water. I usually start by fitting the coolant tray (dry), fill it up to level, then turn the machine on and let it spin for a few minutes. The dry wheel soaks up a lot of water, so I refill it after a few minutes. Then I get sharpening. Once I'm done I need to get that reservoir off there to drain the water. I drain it because I travel with my machine, but even if it lived in the workshop I would drain it. If you leave the stone sitting partially in the water and partially out, the stone will swell. The reservoir is tricky to remove though, and I ended up cracking it one day. I haven't replaced it because it still works fine. It has a magnet in the base to collect metal which also works well.

There isn't anything else bad.

The Ugly
There isn't anything ugly. It was a good movie though.

Alls well that ends well
My machine paid for itself in the first 6 months by sharpening stuff for other people. I've made a modest profit off it in the second year, but I do it for pleasure more than the few dollars. You do meet some interesting people when you're sharpening - people who care about their tools, knives, make things, have interesting hobbys. Maybe a few axe murderers.

I'd buy it again in a heartbeat. I do less sharpening now that I did in the first year but it still gets used weekly. Having it is a great convenience for me, and using it is therapeutic. I think they're still pretty similar in price, but I still think it's a great deal. A friend offered to buy mine off me a month ago, he had no chance. It's hard to put a price on good tools.

Shaun

Nice review, thanks. Wish I could use it enough to justify the spend.

Thanks Shaun,
A good follow up.
I've had my Tormek for around 18 mths and I agree totally. I would buy another if the need arose without hesitation.
I also have a few additional jigs which although expensive are excellent. Like yours, the knife jig has well and truely paid for itself. Although the planer and jointer blade jig has not yet paid for itself, it's because I haven't gotten organised and sharpened all my planer and jointer blades. I have a few sets so I haven't bothered. But it's on the todo list. Soon.
I also have the Turning tool jig which is basically just a flat, adjustable platform, which is very handy for small spokeshave blades and scrapers.
I do use the honing wheel for most things and find it puts a mirror polish on chisels and plane blades as well as knives. I could probably get away without that step but it only takes a couple of seconds and they come up sooo shiny :cool:

Sounds good to me.
I have yet to start mine up for the first time.
It does not run very well without power :D
Cheers
Wolffie

I guess it's time to turn this into a long term review; wish I could change the title of the tread!

It's been nearly 6 years since I bought this tool, I still have it, and it still works as well as the day it was bought. It seemed worth posting an update on the way things are going.

The Good
It's pretty much all good. After many years and many thousands of sharpenings, I've come to know this machine intimately, but to be honest the results gained on first use were already 95% of the way there. Those last few percent are still worth having but it would be hard to measure for most folks. The stone has held up well beyond what I would have believed possible. Mine is down from the original 250mm to know being at 235mm, and is usable right down to 190mm so I would expect still many years of good use out of it and at most would expect to replace it only once in my lifetime. The jigs all function as they did the day they were purchased, and much to my surprise the foam box that holds the jogs is still in original condition. This is quite an achievement considering that mine doesn't sit in a workshop. In the first couple years of its life it was dragged around from place to place, markets and workshops, doing commercial sharpening for restaurants etc. Last few years I don't do commercial sharpening any more, but the tool is in my ute which has custom toolboxes but still rattles the hell out of everything as you drive. Nothing on the machine has shown any signs of wear, and I fully expect the whole machine to last my lifetime and beyond (30+ more years fingers crossed).

The Bad
The water trough is probably the only weak point on the machine. It's made of flimsy cheap plastic and attaches in a way that is easy to break. I broke mine some years ago but still just keep on using it. It works ok, even broken. I don't see much point in buying another since I would most likely just break it again.

The Ugly
I'm getting older and uglier. The tool doesn't seem to suffer form the same affliction. I've not ever shown it a minute of care, have never even wiped it down. With a quick wipe down it would probably present as new. The finish and workmanship cannot be faulted. The toolrest has not a single spot of rust, the jigs are faultless and excellent, and the industrial coating on the machine is very robust. I should say that I don't baby anything I own, I've been rough on this machine and it has never skipped a beat.

The Conclusion
It seems hard to justify a tool like this at the outset. Lets forget about that and talk about sharpening for a minute. Sharpening is one of those areas that's surrounded by so much you could drown a football field full of babies 8 feet deep in it. It's incredible how much mystery that intelligent grown men attach to the subject. For all intents and purposes, it's pretty straightforward; putting a consistent edge on a working tool. There are some variables for sure, the grits, primary and secondary bevels, then the minutiae of whether hollow ground is better than flatground, and at a microscopic level whether finer or coarser micro serations are better or worse for a given job. I've seen so many guys sharpening regimes, and they waste a metric tonne on sharpening tools, fancy stones, holders, jobs, strops, diamond hones, etc etc... I own most of those too. All the theroy goes out the window when it comes to the cutting edge though, and as much mystery and horse crap that guys add to their sharpening don't make a damn of difference. They quite simply cannot hold the tool at an accurate and consistent angle to the stone. That's all it comes down to. I've seen some guys almost go into a meditative state and spend a half day sharpening a chisel to end up with results that I'd be embarrassed to show.

All that theory doesn't mean a single thing if you can't accurately and consistently put an edge on a tool. I've sharpened literally 10's of thousands of objects and the key factor is that edge. Grit is a lesser player, especially for a working edge. Not only does the T7 consistently pop out tools to a working edge that is factory or better, it does it in minutes and with no real effort or attention. The jigs are the heart of the system and they are what makes it work.

So lets get on to work, because that's the real heart of this subject. I'm not a commercial chef, but I love to cook. I've got some good quality knives which cost me some money; some shun's mundials, zwillings. I'm no longer a professional woodworker (I used to do restaurant fitouts and carpentry) but I still have a wide collection of chisels, planes and spokeshaves. I'm not a hairdresser, but I cut my own hair and my boys, and have some scissors in the house. Having these tools without being able to sharpen them is like having a high performance car that you can only afford to full up with gas every few months. You aren't going very far.

One thing I've noticed about guys who take their sharpening seriously is that they don't want to use their tools afterwards. It's such a lot of effort, like spending a whole day washing and polishing your car. You don't want to drive it anywhere for fear it will get it dirty. I've taken to sharpening knives and tools for everyone I meet, just for the heck of it. You meet some interesting characters that way, and I've met a bunch of guys who had some real good quality knives. They paid a bunch of money for those knives, and probably never had them as good as they were from the factory. They're all a little hesitant to let you touch their baby, but eventually they hand it over and in literally 1-2 minutes I have it back to factory or better, after years of neglect it's popping hairs right off their arms. The comment they make by and large, once they've gotten over the awe is almost always "man, I'm never going to use this again"

Seriously! They don't want to get their knife blunt. The biggest difference I've noticed about having a tormek t7 over the years is how it changes my attitude to work. I own a bunch of decent quality utility knives, mostly spydercos, as well as the kitchen knives I mentioned and chisels, planes and assorted other tools. While most guys are afraid of using their tools (especially if they're sharp!), I love having sharp tools and love having work to do with them. It puts a real hurt into a guys heart to go hacking through things when he has a real sharp knife, or chiseling into nail filled wood when he has a brand new chisel, knowing it will take him hours to get the defects out and that he will never be able to get it back to anywhere near the same level of sharpness. I've met guys who are "saving" their tools for special purposes. I'm not kidding.

The real advantage to having a good, fast and accurate sharpening system, is that you never think about sharpening any more. You think about working. I love plowing my sharp knives and tools into things, and could care less about dulling or denting them. They're just tools. A couple of minutes has me back at factory edge. There have been times I'll sharpen some tools multiple times in a single day, and still spend less than 5 minutes sharpening that tool compared to hours of work. I really can't find an analogy that suits it, except maybe guys who buy brand new drill bits every time they need to drill some holes because they don't know how to sharpen a drill bit. It goes without saying that I would absolutely buy another one again if aliens abducted mine.

Shaun, try a cbn wheel for the replacement.