# Tormek & Pfeil



## russ0498 (Jan 31, 2016)

I am getting back into carving after a 20-year break. I am going to be slowly buying a variety of Pfeil tools. I no longer have a bench grinder and am thinking about getting a Tormek for sharpening. I have used a friend's T-8 and loved it. I am looking at the T-4 due to cost factors. My goal is to eventually carve gunstocks.

Am I making a mistake with the T-4?

Does the T-4 use all of the same jigs as the T-8?

What jigs will I need for Gouges, skews and V tools?

Last, if memory serves me, Pfeil was about the best tool available for the money. Is that still so?


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## rad457 (Jun 15, 2013)

I have Hirsch carving chisels and have never used any type of grinder to sharpen them? Diamond stone or Water stones to reshape profile if needed and leather and wood with green compound to hone sharp?


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## SMP (Aug 29, 2018)

> I have Hirsch carving chisels and have never used any type of grinder to sharpen them? Diamond stone or Water stones to reshape profile if needed and leather and wood with green compound to hone sharp?
> 
> - Andre


Same here. I learned from Mary May's videos. Those gouges are pricey. I want to ONLY take off as much material as necessary to be sharp.


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## Unknowncraftsman (Jun 23, 2013)

I have the Tormek T8. It does cost a lot but I use mine a lot more the my dewalt grinder. Here one point not shared a lot about the Tormek. You can grind towards you or away from you. I can't successfully describe why this matters but it does.
I also have 3 different stones the gray the black stone and a Japanese stone that's fine grit. It's the one I use for small v carving tools. 
Good Luck


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## Dark_Lightning (Nov 20, 2009)

I like my Pfeil carving tools both palm and many bigger ones. I also have some Henry Taylor and Ashley Iles palm tools. I've used them straight out of the box, all deadly sharp. I bought some Schaaf fishtails. A couple of those I had to grind to proper shape and then hone. I haven't used them enough yet to say anything about their holding an edge. Maybe someone else can chime in.

Like Andre says, you'll want to only hone your tools. They shouldn't need grinding unless they get dropped business-end first onto the floor. I personally use a piece of cardboard off a cereal box for the substrate and charge it with the yellow bars from Flexcut, simply because that's what came with their honing kit. I installed one piece of cardboard on my Worksharp 3000 so that when I get to a point where a bunch need honing, it makes quick work of it.


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## HapHazzard (Jan 9, 2016)

To me a 4" wheel is too small. I like some of my blades hollow ground, but not that hollow. Have you tried using diamond bench stones and sharpening guides?


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## Phil32 (Aug 31, 2018)

Find a sharpening (honing) method that works for you and stay with it. Start your search with a manual (non-machine) method. Borrow a carving-sharp gouge from an expert to know what it feels like.
Pfeil tools are the best. Schaaf are comparable, but often require re-work.


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## Iban (Dec 8, 2021)

T8 and T4 shares the same accesories.
For my the T4 is enough and the gouge accesory is really handy and gives you a lot of control over the edge corners in complicate gouge patterns.

The SVD-186 is what you need


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## HapHazzard (Jan 9, 2016)

> T8 and T4 The SVD-186 is what you need


Wow. I don't think I paid that much for my 10" grinder!


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## HapHazzard (Jan 9, 2016)

> Find a sharpening (honing) method that works for you and stay with it.


This guy has an interesting method for honing his lathe chisel.


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## RyanGi (Jan 13, 2021)

For what it's worth, I have a worksharp 3000 mounted on a small pull out drawer right not to my work space and I love it. Simple, compact and very efficient…especially for honing. Just my two cents. I'd like to have a Tormek, but haven't found anything the WS won't handle, at least for me….


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## Dark_Lightning (Nov 20, 2009)

> For what it's worth, I have a worksharp 3000 mounted on a small pull out drawer right not to my work space and I love it. Simple, compact and very efficient…especially for honing. Just my two cents. I'd like to have a Tormek, but haven't found anything the WS won't handle, at least for me….
> 
> - RyanGi


I have mine on a pullout shelf, along side my belt/disc sander. It's a great way to keep them accessible without being in the way.


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

I very much prefer my Worksharp for shaping carving tools. I have the tool bar attachment so I can use Tormek jigs with it as well which makes it ideal. The attachment is no longer sold but there are many ways one could fit a bar to it. Tormek sells a kit to add a bar to bench grinders that could easily be added to the worksharp. The Tormek is a great machine from all I've seen and heard but I much prefer flat bevels on my carving tools as opposed to hollow grinds.

As others have said though, the only time you should need a powered sharpener for carving tools is if you're doing a major re-shaping of the edge or establishing your bevel geometry on new tools. Otherwise unless you drop a tool and chip the edge or something a leather or cardboard strop with some honing compound is all you should really need to maintain the edge.


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## HapHazzard (Jan 9, 2016)

Grizzly is selling a 10" variable speed wet grinder with a honing wheel for about $200. It takes all the Tormek attachments and has a bunch of its own you can buy. This model looks like a big improvement over the one I got a few years ago. Unfortunately, they're on backorder, but they are taking orders.


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## ClaudeF (Sep 22, 2013)

A lot of carvers use Tomz Knife Massager: https://carverswoodshop.blogspot.com/2011/03/tomz-knife-massager-sharpening-knives_13.html


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## LittleBlackDuck (Feb 26, 2016)

I have just about every sharpening system there is out there and probably have a lot that haven't been invented yet.

Having just about tried everything to make my life easier, it was the *Tormek* that I finaly settled on. Haven't tried *Hokies "Worksharp"* (as I think it's far too *aluminiummy*) so I can't comment on it's effectiveness.
The *Tormek* will do just about everything that has the potential to draw blood through an edge or blunt force… but you need dedicated jigs… at a price.
The thing I do like about it is it's repeatability… if you stuff up a hone once, you'll probably stuff it up every other time following… just kidding. 
The one thing I detest, no hate, no maybe just loathe, is that is is bugger all good for re-shaping. I once toiled for over 3 hours trying to change the angle on a well abuse skew and finished up driving to *Bunnings* (our HF) for a bench grinder… 5 minutes of careful toil to ensure I don't blue the skew, it was razor sharp just a few minutes later with the *Tormek* stone and leather strop. 
I have a *Drill Doctor* but find that it's the *Tormek* that can handle my 20mm, 22mm and 25mm twist drill bits to perfection and just as "shabyless" for the other drill bits… though I've yet to master brad bits.
The planer blade jig made jointer blade sharpening a breeze, however, helix blades made my life even easier.

Can't vouch for my brains, however, I can speak from experience that I have found the *Tormek* the best/quickest alternative… except for that *bauxite coloured *Worksharp* I can't comment on… Hmm maybe if it was *Woodpeckers* red…


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## russ0498 (Jan 31, 2016)

*I took the plunge and went with the Tormek T-8. Go big or go home!!!!!!*


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

> ...
> 
> Having just about tried everything to make my life easier, it was the *Tormek* that I finaly settled on. Haven t tried *Hokies "Worksharp"* (as I think it s far too *aluminiummy*) so I can t comment on it s effectiveness.
> ...
> - LittleBlackDuck


It is indeed a little too aluminiummy LBD. And cast aluminum at that. It makes for some frustration with attachments when trying to true them to the platens when they attach via unmachined t-slots cast into the housing. So I won't fight you on that point. But, the part that matters - motor and arbor are all quality parts so the bones is good if you don't mind wrestling it a bit if you want to add accessories. Which isn't really an issue anymore since I think they discontinued production of all the accessories once sold for the machine. Grumble, grumble, grumble. But the port for sharpening straight edges at a set angle still works a trick with very little fiddling. If you want flat bevels and/or a relatively low price point, it's your Huckleberry IMHO. But machines like the Tormek and the Sorby Proedge are more robust and more readily adaptable with the variety of jigs readily available. You get what you dish out the sheckles for!


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