Razor-Sharp Edges with a Water Sharpening System

Driving through the countryside or stopping at flea markets, you're bound to come across large white sharpening wheels.

You know, the big ones that you imagine a cartoon character sitting at, sharpening an axe. In reality, there's a reason that these water-trough stones are so common they simply work. That's as true today as it was a hundred years ago. A water sharpening system, like the Tormek shown here, is still a great way to get a razor sharp edge on a variety of tools. In this article, I'll give you the basics of a water sharpening system, and some of the jigs and attachments that I find useful.

The T8 comes with a wheel dressing jig, flat blade jig, angle setting jig, and a leather strop for a final honing.

The water reservoir holds several cups of water. However, once you start to add water to a dry stone, you'll need to let the stone saturate itself before topping off the water tank.

Next, set the dial to the proper angle

The angle setting jig features an angle gauge to measure existing angles, as well as two dials - one for setting the diameter of the stone, and the other that's set to your desired bevel angle.

SETUP

Now, sharpening with a wet grinder takes different setup steps than other systems. You can see these steps shown here. Once you have the steps figured out, the entire process goes quickly.

H20. Obviously, with this being a wet grinding system, there's some form of water bath. With this particular system, the water bath is under the wheel and is raised and lowered with a knob. When you first fill up the water bath, you'll notice the stone starts wicking up a lot of water. I continually add water until the water level stays close to the "Maximum Fill" line in the trough.

Once you flip the grinder on, you may notice that the water level drops a bit more-that's okay, just top it off.