If you can't afford a Tormek Sharpener just yet

It took a lot of late nights doing work on the side to pay for the Tormek and all the wonderful goodies that came packed with it. What surprises me is that the thing I really like most about it is the leather honing wheel .

This is basically a friction drive rubber wheel which has been fitted with a raw leather belt on the outside. To condition it you first give it an application of light machine oil to help the honing compound bind better with the leather. Then you fire it up and even at the very slow speed that the Tormek runs at, the fine scratches left by the grindstone disappear to leave a mirror finish.

Unlike buffers which run at startling speeds and as such are extremely dangerous should projectile motion be achieved (ie Highspeed + Chisel = bad), the Tormek just happily chugs along letting you safely hone your edges to a razor finish if desired. The biggest problem I've had so far is carelessly nicking the handle of a knife on the grind stone whilst using the honing wheel. For a really important job it might be desirable to temporarily remove the stone.

If finances are not agreeable, I think there would be a lot to be said for rigging up a honing device using a stepped down electric motor (thinking a simple belt drive with a high speed small wheel turning a larger slower one) and some scrap leather glued to a wheel - perhaps even a bowl turning blank or a few circles of MDF stuck together. Add a bit of polishing compound to it and you woul dhave a pretty good imitation of one of the Tormek's best features.

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