Home made small knife rest for Tormek

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kwackster
Posts: 585
Joined: Mon May 15, 2017 8:07 pm

Home made small knife rest for Tormek

Post by kwackster »

Several years ago i made this small knife rest, a variant based on the original design by Tormek forum member Herman Trivilino.
Mine is being used for reprofiling/sharpening various blade shapes & sizes (flat ground is ideal, but saber ground is also possible), from the small blades in Victorinox knives up to expensive professional gyuto's with 210 mm blades.

A possible problem is that you would have to make such a knife rest yourself, as Tormek still doesn't offer something comparable.
I used a piece of Torlock cut from a Tormek SVD-110 tool rest (which remains functional afterwards btw), a few pieces of scrap aluminium & some metal screws.
A very important aspect is getting that piece of Torlock as square as possible, for which i used files and a micrometer.
With access to a precision milling machine it would be a piece of cake.

On top is a piece of 0.3 mm thin fiber-reinforced PTFE tape, which works very well for moving the blade across the platform and also to avoid scratches while doing that (up to a point)
For more blade protection i use plastic packing tape on the blade surface as well.

When used in conjunction with just enough water in the trough so that it doesn't splash the platform the tape lasts quite a while before i have to replace it with a new piece.
The lowest angle i can grind to is ~20 degrees inclusive.

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Tormek SVD110 Tool Rest:

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Last edited by kwackster on Thu Feb 06, 2025 2:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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john
Posts: 4708
Joined: Tue Dec 01, 2009 11:40 am
Location: New England, MA USA

Re: Home made small knife rest for Tormek

Post by john »

Very creative! Nice work!
Your friend on the web's most friendly community on knives and blades,
John

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kwackster
Posts: 585
Joined: Mon May 15, 2017 8:07 pm

Re: Home made small knife rest for Tormek

Post by kwackster »

This user Spyderco Resilience was sharpened a while ago on the small knife rest.
In the pics there is still a bit of burring at the heel, which is also the tricky part to sharpen on this model with the small platform jig, because of the non-existing ricasso at that point in combination with the slightly protruding handle.
I had to use the edge of the stone (an SB-250 Blackstone) to get there at all, and as you can see it's not visually perfect.
After sharpening the edge was deburred freehand on the Tormek leather wheel.
The new edge measured an almost exact 30 degrees inclusive and the apex was keen enough to whittle one of my chest hairs from root-to-tip at 3 centimeters from the point of holding.

I later heard that the owner of the knife had to go to the hospital emergency room twice (!) for cutting himself rather badly with it.

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whippersnapper
Posts: 8535
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 12:39 pm
Location: Michigan

Re: Home made small knife rest for Tormek

Post by whippersnapper »

Looks good to me.
kwackster
Posts: 585
Joined: Mon May 15, 2017 8:07 pm

Re: Home made small knife rest for Tormek

Post by kwackster »

In this YouTube clip inventor Herman Trivilino showcases his original small knife rest/jig/platform.
As you can see Herman uses half of the Tormek scissor jig SVX-150 as a base to attach a steel plate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcWAkQmoU8c&t=4s
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kwackster
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Re: Home made small knife rest for Tormek

Post by kwackster »

A while ago i did this user Spyderco PM2 in S30V steel on the Tormek SB-250 Blackstone using the small knife rest, then deburred on my homemade MDF wheel (actually a rim over the leather wheel), which is coated with 1.0 micron diamond paste.
The new edge measures ~30 degrees inclusive.

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kwackster
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Joined: Mon May 15, 2017 8:07 pm

Re: Home made small knife rest for Tormek

Post by kwackster »

Also did this user Benchmade Mini-Griptilian in 20CV steel the same way on the small knife rest, and the new edge also measures ~30 degrees inclusive.

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kwackster
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Re: Home made small knife rest for Tormek

Post by kwackster »

A friend of mine regularly carries this Chinese made Bastinelli Piccolomako clone in well hardened D2 steel with G10 grip panels, both upside down vertically or horizontally using a very simple electrical wire constuction.
He also owns the real Bastinelli model, but considers it too expensive to actually carry & use.
Very useful & unobtrusive small SD knives (certainly for the money: ~25 Euro), but the factory edges on these clones can be quite bad, so i recently resharpened this one on the Tormek using the small knife rest.

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kwackster
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Re: Home made small knife rest for Tormek

Post by kwackster »

These vintage Artus Flex knives were also resharpened on the Tormek using the home made small knife rest:

viewtopic.php?p=296702&hilit=artus#p296702
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