Twice as sharp or tomek

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cap'njake

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Aug 15, 2016
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So I have been sharpening scissors on stones for awhile now and am looking at an upgrade. I kinda want a tormek t8 for pretty much everything I can sharpen on it. Chisels, knives, plane blades, drill bits, turning tools, everything. But for sharpening scissors and shears does the tormek stand up to the wolff twice as sharp at all?
 
cap'njake said:
So I have been sharpening scissors on stones for awhile now and am looking at an upgrade. I kinda want a tormek t8 for pretty much everything I can sharpen on it. Chisels, knives, plane blades, drill bits, turning tools, everything. But for sharpening scissors and shears does the tormek stand up to the wolff twice as sharp at all?
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I've never used a TAS, so can't make a comparison... but I've sharpened common household scissors on the Tormek, and it does a good job. (Never done hairstylist scissors, so don't know about those... there was a guy years ago on the Yahoo Tormek forum, that did those with an adapter he made, but for most "pro sharpeners" I think the TAS was favored). I'm pretty sure the TAS would easily win a "speed contest"... don't know if that matters to you or not... but how many you do may also matter.

Seems to me the question also is.... do I want a device that will sharpen: "chisels, knives, plane blades, drill bits, turning tools, everything"... or a device that will only sharpen scissors?
 
Either way I will end up getting a tormek. I am just curious if the twice as sharp does a better job. Speed is kinda a factor as I do sharpen some for money but it is strictly a part time gig and where I get customers is from the quality of my sharpening. Also any money i make goes towards buying more stones, grinders, belts, and things like that. So if I could get a better quality sharpening job off the tormek even if it is a little slower I will choose the tormek.
 
cap'njake said:
Either way I will end up getting a tormek. I am just curious if the twice as sharp does a better job. Speed is kinda a factor as I do sharpen some for money but it is strictly a part time gig and where I get customers is from the quality of my sharpening. Also any money i make goes towards buying more stones, grinders, belts, and things like that. So if I could get a better quality sharpening job off the tormek even if it is a little slower I will choose the tormek.
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Never having used a TAS... I don't know. (Sounds like you'll end up with both at some point...). ;)

A 3rd option, since you own a belt sander... there's a YT poster (gravediggermax)... that has adapted the TAS scissor holder to work on his belt sander. Not sure if it's a route you can go (his is a Viel which has a scissor jig that the adapter fits too)... but might be worth looking into.
 
cbwx34 said:
Never having used a TAS... I don't know. (Sounds like you'll end up with both at some point...). ;)

A 3rd option, since you own a belt sander... there's a YT poster (gravediggermax)... that has adapted the TAS scissor holder to work on his belt sander. Not sure if it's a route you can go (his is a Viel which has a scissor jig that the adapter fits too)... but might be worth looking into.
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Never really thought about that but ya that might be very possible. Actually would probably be easy to do convex beauty scissors if I used a slack belt for them and then put a flat platen on for beveled scissors. Thanks this is why I love asking these questions on here. Everyone has different views and experience and most everyone is incredibly supportive.
 
I'd be careful trying to sharpen hair scissors with a belt. If you mess them up, you'll be expected to replace them. The standard is so high that, if the scissors pull one hair, it's a 'fail.' I would even doubt that the Tormek can reach that standard. I sharpen regular scissors with the Edge Pro scissor attachment. I'll decline any salon scissors.
 
wvdavidr said:
I'd be careful trying to sharpen hair scissors with a belt. If you mess them up, you'll be expected to replace them. The standard is so high that, if the scissors pull one hair, it's a 'fail.' I would even doubt that the Tormek can reach that standard. I sharpen regular scissors with the Edge Pro scissor attachment. I'll decline any salon scissors.
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Good point, and in thinking about it... I’m not sure even the TAS is used for hair scissors? (At least not the basic setup). I think most used a special horizontal wheel, from what I remember.
 
The TAS is an amazing machine for standard industrial scissors, and it can be used for convex beauty shears but you must have the training for it and use their special attachment (purchased seperately). It is still cheaper than their Hira-To which is over $2k but one of the best systems on the market imho. I have a TAS but freehand it on the belt now, much quicker =)
 
the Viel belt sander i use (gravediggermax) has a penn state variable speed motor - i use the veil new style scissor arm, but i use the TAS clamp. i does a great job on industrial / household type scissors. now i will say that 3 of my fellow sharpeners, 2 in NC and 1 in TX were using the same, but just recently all 3 have purchased the TAS and the fast rpms.............the 3 love the TAS over the belt...fyi.....i plan on a new T8 tormek this week and will purchase the scissor attachment for it.....
 
I actually ended up getting the TAS I got the whole kit. Even the convex scissor jig. Works really well. I am happy with it. Convex scissors I found it is really important to take them apart and tend to the ride line. I use shapton pro stones to work that.
 
Also plan on getting a tormek next. Was thinking about taking the arm from the TAS and the convexing jig from it and making a base to set the tormek on that the TAS jig assemby could mount to so j could use the convexing jig on the tormek. Tormek has that 4000 grit japanese stone and I bet it would work really well on beauty scissors and wouldn't have to worry about getting them hot at all with the added bonus of it being slower and slightly more controlled.
 
cap'njake said:
I actually ended up getting the TAS I got the whole kit. Even the convex scissor jig. Works really well. I am happy with it. Convex scissors I found it is really important to take them apart and tend to the ride line. I use shapton pro stones to work that.
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A little off-topic, but what are you using as a test for sharpness on the convex shears?
 
I use either hair or single ply toilet paper or a damp kleenex. I like the toilet paper and kleenex to test most because you can see exactly where it pulls or tears instead of cutting really easily
 
cap'njake said:
So I have been sharpening scissors on stones for awhile now and am looking at an upgrade. I kinda want a tormek t8 for pretty much everything I can sharpen on it. Chisels, knives, plane blades, drill bits, turning tools, everything. But for sharpening scissors and shears does the tormek stand up to the wolff twice as sharp at all?
Click to expand...
I own both my Twice As Sharp is the upgraded OOKAMI Gold and that is what I use for barber and salon sheers and especially convex shears you would never want to use a Tormek on salon shears. I use my Tormek for household scissors as it's not cost effective to use the OOKAMI on standard scissors. The Twice As Sharp is fantastic if you want to do salon shears or fabric shears. I hope to own two of them down the road but for scissors the Twice As Sharp is definitely in my opinion easier to use, but if you can only get one machine the Tormek does far more things and I use it every day in my sharpening business. So if you plan to do a lot of scissors the TAS is great, but if you want the most versatility to sharpen a huge range of items get the Tormek. Ideal situation is to have one of each IMO
 
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