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Improved Clamping Of The Re-Designed Tormek SE-77 Square Edge Jig

By RRoobb SSttooaakklleeyy
21.10.2016

PRODUCT GUIDES / Sharpening

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SE-77 jig, sharpening, Tormek

Rob Stoakley looks in detail at the redesigned clamping mechanism on the new Tormek SE-77 Square Edge jig.

The Tormek wet grinding system is the original and best, �nding its way into a countless workshops, mine included. I started o� with a green goddess, the Supergrind 2000, which served
me well for many years. It has now been replaced with a much posher T-7. Although the latest incarnation is the very swanky T-8.

Subtle redesign
Tormek grinding jigs have also kept pace with their machine developments. For many years, the standard chisel and plane grinding jig was the SE-76, which worked very well for gripping
western style chisels and plane blades. What it would not do is securely hold short, squat Japanese chisels.

However, those clever people in Sweden have subtly redesigned the clamping mechanism on the new SE-77 jig. A Japanese chisel is now clamped with a limpet like grip…something that
de�nitely didn’t happen on the old one.

The new clamping arrangement grips onto the blade and the circular shaft of the chisel, so that when it’s o�ered to the grinding wheel at 25°, there’s plenty of clearance underneath.

Whether or not it’s a good idea to grind the bevel on a Japanese chisel is a debatable issue. Some would argue that a hollow grind removes a little of the soft iron backing, leaving less
support for the very hard steel cutting edge. Reading the Tormek instruction book reveals that using a 250mm dia wheel, and grinding a tool of 2mm thickness with a 20° edge, the
hollow produced is around 0.03mm (0.0012”) which, for all practical purposes, is insigni�cant.

Experimental grind
Having obtained a spare 12mm Japanese chisel, I did an experimental grind using the new SE-77 jig. One of the really clever features is that the grind can now be altered in situ without
removing or altering the tool in the jig. If it can be seen that the hollow grind isn’t quite square to the chisel edge, all that’s required is to adjust the appropriate little knob (arrowed) until
it’s been corrected.