>I'm a novice turner looking to upgrade my sharpening capabilities, particularly for gouges. I currently have an 1800 RPM 8" grinder and a Veritas Grinding Jig and Tool Rest.
I was just about ready to buy the Wolverine and Vari-Grind jigs, when I came across the Sorby Fingernail Profiler at Lee Valley (link below).
Anyone using it? Woudld I be sacrificing versatility, compared to the Wolverine? (Remember I already have the Vertias jig for flat grinding). Does the Sorby do anything that the Wolverine doesn't?
>The Sorby will give you the same results as the Wolverine for the fingernail grind bowl gouge. Get the 445 though because the combo unit is a waste. The only thing the Wolverine will do that you cannot do with the Sorby is spindle gouges. The Sorby will work on 3/4" bowl gouges too whereas the Wolverine requires another $49 vari-grind attachment just for the bigger gouge.
I have been using the Sorby for 7 years. It works good for me and I find it slightly easier to use than the Oneway jig. There is only a single setting for the Sorby jig, the distance the tool extends from the jig. Yea you can adjust the angle of the jig, but once that is set there isn't any need to adjust it again. The Sorby jig is slightly safer to use. If you let go of a bowl gouge while sharpeing using the sorby jig the gouge will fall away from the grinder. Do that with the Oneway jig and the gouge will fall into the grinder. Then again, in the countless times I have used the jig, over the past 7 years I have never let go while sharpening.
The big advantage of the Oneway jig is that so many woodturners use that jig. If you find yourself at someone elses grinder sharpeing your tools there is a very good chance that your will be using a Oneway jig.
The Sorby jig makes a slightly different profile than the Oneway and other lean into the wheel tools. Sorby has a primary axis of rotation, a secondary axis and a slide action to use while grinding. The others all have a pivot point. In practice, the geometry of the grind is enough alike that I am unable to determine which jig was used to sharpen the tool.
BTW the Sorby jig is the same one used by Tormeck.
Even though I use the Sorby jig and I will continue to use the Sorby jig I would recomend the Oneway jig.
