I acquired a used T7 Tormek sharpener last year and finally dusted it off to try sharpening a Stanley 4-1/2 plane iron and cap iron. The plane is an inheritance from my father-in-law. Here is what I found.
Because the iron is wider than the wheel, you have to move the iron back and forth across the surface. This means that the center of the iron is getting more touches than the edges. I ground a concave cutting edge even with a camber grind. I used the SE-77 jig.
You have to really set the the angle of the iron to the body of the jig to be 90 degrees. I used the adjustment right out of the box and had a slight angle on the grind.
The iron had pitting very close to the cutting edge on the back of it. I lapped the crap out of it on the side of the wheel and on a coarse diamond stone, but couldn't cut below the pitting. I ended up setting the SE-77 to about 3 degrees and ground a back bevel. This did cut below the pitting, but it makes the included angle a bit more blunt.
Because of the concave grind, I ended up squaring the iron on the coarse diamond stone, then sharpening on the diamond stones (coarse, fine, extra fine DMT stones), followed by stropping. The plane works great.
Tormek questions:
How do you keep the cutting edge square and straight on the Tormek?
Can you lap chisels and irons on the side of the wheel? Is this recommended?
Any recommendations on using the camber adjustments on the SE-77? I found them fiddly and difficult to re square once I tinkered with them.
). I do like to observe, so I love YouTube for techniques and instruction if it is good.