Discussion Forum

Sharpening with the “worksharp”

wlcummings | Posted in General Discussion on June 8, 2007 04:25am

I am looking user critiques on the “Worksharp” www.worksharptools.com system. Anyone use one yet?

Replies

KiddervilleAcres | Jun 08, 2007 06:13pm | #1
No experience with it but the price sure is attractive. Hollow grinders might be disapointed but I am definitely interested.

Regards,

Bob @ Kidderville Acres

A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!

Edited 6/8/2007 11:13 am ET by KiddervilleAcres

Napie | Jun 08, 2007 08:32pm | #2
Why? It is just another gimmick with a lot of consumables to keep buying. Let’s see, $49.95 for a 6” high speed grinder, $20.00 for a 60 grit white wheel, and $30.00 for a really high quality hard white Arkansas oil stone. For a hundred bucks you're all done and it will last forever. That thing will set you back at least $250+ with all the extras.

wlcummings | Jun 08, 2007 09:14pm | #4
$300 is a lot of money just to sharpen but no way near the top of $800 (with the add ons for a Tormac. But a 6 inch stone is not recommended for wood turning chisels. The best I have found is a 8" wheel spinning at 1750 for about $200 with a jig for gauges. If you can sharpen a gauge with no jigs on a 6" wheel spinning at 3600 then you are blessed with a lot more talent than I have. I need the help.

Napie | Jun 09, 2007 12:19am | #5
Do it all the time. I have never sharpened my woodturning gouges on anything but a six inch high speed grinder. That includes spindle and fingernail grind bowl gouges, and every ting else for that matter. Never a problem, and as I have stated many time I do not ever use jigs.

wlcummings | Jun 10, 2007 06:34pm | #6
Thanks for you input Napie. i have decided to go with the delta 8" multi-speed with white stoned 60 and 120 grit. Can get if for $119 free shipping at Amazon. Will try it free hand and if i cannot do it will build the jig from Fine Woodworking - by King Heiple
bd | Jun 11, 2007 02:18am | #7
If you haven't already purchased the Delta, could I suggest you reconsider. I got one a few years ago, it is a piece of junk. While the runout on the shaft seems to be negligible, I can't get any wheels balanced on it well enough to sharpen anything other than lawn mower blades, etc. Appears that the wheels are not held perpendicular to the shaft.If you have already purchased, I hope you have better luck than I did.
wlcummings | Jun 11, 2007 06:04pm | #8
Oh well - its on the way - i will send it back if i have the same problems as you did. Maybe they fixed it :) I read some reviews on Amazon and they were mixed - some loved it some didn't Will wait and see - thanks for your warning BD
PatCap | Jun 12, 2007 04:27pm | #11
I just recently purchased one and I like it for my chisels and plane irons under 2". When I tried to sharpen my plane iron 2 3/8" free hand, forget it! I could never get the same bevel use the provided rest. I hear that they are coming out with a jig for larger plane irons.
splinterhead | Jun 13, 2007 12:58am | #12
patcap,

I'm wondering if that is because the disc grinds faster towards the outside perimeter, and because of this would remove material from the blade unevenly?

I've always been a bit suspicious of flat wheels for grinding blades for exactly that reason. I think a vertical wheel any day is the preferred option for me.

Piccioni | Jun 08, 2007 09:05pm | #3
Looks a lot like this http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=48435&cat=1,43072 but cheaper.

Of course, a couple good quality stones and Rob Cosman's DVD http://www.robcosman.com/dvd.php and you are probably better off.
GW52 | Jun 11, 2007 06:10pm | #9
try the scary sharp method a lot cheaper
spstacey | Jun 11, 2007 11:35pm | #10
Hi:

Seeing as no-one has mentioned this- you can find a pretty comprehensive review here:

http://www.woodcentral.com/cgi-bin/messages.pl?noframes;read=319234

I bought one, partly on the strength of this review, and partly on the strength of almost universally laudatory reviews elsewhere. It certainly works for me- I'm a mediocre sharpener, it turns out, when I'm left to my own devices, or even to the devices many others are successful with. I have a Veritas MKII honing guide, and I can usually get a pretty decent edge with it and waterstones or sandpaper, but it isn't trivially easy for me and can take a while. And I find freehanding difficult unless I have a very well-established bevel to start with. So far, it seems to me that the Worksharp will do most of the work of a grinder in getting that bevel. And I am relishing the prospects both of an easier time, and less of it spent on, flattening chisel backs; and of not having to flatten my waterstones. Perhaps more skilled sharpeners than me dish their stones less when they use them, and so have less flattening to to do, and then do that more effectively- but I always seemed to spend more time than was reasonable on this particularly mindless part of the process.

I use it with four grits (120, 400, 1000, 3600- I don't have the 6000 grit micromesh disk) for straight blades; the 120 gets rid of metal in a hurry (I was actually quite shocked at what 2 seconds on the 120 did to the bevel of a vintage Buck Bros chisel I was sharpening) and the edge is pretty damn good after the 3600. Then I work bevel and back a little with some 0.5 micron diamond paste on a piece of MDF (Veritas green stuff works too, but it doesn't feel as flat under the blade) to get a mirror polish. This portion of the regimen I do freehand, and it's a piece of cake to do with the big flat bevel. After that my edges are easily as sharp as I've ever managed to get them, probably sharper, and with much less effort. I am limited to the 4 preset bevel angles (20, 25, 30, 35), but I don't feel like I'm missing anything. Paper seems to hold up well, though it's definitely true that it's not cheap, and unless I find there's a big difference in quality, when I've run through the included paper I'm just going to use off the rack 6 in ROS disks for the coarser grits, and cut PSA sheets to size for the finer grits.

I don't know about turning tools, but the slotted wheels work well for carving tools. But sharpening these is a freehand operation on this machine, so the more skilled you are, the better you'll do. I'm still not doing so good, but being able to see the edge does help. Would be more difficult to economize on discs here, given their perforations, but may be possible.

So, as someone not innately gifted with sharpening nous, and who hasn't managed to develope it despite some quite serious time spent trying to, I am finding this machine a great help. It's obviously not as cheap upfront as scary sharp- though if you amortize the cost of the machine over, say, 10 years, and assume similar rates of consumable consumption, I'd say the difference in price is close to negligible. And I'd guess that if you bought yourself 220, 1000, 4000 and 8000 stones (or even combos) plus a decent jig, you'd be close to laying out the cost of the machine (though extra glass platens and slotted wheels will certainly add substantially to the machine's price, and they're too convenient to forego). Of course, if you can get sharp with spit, a piece of slate, your belt and your palm, this will seem like a preposterous piece of paraphernalia; but for me, the price is a relatively small tradeoff for an approach that I finally feel confident will get my tools sharp.

Hope that helps,

Simon
Jfrostjr | Jun 13, 2007 03:21pm | #13
I am impressed! Thanks for calling it to my attention. I think I will get one - I can make my chisels sharp but the angle and faces are not consistent.

Frosty