ARTICLES & REVIEWS

Tool sharpening seems to divide people into three categories:

1. the guy who uses his only chisel to open paint cans, and when he needs it to cut wood, hits it with ever bigger hammers until it does;
2. the competent woodworker who needs a tool to be just a bit sharper than the job requires, and wants it now and without fuss; and
3. the purist for whom sharpening is more Zen than zip.

I’m a category 2 type, probably the target demographic for Work Sharp, the same company that produces the Drill Doctor.

The people at Work Sharp read my Drill Doctor 750X Review on WoodCentral and asked me to review their new sharpening system. Since they offered to send me one, how could I refuse? (I bought the Drill Doctor.) Even though I made clear that the opinions would be mine and mine alone, they sent a parcel that included the optional blister packed accessory kits, and, as well, a promo bundle with a hat, T-shirt, and most important, an inexpensive new chisel in need of sharpening. That was thoughtful, because all my blades are in good shape—see why below—and although I was willing to submit one or more of them for testing, it was a nice touch to be able to start on something less expensive.

The Work Sharp 3000 brought me full circle, because my search for easy, fast, and good had led me to try and often buy most sharpening systems and accessories: Scary Sharp; oil stones and water stones; a Veritas Mk II honing guide; a couple of high speed grinders with soft wheels; impregnated rubber honing wheels; several cotton wheels with the full range of abrasives; a Veritas Basic Grinding Set plus my own DIY Wolverine-style turning tool holder; a Delta-style horizontal wet-dry/slow/fast combo; and a full-blown Tormek system. I think the only significant machine I don’t have any experience with is the Veritas Mk II Power Sharpening System with which the WorkSharp shares superficial similarities. I can put a fine edge on any tool, but for all the money I’ve spent, I could also have hired an expert to do it for me whenever necessary.

Each of these methods has one or more advantages and disadvantages. Some are simple or fast or more repeatable, or can do more types of edge tools. The price for flexibility is complexity, and that costs time.

The Work Sharp and Veritas mechanize the principles of Scary Sharp(TM) by using a motor to drive platens on which abrasives are stuck. However, while they do look alike at first glance, the Work Sharp quite literally turns the concept upside down. (Most of the photos that follow are mine, but a few were lifted from the Work Sharp website. The source and the reasons will be obvious or noted.)

The packaging.

Here’s what’s in it.

The available accessory kits: extra glass platen, leather honing wheel on a 6" glass platen, and an extra slotted wheel, plus kits of various abrasives.

The Work Sharp has cooling vents built in, and the tool rest itself is a big heat sink. It’s a gentle process, but if you don’t follow the instructions and happen to leave the tool engaged for more than the recommended 2-3 seconds, you can generate sparks.

The first time I put a platen—it’s dead flat, of course—on the machine, I noticed vibration in two planes and a gauge confirmed it. However, measuring it—about 15 thousandths—proved to be an unnecessary exercise, since in practice, it had no evident effect on performance.

The abrasives are peel and stick, and can be applied to both faces of the platen. Helpfully, they are color-coded, moving from lighter to darker shades to represent coarser to finer grits. I was careful putting them on, but still got a few tiny bubbles. Rather than peel off and start over, I pricked them with a pin, and they pressed flat readily.

In my view, buying an extra platen or two is almost a basic requirement—not only to save time, but to also get the most out of the abrasives. I did peel off and change one set just to try the procedure. The instructions state that to ensure the surface is smooth, i.e. no bumps from glue residue or dust, the glass should be cleaned each time. While certainly do-able, this process would soon become tiresome, and tempt one to skip grits. We all know from our sanding experience that that is a no-no, and would produce a poor result.

The star feature of the machine is the tool rest which comes set for a perfect 90°.

To sharpen a tool, first load the correct abrasive. Then set the desired bevel angle by moving the lever in front of the rest noting the pre-set in the small window just above the red switch.

Then lay the chisel on the rest. A fixed fence aligns the right side of the chisel. A moving fence on the left side of the chisel is adjusted with the black knob. As noted above, the blue abrasive paper on the rest removes any burr when the tool is withdrawn.

Begin sharpening by moving the chisel upward to meet the spinning abrasive. Press it gently against the abrasive for not more than two or three seconds at a time. Assuming the edge is in reasonable condition, after few “dabs” move to the next grit and repeat until ready to hone (if the chisel is badly nicked and a lot of material has to be removed, I’d suggest prepping it on a grinder first, then truing and finishing it on the Work Sharp).

This is the face of the chisel that arrived in the promo bundle.

Flattening the back of the chisel.

This is the back of that chisel after flattening on the 120 grit wheel. With the horizontal platen, it’s just a matter of laying the tool flat on the abrasive for a couple of seconds at a time with light finger pressure. A couple of dabs was all that was necessary.

Progressing through 80, 120, 400, 1000, 3200, and 6000 grit. About a minute or two to get through each step including flipping or changing the platen.

There are some really fine scratch marks remaining, likely due to the jump from 120 to 400, but they certainly didn’t affect performance. I also failed to keep the chisel back flat on the rest’s abrasive, so I was left with a small burr. Once I noticed it, I adjusted my technique and the burr was removed automatically.

Here’s 1,000…

…and here’s 6,000.

And this is the edge after some time on the honing wheel.

Looks okay, but, the real test is in the using. Check. The honed chisel easily removed both thick…

…and very thin slices of end-grain mahogany with little effort.

Wood Sharp recommends only a couple of seconds contact with the abrasive. More than that could burn the tool’s edge, and, of course, the abrasive, too. It’s an easy motion, move the tool forward until contact, count to two, and drag it back.

The crepe rubber block does a good job of cleaning any residue from the abrasive disk.

By the way, the abrasives do remove steel. It’s a very fine dust.

Here the tool rest is adjusted for a 2" plane iron. Sharpening it is exactly the same process as for a chisel. Here I’m sharpening the bevel…

…and here I am flattening the back.

And here are some results. A stretched out edge shaving held flat with magnets.

End-grain shavings as they came off the same board.

And face grain shavings (note that the glued up board is wider than the plane, but no problem getting a perfect surface).

The machine will also produce a perfect micro bevel. After sharpening the tool, increase the angle of the rest by one stop, e.g. from 30° to 35°. Slide the chisel or iron up to touch the abrasive for a count of one and withdraw it. Couldn’t be easier.

The leather honing wheel charged with fine abrasive (supplied) will polish any edge and can be used from above or below. It’s glued to a platen so the other side can take an abrasive disk.

This is a Work Sharp website photo demonstrating the use of the see-through slotted wheel and matching slotted abrasives (I couldn’t slow my camera speed enough to duplicate it).

I sharpened a few carving tools this way. Since it’s free-hand and upside down, it takes a little getting used to, but I quickly developed a feel for the technique and was able to do a good job. Usually, these tools simply need touching up, and because the very fine abrasives remove so little metal, they are easy to do without much possibility of a mistake.

Conclusion:

The Work Sharp 3000 is very well made and comes with a DVD and a simple and clear manual written in North American English. For a reasonable price, it enables an average woodworker to sharpen chisels and plane irons to an excellent and repeatable working edge with a minimum of fuss and bother. I do not doubt that it can also produce a flawless mirror finish for anyone who cares to take the time. But, to get the most out of it, do spend the extra dollars for another platen or two to make abrasive changes easy. The abrasives are high quality and last well providing one doesn’t get carried away and burn the tool and them. If one word describes optimum operating technique for this machine it would be “gentle&requo;. Best of all, once the tools are sharp, unless they are allowed to get really dull or are somehow dinged, the coarser grits won’t be needed much. In fact, edges can be maintained by starting at about 400.

Some machines seem to hold great promise yet ultimately disappoint. I admit I was somewhat skeptical about this one, but I have become a believer. While the sexy slotted wheels can sharpen carving and turning tools, and a simple tool rest helps with other edges, those abilities are merely bonuses in my view. What the Work Sharp 3000 is meant to do and does exceedingly well is keep the edges you use most often so sharp and so easily that you will look for reasons to put them to work. More info, including the manual (in PDF format) and a very complete video, is available on www.worksharptools.com.

Postscript:

I’ve had this tool for almost a year, and it’s become the one I automatically pull out for chisels and plane irons. The WS3000 is just too simple and easy to use to be bothered with setting up the Tormek or using stones or even Scary Sharp(TM).

^© 2008 by Garrett Lambert. All rights reserved.
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