Work Sharp System?

Re: Work Sharp System? *LINK*

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>Pop WW rates it one of the best tools for 2007.

Pam


PWW Best Tools article

Quick Review

Frank D. in Montreal

>Hi Thomas,

I don't have one, but I gave hand tool demos at a wood show for 3 days, and I was in the same booth as the guy who was giving the Work Sharp demo, so I saw it being used and tried it out too.

The advantages are the similar tho the LV MK II abrasive paper system: it runs cool so you don't risk burning the metal; this speeds things up a lot compared to a bench grinder because you don't spend half your time dunking the blade or waiting for it to cool off. The jigged slot underneath the disk also lets you get the right angle on blades with relatively little fuss, and wheel systems let you flatten the backs of blades quickly.

One major disadvantage IMO is that the jigged part of the system only accepts blades up to 2", so I'd be stuck doing most of my plane blades (my most-used blades anyway) freehand on the little bar rest. This is quite doable, but still, getting the right angle is more difficult because the tool rest won't give you the correct angle. The other major disadvantage is when you want a crowned edge on your blade (once again, a lot of my most-used planes have a crowned adge): there is no provision for this on the system, so you're stuck once again doing it freehand on the bar rest. Furthermore, the jigged slot underneath does have guides to give you a right angle, but getting it spot on through all the various grits takes a little practice; if the blades you're doing don't have square or straight sidewalls, then you lose the right-angled reference that speeds things up. Finally, if you're thinking of getting one, you might want to check out the available grits. The guy doing the demo did a lot of plane blades which he then gave to me so I could try them out in a plane someone just bought at the show. Each time he passed me a freshly-sharpened blade, he'd ask me "how's this one?" I never answered him; each time I'd just take out my strop and my Flexcut honing paste and finish it off...then I'd say "looks good now...". This to say that I wasn't impressed by the final honing left by the abrasive paper, but I'm not sure if there were finer grits that he simply wasn't using. I think there's also a leather disk you can attach to a wheel, so this would probably solve the problem, although I can do it by hand with my Flexcut paste faster than you can change a wheel on the Work Sharp system.

So IMO it seems like an OK system, but there are limitations. I see it as a good fast way to sharpen chisels and small straight-edged blades, but beyond that it loses its advantage over belt systems like the Viel because there is no real tool rest (only the bar) if you want to do anything else.

FWIW

Re: Work Sharp System? *LINK*

Don in Northern Arizona

>Tom,

Garrett Lambert gave it a very positive review here in May. It's no longer in the archives for some reason. Here is a link to it on Google Docs. I bought one with my turning club's discount at Hartville Tool and it should arrive today. It will be a while before I can thoroughly test it though as I will be out of town for a while.

Don


Garrett Lambert's WS 3000 review

Adendum

Frank D. in Montreal

>One more slight limitation are the angles on the slot underneath. IIRC they go from 25 to 35� (check this out for yourself, I could be wrong). If like me you also use bevel-up plane blades at high angles, you're stuck once again using the bar rest on top.

BTW, the very enthusiastic reviews I have seen so far have not come from what I would call extensive hand-tool users.

Rob Johnstone votes aye.  *LINK*

Don in Northern Arizona

>


Woodworker's Journal Ezine

Re: Adendum

Tom Colligan

>Hi Frank, when you go to the strop do you do this freehand or do you leave the chisel or plane iron still in a jig? (For me, it would be the latest Veritas jig.) Tia, Tom.

Re: Adendum

Frank D. in Montreal

>Hi Tom,

I strop freehand. When I use a jig stropping comes after the stones anyway, so I take it off then strop. To strop the bevel I just lay it on the leather, then watch the edge as I tilt the chisel or blade forward. Once the edge touches the leather, I know I'm at the right angle, so I just drag the blade back over the leather while keeping the angle. The nice thing about Flexcut paste (I know I sound like a broken record here but this stuff is amazing for hand stropping) is that it takes very few short strokes to get a mirror finish equal to my Norton 8000 stone, so there's not much of a chance to screw things up (vs. slower pastes that take a lot more strokes to get a nice polish). IME experience it doesn't really matter if you're not spot on; a very slight rounding of the bevel at the edge doesn't affect anything. IME it's handier to strop the back without the jig too. But if you wanted to I guess you could probably do both with the jig still on, as long as your strop is long enough to support the wheel of the guide when you do the bevel.