Official Luthiers Forum!

You know, I've been sharpening my own chisels for years now...don't have the time to send them out, don't have the time to pick them up, don't want the aggravation when some ignoramus ruins them...

Used a Veritas MkII for ages...rather a PITA thing to use because of squareness issues and learning how to hold things so they don't move on you...had the granite plate with varying grits of adhesive sand paper then finalizing on stones...rather time consuming actually.

I recently decided I'd had enough of it, and spent $200 on a Work Sharp 3000 unit...I'll leave the basic description up to letting anybody interested do a simple internet search and find the info.

I'm not sure what a few of the negative reviews were about...non-intuitive??? wow, must have been a motarded imbecile...

The one thing I like about it is that it gives repeatable results (and that is also, I guess, a negative...).

I found all of my chisels had slowly devolved to around a 30* primary bevel over the years...and that explained some issues I'd been having doing mortising into doors for hardware...

Initial set up is annoying, but to be expected I guess...been a LONG time since I bought a tool that was good to go out of the box...the only setup to do is to make the adjustment to make sure the created edge is square to the sides...I made the mistake of just doing the basic setup (assembly, sticking sand paper on glass discs) and going at it...then, after creating 25* primary bevels on 4 chisels (1/2", 3/4", and 2@ 1.5") found the out of square issue...

Lesson learned on that aspect is to use a sacrificial chisel, put too steep of a bevel on it (e.g. just start cutting a lot of material off of the leading edge) and adjust as necessary to be square and not skewed...THEN start doing some serious sharpening...

Yes, it took a fair bit of time to get back to a 25* primary bevel, and then work my way down the grits to a finished product...results were very nice, being able to take the hair off of the back of my hand on all 4 chisels...

After a days use of the chisels, I then decided to resharpen and add a 30* micro bevel...that took about minutes, and that included unboxing the unit and reboxing it at the end (don't have dedicated space set aside for it yet)...point being, the initial set up of unit, and getting chisels with a primary bevel is time consuming, maintenance of the chisels afterwards is a breeze...

Initial shaping of chisels: the directions (clearly written, and easy to understand if you read English, Spanish or French) give a maximum time to make contact with the sandpaper...I broke that rule repeatedly...point being, it's a slow speed machine and I had no issues with pushing things and having issues with heating the blade up too much...when things got a tad hot, no discoloration of metal hot, I just switched to another chisel and let that one cool off...

Negatives: only does bevels at 5* increments, and for those who want a polished backside of the chisel the machine is set up in such a way that will be ruined...

There is a piece of sandpaper on the 'table' that holds the blade and this is there to deburr the back of the chisel when you pull away from the disc...this leaves scratches...I bet this could be removed, yet there is still the issue of simply rubbing against said 'table'...if removed one would need to manually remove the burr from the back of the blade, most likely repeatedly during a heavy sharpening process...

For me, who doesn't have time for the slow process of hand sharpening, who wants repeated results fairly quickly, whom never mastered the art of sharpening without a jig, this device is great...

Next: acquiring Japanese Steel for a longer lasting edge, and maybe at some point some German steel with a backside that can be polished if I so desire at some point...Japanese chisels are hollowed on the backside and hence won't work as a mirror. Japanese chisels are also created from a much harder steel...and too boot, from what I've heard, are hard to get 'real' ones as those sold to the US market are not really "real" Japanese steel.

Anyway...

I am not in anyway affiliated with Work Sharp, just though I'd share my experience to others. If you find your personal time valuable, can't get the hang of sharpening chisels, etc., I give this product a thumbs up...YMMV

Really sharp is better, glad you got something thats working for you.
Once the backs are flat and polished to a mirror sheen (8000 grit Norton Waterstone) keeping the beveled edge touched up takes just minutes. I have a Tormek T-7 and the leather hone is magic keeps edged tools scary sharp

I like what you are saying Mike. I am going to have to think about it.

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

When I'm in the middle of using a chisel, and I notice it being a bit sluggish, I don't want to stop for a long sharpening ritual. I want to hustle up, get it sharp again, and get back to work. I have a WorkSharp 3000, and I like it for that reason.

I own several extra glass wheels. I can run through the grits easier that way.

As long as you can live with standard bevels, and blades of normal sizes, this tool really speeds up sharpening. I like it.

I think we all want fast, foolproof, and easy. I'm glad you found a method that's working for you. At the end of the day, that's what it's all about.

I have the Lie-Nielsen gauge and made their angle setting jig. I just spray some water on the stones, set the angle, and have a sharp blade in about a minute.

I also have a Work Sharp 3000 and the table attachment that comes with a blade guide similar to the clam and a little jig to set blades for different angles, and includes a way to set it for a secondary bevel. Sharp in 60 seconds, easy. No water, no mess.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Nice thing about the Workshop is that it sits there always ready. I like mine a lot. I have more waterstones and diamond plates than I care to think about from 40+ years of sharpening, but the Workshop is a lot more convenient. It won't do quite as good a job on the final edge as good waterstones will, but you can get a very usable edge really fast. You can always do the final edge on a waterstone if you need that extra sharpness like on a plane blade.You can sharpen a rusty, badly dinged chisel to a nice edge in minutes. I had a lot of fun doing that with my totally wasted carpentry chisels when I first got the Worksharp. It is pretty amazing, considering no water/no mess. You can experiment with grits other than Worksharp sells, by sticking your own paper on the glass wheels with a spray adhesive. Extra glass wheels are kind of a necessary purchase if you want to enjoy the full ease of using this unit. Lots of plastic on the tool, but it does not look like that is going to be a problem. I've not seem many modern space age tools that are as well thought out as this 1.

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“ The meaning of life is to find your gift and the purpose of life is to give it away” Pablo Picasso

I've got one and after the initial setup, you can rehab/sharpen a chisel to about 95% really fast. If you have a bunch of chisels it is a good deal, if you have only one good set then stones and a good jig make more sense.

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John Lewis
Wannabe builder owned by 2 crazy dachshunds

I have a grizzly knock off of the tormek and being an old meat cutter and machinist I have learned to sharpen well and fast. I like the water stones but they can be a pain
I also found if you have a surface plate 800 1200 and 1500 grit paper attached and using a good holder you can get them razor sharp in a few minutes and a sharp tool is a safe tool.
It matters not how you do it but that you do it.

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it