Work Sharp 3000

[Roger Benton]

depends on what you will be happy with. it can definitely produce a sharp edge, and quickly. it's especially good for repairing a dropped chisel or a new vintage plane iron.
but it lacks... something.
my partner bought the ws300 and i found after about 6 months of really trying to make it work that i will only use it on my 2nd string utility chisels. My "nice" bench chisels which i use for joinery and my plane irons get honed on stones. same reasons as zach mentioned, plus:

1- i absolutely can not live with the outcome of lapping the backs of chisels on this tool. it can eventually leave a recess in the back of a chisel.
2- honing irons wider than those in a block plane is done freehand, which on this machine is quite an awkward task.
3- i find prefer a hollow ground blade. true, the ws could be used to hone a hollow ground blade, but it is very, very difficult to get the bed 1000% square to the disk, which results in a slight skew, which is very apparent on a hollow ground blade.

[Joe Shinall]

Basically I am looking for something that gets my chisels and plane blades sharp enough to use. I am not a professional woodworker by far so I don't use chisels and planes everyday, sometimes not for a week or two.

Seeing the mixed reviews doesn't help but the fact that there are a good amount so far that like it probably the same way I would like it, I think I will go for it. Like I said, I have nothing now so everything of mine is dull at the moment.

[Orlando Gonzalez]

Joe,

I had it and sold it, not because it was not a good piece of machinery, but because I went the Shapton waterstone route. I enjoyed it while I had it. No complaints. You can always get the wide blade jig for it and it will meet all your needs until the day you outgrow it, if ever.

Here is a site were I bought the Micro-Mesh 6" no-hole PSA disks for a fair price.

These go from 1500 grit to 12000 grit .

http://www.sisweb.com/micromesh/mmr_discs.htm#6_0_psa

These go from 60 grit to 1200 grit

http://www.sisweb.com/micromesh/mmx_discs.htm#6_0_psa

HTH and good luck.

[John Coloccia]

I will offer a dissenting opinion. I had one, but sold it when I started to take a real interest in hand tools. My Veritas honing guide and a combination of stones and abrasives on a granite machinist's plate give me far better results. For plane irons it is only good up to, as I recall, the iron in a no. 4. I had to watch it closely as to not overheat the steel. constantly moving through the grits was annoying, even with several of the glass wheels. It is impossible to camber a blade. Even the most careful setting of the wheel would leave a very slightly skewed end (with my machine).

For just sharpening chisels it is ok, but it is a one-trick pony and performs that trick with mediocrity. If I still had it I'd probably use it on occasion, but it would never touch my Lie-Nielsen plane irons or Matsamura chisels.

Never trust a guy who doesn't like ketchup....



Actually, I'm Zach on this one, except I did find it useful. I just didn't find that it got me where I wanted to go. It got close, but I wanted better. Now that I'm good at this, I don't find that I'm sharpening very much anymore at all. I hone quite a bit, but that just takes a couple of seconds by hand. As long as I keep an edge honed, it doesn't really seem like I actually need to resharpen very much at all.

I guess it really depends on your workflow, hand sharpening skills, preference etc if the Worksharp is really a good fit.

[glenn bradley]

Dad and I each have one and were just re-singing it's praises last night on the phone. He turns and has the Jet slow speed wet grinder (Tormek clone) but for flat cutters like chisels and plane irons up to 2", it is hard to beat.

When I know I am going to be doing a lot of chisel work, I just keep it setup on the bench for touch ups. I have low dollar chisels so touch ups are more frequent than other folks might need. Dad on the other hand leaves his setup all the time and only moves it when the needs the bench room.