Worksharp vs veritas power sharpener

[paul cottingham]

So i have clearance to buy a power sharpener, as my hands are too screwed up to hand hone my tools. What is everyones opinion of the worksharp? how about vs the Veritas power sharpening system?

Thanks as always.

[Jim Koepke]

I have the Veritas power sharpening system and like it very much.

My suggestion if you do buy the Veritas is to purchase a few extra tool holders. In my experience, you can run five blades. While the first one cools, the next four get done.

One feature that I do not like is the system is set up for putting a micro bevel on blades. I overcame this by buying an extra set of disks and shimming the disks so they are all the same angle when sharpening.

I have not used a Worksharp, so I can not make any valid comments. Hopefully someone else will be able to comment on their experience with their set up.

If you ever head down toward Portland, Oregon, send me a PM. You are welcome to stop by and see my set up.

jtk

[Don Inghram]

I recently purchased the Worksharp and have entered a whole new realm in sharpening. Wonderful set-up IMO. I'm sure the Veritas is an excellent system also, just have no experience with it. HTH

[Jim Falsetti]

I own a Worksharp but not the Veritas. The Worksharp is good for chisels, and fine for lapping the backs of larger plane blades. However, the large blade adapter does not work for me.

Jim

[Mike Henderson]

I bought the WorkSharp 3000 when Home Depot had that special for about $70. I find it good for establishing the bevel on chisels or plane blades, and for flattening the backs initially, but for fine sharpening I have to go to my water stones. The WorkSharp is worth the $70 I paid for it but I can't recommend it for the full retail price.

It goes through the rough grit disk (I think it's 120 grit) fairly fast but you can buy standard 6" PSA disk and use those. I put the disk on the glass and then cut the hole out.

It's faster than using a diamond plate when establishing a bevel but I don't know how much that's worth to you. You can also use a standard grinder (such as an 8" grinder) to establish the bevel on chisels.

Mike

[paul cottingham]

So can you get plane blades arm hair shaving sharp with the Veritas? How about chisels?

thanks!

[Jim Neeley]

Last year I picked up a WorkSharp 3000 after trying my hand at tuning some bevel-up Veritas 3/16" thick A2 steel plane blades. The instructions say to attach the wide blade guide, leveling it with the sharpening sandpaper. Unfortunately, it won't go down that far, because the inside of some of the supports squeeze against a raised piece of the machine. Sooo... I got out my Dremel and a carborundum cutting wheel and trimmed them back. I've attached a picture showing where I had to grind. It only took a couple of minutes and it was level.

Please note it was the *inside* of the support, not the "bottom".

I'd previously called WS and they told me it didn't have to be level, just co-planar, a cop-out to me. I wanted to use my Veritas honing guide with it and to use the angle setter, I needed level.

All this because some of the blades are 25*, some 38* and some 50*. It worked like a champ! I've attached a picture showing the reflection of some ribbed rubber matting in the blade. Scary sharp!

Way beyond enough to trim hair...

Yea.. I can use a microbevel and probably will in the future.. but the full polish was fun too...

Recently I've picked up some Shaptons.. for at least the finest work as a rattail reduction move..





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[glenn bradley]

I have had the WS 3000 for a few years. I lack the sharpening gene (poor hand sharpening skills) which is kinda like having screwed up hands in that I'm not very good free-handed. I love the thing because it allows someone like me to get reliable, repeatable results. I made a waide blade support for it so I can use that when required. I find that I have almost completely abandoned my stones and scary sharp stuff.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

I purchased a Worksharp 3000 when I had to do some serious sharpening (because my sandpaper was just taking too long). It worked, but, I had a difficult time not introducing a slight skew on my plane blades.

I picked up a used Tormek T-7 and I liked it well enough that I gave away my Worksharp.

The thing to take from this is not that the WS is bad, just that I had better luck with my Tormek with my plane irons. With my Tormek I have a few short chisels that would probably have worked better on the WS, but I never tried it and cannot easily check (my old WS is about six hours away).

[Prashun Patel]

I've had the Worksharp for a couple years. It's great, but not without caveats.
I use the above-blade table for wide blade sharpening. Actually; I made my own. It works just fine.

What you need is a good honing guide to work with it though.

[Zahid Naqvi]

Just to give you another perspective besides the two options you are considering.
I've never really tried the Veritas sharpener but I (like many others) bought the WorkSharp when it went on clearance at HD. Previously I have used scary sharp, the Tormek (thanks to Dennis), a regular dry bench grinder, and now have the harborFreight Tormek clone. My opinion is from an efficiency perspective. The biggest problem I see with a flat surface used for establishing an initial/primary bevel is the lack of a curve on the bevel, which you readily get from using a wheel type grinder. The curved primary bevel is extremely easy to use for freehand honing. On the other hand the flat primary bevel forever enslaves you to a honing jig, and no matter how careful you are you secondary bevel is never going to be dead-on on repeat honing sessions, which translates into more work. With freehand honing you just get the blade or chisel out and hit your water stones, no jigs or setting/alignment to worry about. The primary bevel is typically good for 10-15 honing sessions before the curve starts looking like a flat, at which point you go back to your grinder. The ideal setup for me is a Tormek for primary bevel combined with water stones for honing. For the price of a WorkSharp or a Veritas system you can easily buy a bench top grinder and then acquire one or two shaptons, adding more if needed.
The thing sandpaper based power sharpeners excel at is the flattening of the backs of plane blades. So if you are in the business of rehabbing old tools this can be very valuable, otherwise it's a once in the life of a blade activity.

[Mike Henderson]

To comment on what Zahid said, I don't have any trouble honing a secondary bevel on a chisel with a "flat" bevel. I establish the main bevel at something like 25*. Then when I hone the bevel, I place the bevel flat on the stone, lift the back a small amount and take a couple of strokes. So what starts with a 25* bevel is now a 30* or so bevel. Eventually, the secondary bevel gets too large to hone quickly and then I have to go back and re-establish the bevel. That's when the WorkSharp is valuable.

But Zahid is right - establishing the bevel with a round stone, such as an 8" grinder or a Tormak - is a good way to do sharpening and you can keep an accurate bevel angle. Just different ways of doing the same thing.

Mike

[Prashun Patel]

For me, the Holy Grail is indeed freehand sharpening. But like handcut dovetails, that skill may take me years to develop. I use the MKII honing guide with my Worksharp and the bevels (primary and secondary) are as 'perfect' as I need them to be. The Worksharp ain't no Tormek, but it certainly is good-enough-to-slice-the-hairs-off-yr-forearm.

Besides, in the worst case, you'll be able to sell the WS on this forum for a reasonable price here if you don't like it.

[Paul Ryan]

I have been using a worksharp 3000 for about a year and half now. Previously I tried water stones and scary sharp and dont have it in me either. The worksharp was a blessing. I have no trouble getting my irons, and chisels to shave arm hair. If one of my junk chisel blade gets dinged up real bad it does take a long time grind out the chips, that is where a grinder would come in handy. But the work sharp works great for me, on my 25 degre irons and chisels, and my 25, 38, 50 degree irons for my BU planes. I could not be more happy. Last night it took just to a minute or so to touch up the 50 micro bevel on my BU smoother iron. 400, 1000, 2000 grit wheels and back to work.

[Jim Neeley]

Paul,

If you pick up some 6" ROS peel and stick sandpaper in 60, 80 and 120, you don't really need the grinder. Just stick 'em on the glass wheel and a quick swish with an exacto and there's your center hole.

I've recently picked up some Shaptons and want to try to wean myself away from the WS for the finer work but even then would keep it as my "grinder". It's great!!

Yea, the grinder might make a more impressive shop picture but, in my limited space, the light weight of the WS works A-OK for me!!