Any experience here with either WorkSharp sharpening tool?

[Howard Rosenberg]

I'm currently using DMT diamonds for my chisels. They're not bad but I find them mighty tedious. I guess I'd still prefer something even faster for both sharpening and touchups.

Does anybody have any first-hand experience with either WorkSharp sharpening machine? Could you take a moment to describe the Pros and the Cons of your particular unit?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Howard

[Mike Henderson]

I use the WS 3000 to establish the bevel on chisels. Then I go to to my Shaptons and put a secondary bevel. The primary bevel is 25* and the secondary is either 30 or 35, depending on the use of the chisel.

It's also very good for flattening the back of a chisel.

So to summarize, I use it for the rough work and finish with water stones. It's sort of like using power tools for stock preparation, but doing joinery with hand tools.

Mike

[Cary Falk]

I have the WS3000. I never had a sharp chisel untill I got the worksharp. I just got done done sharpening all of my chisels this weekend and a couple for a friend which wer pretty well abused. I think the 8 of them took about an hour to go from 120grit to 3600 grit. I didn't even break a sweat. They can now shave hair. The pro is that is is quick and so simple a caveman can do it. The cons is it is somewhat of a one trick pony. You can do chisels up to around 2.5" I think. My biggest is 2". You can also do hand plane blades from the top. I guess you can sharpen carving chisels with the slotted platten. I haven't tried it yet. That being said I love mine and woud not part with it.

[Carl Babel]

I use the WS 3000 and am extremely happy with it. I have 4 glass wheels and at least 8 different grits.

Pros:
- I used to rely on the Scary Sharp method, so the obvious Pro is time.
- The less obvious Pro is repeatability/consistency.

Cons:
- Skew. At first, I had some trouble with blade edges not coming out square.
At first, I thought perhaps I was just being overly aggressive (okay, maybe I was a bit ).
Then I Read The Fine Manual, lightened my pressure, adjusted the skew cam setting and now, "all is good".
I am just listing this as a con, because I would imagine that similar experiences are easy to reproduce for others.
- Cost of consumables - not as cheap as Scary Sharp.

My post came in after Cary's; he nailed it - I would not part with my WS300, either!

[Marty Paulus]

I got my WS3000 when Sears messed up and had them for $20. Like Carl and Cary say it is easy to use. Personally I still use the scary sharp to flatten the back of my chisels and planes but I have a small surface plate and can use wet/dry paper which cuts fast. The WS3000 is awsome for establishing the bezel but like Carl says it is tricky at first to get the skew cam set. THe only other down side is finding and keeping the psa backed discs in stock in the garage and the cost of that.

[Matt Meiser]

By "either", do you mean the WS2000 vs WS3000? The one you want for Woodworking is the 3000. The 2000 is more of a grinder from what I understand. It can do chisels, but is probably more intended for those who think a good chisel are the more expensive Stanley's at Lowes. I believe it has a higher speed than the 3000. And the 3000 has more woodworker-friendly accessories like the wide blade attachment, honing wheel, etc.

I've got the 3000 and I really like it. I also bought their stand-alone knife sharpener for the house which I really like.

On consumable cost, a bunch of us in my club did a group buy on non-Worksharp abrasives. They are a tiny bit oversized which doesn't matter at all and we have to cut the center hole, but they were considerably cheaper. We bought from Klingspor for the coarser grades and Micro Mesh from some aircraft supply place. If you don't have a group to split it up though they would last you a long, long time.

[Trent Shirley]

I just got my Worksharp 3000 a month or so ago and have only sharpened a couple of chisels so far but it works well.
I am terrible at sharpening and do not have the attention span to sit there for long periods of time so this system really helps.

[glenn bradley]

I have the WS3K which is marketed for woodworking tools. The WS2K is marketed for metalworking tools as it only has a set angle port. Be that as it may, I was born without the sharpening gene. I never had a decent edge on a cutter till I bought the WS3K. Once you establish your edge, the repeatability (for those of us who have difficulty repeating angles by hand) is what it is all about. Using the Worksharp has actually awakened my hand sharpening gene and I can now do a few things without goofing the works and having to start over ;-)

Limitation is the 2" max width in the port so, my plane irons get done with an angle jig from the top. I used to finish hone or microbevel on stones but have gotten quite good at doing that on the WS3K as well. I added the leather honing wheel as I got it as a gift (never would have thought to buy one). I must confess a marked difference in cutting edge and now use stones only on the very rare occasion. Another plus is I can keep the Worksharp out on the bench if I know I am going to do a lot of chisel work. As soon as a chisel even hints at changing the way it is cutting, I step over and give it a 2 second touch up in the port and go back to work. You can lterally have a freshly sharpened (to the limit of the machine of course) tool for every half a dozen cuts if you want.

Obviously I have been very happy with the unit. One of the keys to happiness is to not be a cheap skate and try to milk more life out of your abrasives. They are wear parts. Change them when required and keep enjoying that consistent, predictable performance. Try to run your 1000 grit too long and you just waste time and temper.

[Jeremy Greiner]

I never had a sharp chisel untill I got the worksharp.

This is so true, I "thought" I had sharp chisels, using the scary sharp method but I just didn't have the patience required to actually get sharp chisels. I use the worksharp 3000 on my chisels, hand plane and block plane blades (all the blades fit in the chisel slot). Recently I started experimented with turning and found the slotted wheels are fantastic for sharpening the rounded tools, I liked that I could use a marker on the edge then I could see through the worksharp and watch it strip away the markings to know I'm actually sharpening the edge.

I did have some problem with the skew chisel and some of the other odd shaped chisels trying to use the bar on top. I plan on making a few jigs to help with those though.

I wouldn't part with my worksharp and would buy it again if I had to do it over.

-jeremy

[Kent A Bathurst]

Couple things.........

First - Glenn - that stand/box/whatever you call it is a winner. I've seen a few different designs, but you got it. Ima steal that one, pal. Lemme know what the royalties add up to.

Next - if you search here, you will find an excellent thread started by John Coloccia on using the WS3000 - that's what prompted me to take the leap. And, from what I can figure out, John is one of those "that ain't sharp - THIS is sharp!!" guys.

The leather hone is on mine 90% of the time - fire it up, a quick swipe, and the edge is back. Understand that is not good enough for John - he uses the buffer wheel for that task........as I said above......

[Al Weber]

Very Nice setup. I built a small version without storage for mine to avoid buying the factory table. I think it took me 30 minutes from a piece of melamine particle board. The WS 3000 works well as long as you are willing to put in a little learning time. The skew adjustment has been mentioned. The other is wide blades on a top table arrangement requires that you use a sharpening gauge of some type (I use the Veritas latest version) to insure the blade is square to the adhesive plates. Grahams setup appears to have a height adjustment built in to accommodate differences in adhesive thickness. I just shim mine. But they do work very well if you spend the time. For me it was a small investment compared to the time I took to sharpen by hand. Sometimes I did okay and other times my tools were sharper before I sharpened them.

[Jim Neeley]

Others here have mentioned the price of consumables. For rough sanding (especially thise who use it for a primary bevel), I've had really good use buying 6" PSA discs. Once you stick one to the glass, an exacto easily trims the hole perfectly to size. If you don't like swapping blades you might want to use a dedicated xacto, but boxes of 100 6" PSA discs are cheap on Amazon.

Jim

[Stan Mitchell]

Another fan of the WS 3000. Bought one a few months ago and it's the best tool purchase that I've made in a while.

Super easy to use - so no excuse for not having a properly sharpened chisel.

No regrets whatsoever.

[John Coloccia]

I'm no slouch with water stones, but I have to admit that I really like my WS3000. I like the felt buff very much. It's perfect for a little touch up as I'm working. The leather hone is very nice as well.

If you want to reduce your consumables cost, by PSA sand paper sheets and cut/punch your own sanding discs. There's nothing magical about the Work Sharp sandpaper.

[Dave Gaul]

I too never had sharp chisels & plane blades until I got my WS3K. I'm sure I could get sharper with stones, but I see no need to for my uses.

A word of advice: Forget the WorkSharp sanding discs. Klingsplore sells a pack made for the WS3K, and it is SUCH better paper, combine the Klingsplore set with the leather honing wheel & buffing wheel and you'll be very happy!