Abrasive Discs

[Gary Petrauskas]

While browsing one of my favorite tool stores the other day I came across the WS3000 which I had recently seen at a woodworking show. I had read some pretty positive things about it here so I decided the $179 price tag wasn't too bad a deal and brought it home. My initial impression after sharpening a few chisels is...wow! Looks like the old Tormek will get a lot less use. I know there's more than a few here who own one and if you don't mind I'd like to ask where do you buy you discs? I'd also like to pick up a couple more glass wheels, seems like having at least four wheels of various grit ready to go would save significant time and material. Any and all comments are welcome.

[glenn bradley]

+1 on extra wheels. I will say that more expensive quality abrasives will out last a larger number of inexpensive poor ones. I just watch for sales at Klingspor or from WorkSharp retailers and stock up when I see a good price point. I did waste a fair amount of bargain paper (and my time changing it) at one point but, finally caught on ;-) Some folks make their own wheels out of MDF which I could see working for courser grits. Once you get to 1000+ you can have issues with just the adhesive irregularities let alone MDF surface irregularities (although it is darned flat). I have 4 glass wheels and a leather hone wheel and that seems to get me through.

I added a shop made wide blade table and really find the WS3K a valuable addition to my sharpening items. I especially like it when I am going to do a lot of chisel work. I can just work away and as soon as my chisel feels the least bit sluggish, I step over and give it s 2 second touch on the WorkSharp and go straight back to work. No muss, no fuss. I use a Veritas MK-II jig for the wide blade table I added but, that's only because I had it. Any guide will do including a wedge of wood. Dad has the slow speed wet grinder and a couple bench grinders with various setups (he's a turner) but, uses the WS3K more than any of them. Enjoy the speed and repeatability.

[Gary Petrauskas]

Thanks Glen, I just bookmarked the Klingspor site and will follow your advice. " Enjoy the speed and repeatability." That says it all right there, I couldn't agree more.

[Norman Hitt]

Occasionally Amazon has a sale on various WS items, including the glass discs. I picked up a couple of the discs and a the honing leather disc, along with the wide blade attachment and some other items a few months back during one of their sales.

[Gary Petrauskas]

Thanks Norm, I'll check that out as well.