Work Sharp 3000

[Joe Shinall]

Anybody have any experience with the Work Sharp 3000? I have no good sharpening system right now and really need one and $200 doesn't seem too bad a price.

[Tom Ewell]

I use it for my chisels and small planes, works well, augments my Tormek.

I like the flat grind it puts on the chisels as opposed to the hollow grind of Tormek.

It's great for quick touch ups, sets up easily.

Still use the Tormek for long blades, knives etc.

[Cary Falk]

It is so easy to use that a dummy like me now has sharp chisels. I have never used any other sharpening system but I really like the WorkSharp.

[Joe Shinall]

It is so easy to use that a dummy like me now has sharp chisels.

Being a fellow dummy group member, that's what I need too!

[Cary Falk]

Being a fellow dummy group member, that's what I need too!


It's quick too. I can take the worst beat up chisle and have it scary sharp in a few minutes.

[Keith Christopher]

I have one and I love it. the ease of use and quality of the edge is awesome.

[Zach England]

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.

[Cary Falk]

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.

Matsamura what? Camber who? :D We come from different sides of the tool world. If it doesn't come with a cord I will try to attach one. I find the granite plates and stones annoying. Maybe you got a bad tool. I can agree that it is a one trick pony, but it is the only trick I need. Maybe my standards for chisles are a little different than yours. I only ask that it cuts wood instead of removing chunks, all without having to beat the snot our of the other end.:eek: Maybe someday I will need more but for now I am happy with it.

[Paul Ryan]

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.

I disagree with Zack's take as well.

I have water stones, a granite plate, sand paper, and a veritas honing guide. I get better and much faster results with my work sharp. I have the jig for large blades and it works well for those too. It is not the fastest thing it you have to grind off a ton of metal but it can be done. A slow speed grinder would be better for that. Irons for smoothers can be camber easily with the work sharp. Putting a large radius on say a scrub plane iron would not be easy with the work sharp but tough with stones too. The learning curve is short and sweet. It take only takes a few miuntes to touch up a badly chipped chisel were as it would take me close to and hour on a stone. I got mine for $20 at the time I would not have paid $200 for it. But after using it for 6 months it is well worth the $200 to me know. I haven't used my stones since I got the machine, I use my granite and paper for soles and other flattening the backs of irons. But that can be done on the worksharp as well.

[Scott Rollins]

I have both the Work sharp and the veritas mkII set-up. the worksharp gets the tool very sharp. However it has a curved scratch pattern. It gets small chisels (less than 3/4") quite sharp very quickly. I think it is great for getting the tools close to "scary sharp". After I have used the WS3000 I move to the Veritas MKII and some plate glass to get the larger tools really sharp. The WS3000 can get tools to the point where they will cut hair, but not very well. The Veritas takes the tools to a point where the hairs on your arm will absolutely jump off.
The true test of sharpness is in the cut. With either system I do get excellent results. I don't think I would ever get rid of the WS 3000 due to its speed of getting a terrible dinged up edge into a condition you can use to mortice, trim, whatever you need. It is a good value for the money. the equivalent sharpening stones would set you back alot more. in the end I think it is a great starting point for sharpening all your tools, but it wont replace manual sharpening for some tools.:o

[Prashun Patel]

Matsamura what? Camber who? :D We come from different sides of the tool world. If it doesn't come with a cord I will try to attach one.

Nicely done! Funny!

[Tom Ewell]

Perhaps the only caveat I would have against the Work Sharp would be that it is a dry sharpening system.

You do have to be aware that heat can be generated if used heavy handedly and the the potential for ignited steel "dust" does exist so do not attach to a vacuum or have wood shavings or other combustibles in the area when using the machine.

[Matthew Hills]

I picked up a worksharp system, but haven't used it extensively. Was wondering how long the abrasives last with serious sharpening?

Worked pretty well with smaller chisels. Seemed harder to get straight edges on my plane blades, although my technique is likely weak, too.

water stone with veritas mark II is much easier for me to use with plane blades (but lousy with narrow chisels) -- so they are somewhat complementary to me right now. An edge-grip guide might make up for that.

I got the worksharp on the recommendation of a buddy who mostly uses power tools, but really started liking his chisels once he got the worksharp.

The trick with any sharpening system is to have a dedicated place for it, so you can leave it set up and go to it often and keep your tools in great shape. The dry sharpening seems a bit more convenient for this.

Matt

[Mark Woodmark]

I have one, works great. Buy extra wheels and extra abrasive disk. Very easy to use and much cheaper than a Tormek

[Doug Shepard]

Well I somewhat side with Zach. I have a WS3000 and generally like it although for my really good chisels or plane irons I tend to at least finish them up on stones or paper/granite plate. I just dont think the WS gets them as sharp as I like them. I dont think I'm going to sell it, but I find myself being a lot more selective with it's use.

[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....

:D

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 (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=116048&d=1240157914) 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.