My very long Worksharp / Henry Taylor paring chisel video review

[John Coloccia]

My Henry Taylors came today. I decided to do a video review of the Taylors coupled with the Worksharp because I've had so much interest from people that are curious about both products. Here it is. It's long but it's pretty thorough and should pretty much cover most of it.

One thing: towards the end in the video, it sounds like the chisel paring is tearing the pine. It's not. It's all actually very quiet, in fact. My laptop microphone is very sensitive at certain frequencies, and very insensitive at other....not a flat response at all.

Anyhow, here it is. Hopefully I'm doing both products justice.

***deleted....doesn't work right****

[John Coloccia]

Never mind that link. Photobucket cut it off at 10 minutes. I'm splitting it up and will repost shortly.

[Johnny Kleso]

We has 2-3" of snow and ice Sunday and UPS just started delivering today :)

[Andrew Gibson]

I thought the video ended rather abruptly, I wasn't going to say anything.

[John Coloccia]

I've decided to publish it as an article instead. It's ready to go. I just need someone to get back to me and let me know what the next step is. Sorry for the delay. Hopefully it will be soon.

[John Coloccia]

Here are the videos, at any rate. The article will publish when it publishes. Now that I started this thread, I figure I should follow through and at least post these now.

Part 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhgRo-Px2MQ

Part 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RsTVKw-_rM

Part 3:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAWKkOtctFs

[Gary Hodgin]

John,
Great video. Lord willing and home depot follows through, I should be getting a WS 3000 within a couple of weeks. I'll add the leather hone and felt polishing accessories.
Thanks,
Gary

[Kevin Lucas]

Dull as a lifetime coming of age movie? That's priceless! great video )

[Bob Warfield]

John great review. I would like to see more like this. One question, who is the blond in the green outfit climbing up your shelving unit?
Thanks,
Bob Warfield

[John Coloccia]

John great review. I would like to see more like this. One question, who is the blond in the green outfit climbing up your shelving unit?
Thanks,
Bob Warfield

That's my wife's old barbie doll. She's been hanging out with me in the shop for about 7 years now. She's a bit of an airhead, but she's a good listener and doesn't spend much.

[Kent A Bathurst]

John - Thanks for the time spent on the videos and the PM traffic. Provides an avenue for fast, accurate, repeatable, quality sharpening of most of my chisels + irons.

I will suspend my search for the Elder Wand of sharpening when my WS3k arrives tomorrow, and get back to spending more time making stuff v. getting ready to make stuff.

[Scott Stafford]

Thank you for taking the time to make this video. Very well done and very informative!

I too like the leather stropping wheel but had not seen the buffing disk. Looks like a great addition.


Scott in Montana

[Matt Winterowd]

Great review(s)! Thanks, John!

[Chris Vandiver]

Nice video. Looks like you need to break out the x-country skiis.
I'd be interested in hearing about the edge retension of the Henry Taylor chisels and how they hold up in various woods.

[Chuck Nickerson]

John - I'm looking for paring chisels whose blades are thin. That is, the top to back thickness 1/8" or less.
How thick is that HT?

[Aaron Kitchell]

What do you use to clean the disc?

[Terry Beadle]

Thanks for posting the video's. The truth shines through !

Nothing like a really sharp paring chisel. Makes all the difference in control and results.

Thanks again for a great post.

[Matthew Hills]

What do you use to clean the disc?
Looked like the crepe stick that comes with the worksharp (essentially an art gum eraser often used for cleaning out sandpapers)

I thought it was very useful to see the evaluation after the micromesh and then the continuation after honing/buffing. I'd always stopped after the micromesh, and was never really happy with the result -- I felt I was getting much better coming off my waterstones.

How much does the buffing add beyond what you can get with the leather wheel?

Matt

[John Coloccia]

What do you use to clean the disc?

That's just a little piece of rubber. It actually comes with it. I have a much larger one that I use for my drum and belt sander, but the little one that comes with it is just right for the small discs, so I use that.

[John Coloccia]

How much does the buffing add beyond what you can get with the leather wheel?

Matt

That's a good question. I'm honestly not sure as I never thought to try it. I'm a big fan of stropping/buffing very often, even if it's by hand with a leather strop. Doing that reduces the number of times I have to go to a wheel, disc or stone. I just keep the buff mounted most of the time, and keep touching up on the buff. When that doesn't work anymore, I hit the strop, and then back to the buff. When that stops working (which it seldom does if I'm diligent), I hit the wheel again. Same as hand sharpening. I hit the strop very often and only go to a stone when the strop stops working.

I haven't touched the 1/4" and 1/2" chisels yet so I will stop at the leather and let you know. I suspect that careful stropping on the leather wheel would get you very close, but it's difficult to strop accurately on a spinning wheel (because it's grabby), and that the felt is sort of fixing up the leather edge. I feel this because I can get a mirror edge off my leather strop but I've had trouble getting it off the leather wheel without following it up with the buffing wheel. It stands to reason that a careful application of the leather wheel would also yield a mirror edge if it wasn't so grabby and I had better "feel". Now that it's well charged with honing compound, I'll also experiment with not applying anymore compound for a while. I think the compound is making is grabbier than it should be, and it's probably like the Tormek where the leather will work far better after some extended use. The Tormek leather is practically useless when you first get it, IMHO.

Maybe what I'll do, in fact, is skip that all together and go directly to my Butz strop and see where that gets me as well.

Lots of experimenting to do. If I can strop by hand and get a faster/better result than the leather and the felt wheel, I will absolutely strop by hand instead. Like I said in the video, I'm all about sharp and FAST, because sharpening is one of my least favorite activities in the world. If anyone ever makes a light saber chisel, I'll be first in line.

[John Coloccia]

John - I'm looking for paring chisels whose blades are thin. That is, the top to back thickness 1/8" or less.
How thick is that HT?

The Taylor measures .175" at the bevel to .22 at the tang. That's about 11/64, or just under 3/16". It's a little thicker than you'd like, but honestly it feels just right to me. If they were any thinner I think they'd maybe be a little mushy, but you may want them to flex a bit. Blue Spruce might be a little thinner, perhaps, as some things I've read indicate that they may have a bit more give than most. As I said in the review, by the time I was done I had completely forgotten that they were new. They just felt right.