Worksharp Quandary

[Doug Shepard]

Anybody else run into this? I've been sharpening everything in sight over the past week. Everything is going well until I start doing the set of LN chisels. While not quite as good (maybe 95%) as doing them by hand w/ jig, the LN's are coming out extremely sharp - more so than my Marples. So I get thru the 1000g and all is well. Then on to the MicroMesh ones that are in the honing kit package. I already had the 3600g mounted and no issues doing the Marples, some junker Craftsman chisels, and 3-4 plane irons so far. About halfway thru the LN set the chisel gets grabbed and there's some sort of crud on the bevel when I draw it out. So I remove the disc and see a groove cut right thru the disc. My first thought was - OK I've been using it for a while and I just wore it out. So I remove it and replace it with the 6000g disc (there's only 1 ea in the honing kit). So 2 chisels later the exact same thing happens. I think there's a couple things going on -
1) The MM discs have a thin cushioning layer between the glass and abrasive
2) The slightly steeper angle on the LN's (30 vs 25 degrees) plus coming out of the prior grits noticably sharper than my other chisels
3) So I think the LN's are trying to cut that groove in the softer disc just as soon as you try to use them??
Has anyone else run into this?
I'm thinking I should just pic up the thin film abrasive paper that LV sells, stick it on and trim it to the glass so I dont have that soft padding underneath?

[Mark Carlson]

Hi Doug,

I thought it strange that I have the same chissels. Last week I sharpened everything I own. A set of blue marples, a set of lie nielsen and a set of craftsman. I then did 4 plane irons. I'm sill using the same 6000 grit and didn't have any issues. I didn't have the 3600 or the leather honing wheel so I recently got those as welll. Havn't used them yet though.

~mark

[Daniel Berlin]

Anybody else run into this? I've been sharpening everything in sight over the past week. Everything is going well until I start doing the set of LN chisels. While not quite as good (maybe 95%) as doing them by hand w/ jig, the LN's are coming out extremely sharp - more so than my Marples. So I get thru the 1000g and all is well. Then on to the MicroMesh ones that are in the honing kit package. I already had the 3600g mounted and no issues doing the Marples, some junker Craftsman chisels, and 3-4 plane irons so far. About halfway thru the LN set the chisel gets grabbed and there's some sort of crud on the bevel when I draw it out. So I remove the disc and see a groove cut right thru the disc. My first thought was - OK I've been using it for a while and I just wore it out. So I remove it and replace it with the 6000g disc (there's only 1 ea in the honing kit). So 2 chisels later the exact same thing happens. I think there's a couple things going on -
1) The MM discs have a thin cushioning layer between the glass and abrasive
2) The slightly steeper angle on the LN's (30 vs 25 degrees) plus coming out of the prior grits noticably sharper than my other chisels
3) So I think the LN's are trying to cut that groove in the softer disc just as soon as you try to use them??
Has anyone else run into this?
I'm thinking I should just pic up the thin film abrasive paper that LV sells, stick it on and trim it to the glass so I dont have that soft padding underneath?


Never had this problem, and i actually use almost entirely micromesh discs now (the ones for worksharp are made by micro-surface.com, you can buy them there).
I use the MXD discs for everything from coarse to fine grit now :)
Work great, and last longer than the regular micromesh discs.

[Doug Shepard]

Daniel
I already ordered another pack of the Worksharp MM discs from Amazon, but try the MXD ones next time. Those LN chisels are taking an edge so well that they're really sharp. Without even trying, I've pierced the bottom of the leather chisel roll twice just sliding them back into place. This is the first time I've done the LN's on the Worksharp instead of by hand but wasn't having the same disc slicing problem with anything else.