Alisam Sharpening Sled

[Harold Burrell]

Anybody here use the Alisam Sharpening Sled? What do you think of it? How does it compare to the Veritas?

[Mark Stutz]

I had never heard of this company...so looked it up. It appears to be well made, and they seem to have taken into account the various thickness of sharpening stones, but the problem I see is that it requires a perfectly clean surface under the stone, as any "bump" will be transmitted, and requires a perfectly coplaner surface relative to the top of the stone. I guess it might work with a set up made of diamond stones, but I wouldn't want to use it for the water stones I use now.

Mark

[Jim Koepke]

First, no I have not used them.

The write up does not indicate any micro bevel provision. This should not be too difficult to work around.

It looks like the set up of the blade is by "eye" on the sharpening media and not with a set up tool.

I also noticed there are limits to the stone thickness on these.

It also looks like there are no wheels on these.

With all that said, will they work? Of course.

Will they work as well as other systems? Possibly although there may be some kinks that make them less convenient.

I have rigged the tool holders that came with my Mk.II Power Sharpening System to use when I want to do some fast stone honing. It is bizarre and clumsy, but it works.

Which comes to the point of what is the purpose of a blade holder.

It avoids the errors that can occur when one is honing by hand by insuring the blade is held constant at the selected angle.

Also it can be much faster than honing by hand. When honing by hand, one needs to pay attention to holding the blade rigid. With a holder, one doesn't have to think, just push and pull.

When the conversation turns to sharpening, there are some who have been happy to do it on stones of various kinds and there are those who will insist that you need a bench grinder so the blade can be "hollow ground" before even thinking about starting on the finer abrasives.

My opinion is just my opinion. A hollow grind does make it easier to hone by hand, but once one finds the path to sharpness, it is not difficult without a hollow grind on the bevel.

The Veritas sharpening tools look to comprise an entire system.

The Alisam Sharpening Sled appears to be a specific tool for one aspect of edge maintenance.

Just my thoughts on your query.

Surely, others will offer their thoughts

jim

[Joel Goodman]

I am also commenting without having used the "sled". It would appear that the blade is sharpened straight and that a "sled" design is not too friendly to adding a camber. A center roller design let's you put extra pressure on the corners to camber the blade. I don't see how this is possible with the sled. This may or may not be an issue for you.

[David Gendron]

I googled it and found a few things, like Joel said, not friendly for cambered irons, wich the veritas is even without the cambered roller. Look also that if you useother stone than diamond stone, it would be affected by the diminution of the tickness of the stone with use(waire?) and last, it does not accept all ticknes of chisels, like LN!
IMO the Veritas is a more versatile tool!

[Tim Queeno]

Jim Koepke, as I am the inventor of the Sharpening Sled™ I must respond to your remarks…

“First, no I have not used them”.
I think maybe you should try the product first?

“The write up does not indicate any micro bevel provision. This should not be too difficult to work around”.
The indexing positions provide for a 5° micro bevel.

“It looks like the set up of the blade is by "eye" on the sharpening media and not with a set up tool”.
Incorrect, the squareness of the blade to the honing guide is set by the “alignment slide” incorporated on the Sharpening Sled™. The set up of the bevel angle is determined by the "positive stop detents” in 5° increments.

“I also noticed there are limits to the stone thickness on these”.
Each Sharpening Sled™ has a range of thickness for stones.

“It also looks like there are no wheels on these”.
Boy, you should really try our Sharpening Sled™ before commenting on it’s “shortcomings”. It indeed has 4 industrial, hardened steel roller bearings for wheels.

“With all that said, will they work? Of course”.
Of course.

“Will they work as well as other systems? Possibly although there may be some kinks that make them less convenient”.
This can be said of ALL honing guides on the market but I believe we solve most of “the kinks”.

“Which comes to the point of what is the purpose of a blade holder.
It avoids the errors that can occur when one is honing by hand by insuring the blade is held constant at the selected angle”.
The Sharpening Sled™ accomplishes this beautifully.

“Also it can be much faster than honing by hand. When honing by hand, one needs to pay attention to holding the blade rigid. With a holder, one doesn't have to think, just push and pull”.
You have that right and as Fine Woodworking magazine put it, “The SS1 is the most stable of the guides in the test group, and the adjustable alignment pin makes it easy to keep a blade square to the stone during clamping With its four-wheeled design, the SS1 is the most stable of the guides I looked at. The adjustable alignment pin makes it easy to keep a blade square to the stone during clamping.


“When the conversation turns to sharpening, there are some who have been happy to do it on stones of various kinds and there are those who will insist that you need a bench grinder so the blade can be "hollow ground" before even thinking about starting on the finer abrasives”.

“My opinion is just my opinion. A hollow grind does make it easier to hone by hand, but once one finds the path to sharpness, it is not difficult without a hollow grind on the bevel”.
You can still take your blade to the grinder to achieve a hollow ground bevel. Then hone using the Sharpening Sled™ in no time at all. Because of the ease of use with the Sharpening Sled™ you tend to hone more often keeping your blades razor sharp as opposed to waiting for them to feel dull.

“The Veritas sharpening tools look to comprise an entire system”.
And you need to have set-up guides for bevel angle or measure blade protrusion and still only uses ½ of the stone while the guide takes up the other half.

“The Alisam Sharpening Sled appears to be a specific tool for one aspect of edge maintenance”.
(?) That would be honing a blade square and sharp! Why can other handheld guides hollow grind too?

[Tim Queeno]

I googled it and found a few things, like Joel said, not friendly for cambered irons, wich the veritas is even without the cambered roller. Look also that if you useother stone than diamond stone, it would be affected by the diminution of the tickness of the stone with use(waire?) and last, it does not accept all ticknes of chisels, like LN!
IMO the Veritas is a more versatile tool!

Actually you can achieve a small degree of camber by holding more pressure on one side of the guide. This allows this side to lower about .01" more than the other side. Wear on a stones overall thickness is not an issue. While using the Sharpening Sled™, there are springs under the front wheels that give about .01". I doubt a stone looses .01" with one blade sharpening. The wear of a stone between uses is overcome when setting a new or next blade in the honing guide where in the set up of this blade you bring the blade down to touch the surface of the stone anyway before tightening the toggle foot clamp to secure it!
As far as "all ticknes" of chisels, you are correct but for the majority of woodworkers it will fit 99% of the blades they commonly use.

Tim Queeno, inventor of the Sharpening Sled™

[Tim Queeno]

I had never heard of this company...so looked it up. It appears to be well made, and they seem to have taken into account the various thickness of sharpening stones, but the problem I see is that it requires a perfectly clean surface under the stone, as any "bump" will be transmitted, and requires a perfectly coplaner surface relative to the top of the stone. I guess it might work with a set up made of diamond stones, but I wouldn't want to use it for the water stones I use now.

Mark

Mark, thank you! Yes as many customers have said the Sharpening Sled™ is "built like a tank". Your issue with a "bump" I guess may be an issue if this bump is a small pebble or the like. I really don't see an issue with the fine dust/wet dust produced by a wet stone. Especially if you just start out with wiping your surfaces clean to start as one normally would and maybe take a swipe now and then with a cloth. We have 100's of water stone users out there.


Tim Queeno, inventor of the Sharpening Sled™

[Howard Pollack]

Does the Sharpening Sled have the capacity to properly register plane blades whose top and bottom are not parallel to one another? Thanks. -Howard

[ken hatch]

I agree with others, the sled looks well made and reasonably thought out but, there is that damn but again, like all honing jigs I expect it will not work with every iron. If some of your irons need free hand sharpening you have to learn free hand sharpening. If you can free hand, why bother with a jig for some of your irons.

As always YMMV, but I fail to see the utility when you trade one set of problems for a different set. What am I missing?

ken