Using a Work Sharp for honing chisels

[James Spillman]

I have been happy using a Work Sharp 300 for sharpening plane blades and chisels. How do you use the Work Sharp to keep those chisels finely honed? Have you tried the Work Sharp micro mesh honing discs, which contain a 3600 and 6000 disc for final honing? Do you use the leather strop wheel? I'm just wondering how folks finish up the sharpening process when they use the Work Sharp.

[Jim Koepke]

My Veritas® Mk.II Power Sharpening System is similar to the Work Sharp system. Mostly now it is used for the rough work and followed by stones. When it first arrived many years ago it was used all the way to its finest grit, 6µ or ~1200 grit.

For stropping various pieces of leather work fine. Usually it only takes a few strokes. My fear about a powered stropping set up is it could dub an edge very quickly.

The Veritas system uses 8" disks. If the Work Sharp disks were bigger than 6" they would likely get a test drive in my shop.

jtk

[Brian W Walker]

I've got the work sharp as well and usually end up only using the 1000 and 3600 grit discs, unless it's a new to me tool or it's damaged. I'll end up stropping by hand several times in between before using the work sharp again. I've never tried the power stropping disc.

[Jim Koepke]

Howdy Brian and welcome to the Creek even though you have been around awhile.

jtk

[Dave Parkis]

I use the 3600 and 6000 discs. If I'm going to be using the chisel a lot, I set up with the 6000 disc loaded and just hit it a couple times every few minutes. Works for me

[Patrick Chase]

I have been happy using a Work Sharp 300 for sharpening plane blades and chisels. How do you use the Work Sharp to keep those chisels finely honed? Have you tried the Work Sharp micro mesh honing discs, which contain a 3600 and 6000 disc for final honing? Do you use the leather strop wheel? I'm just wondering how folks finish up the sharpening process when they use the Work Sharp.

Don't bother, for two reasons:

1. If you did a thorough job with the low/mid grits then honing is quick work by hand, so there's no reason to speed it up with a motor.
2. Papers/films (micro-mesh or otherwise) are "economically challenged" relative to stones in the finer grits. The higher the grit, the worse the economics become. As I've said several times, the easy way to think of this is that papers contain one layer of abrasives whereas stones contain many. The finer the abrasive, the more "layers" the stone contains and the more sheets of paper you would need to obtain equivalent lifespan.

Like Jim I have the Veritas disc grinder, but I don't use it for anything finger than ~15 um (~1000 grit).

If you are going to go that route I'd recommend hitting the 3M catalog and looking at their 268L microfinishing film and 265X lapping film. They're both available in 8" disc format IIRC, and IMO they're more cost-effective than MicroMesh. LV sells 268L for their disc sharpener. They don't bother with lapping film since they assume you'll switch to stones if you want to go to those grits.

One thing to keep in mind about MicroMesh is that their grit ratings are a little wonky. Their "6000#" is 4 microns, which would be 3000# or so in most waterstone lines.

[Prashun Patel]

I use diamond lapping plates on my worksharp. I use them as coarse as 250g for establishI got bevels and as fine as 3000g for some honing.

Those plates last much longer than sandpaper. I use Water stones for honing most of the time. But the times i still use the worksharp I follow up with a manual strop.

[Patrick Chase]

I use diamond lapping plates on my worksharp. I use them as coarse as 250g for establishI got bevels and as fine as 3000g for some honing.

Those plates last much longer than sandpaper. I use Water stones for honing most of the time. But the times i still use the worksharp I follow up with a manual strop.

Yeah, I also use cheap-o diamond lapping plates on my LV sharpener at grits as coarse as 80#. I still don't think they're competitive with stones at the finer grits, either in terms of economics or finish/scratch pattern.

As far as I can tell those plates use low-cost polycrystalline diamond particles, that aren't very uniformly graded to begin with and break down over time. They're OK for fast bulk removal. If I were going to do serious diamond polishing on a disc grinder I'd probably either coat a circular lap with a diamond slurry, or try the circular 3M 668X diamond films.

[Prashun Patel]

"If I were going to do serious diamond polishing on a disc grinder..."

I am sure there are better ways but it does work fine. I find the diamond plates to be a good value and considerable improvement in results, consistency, and longevity over the paper. They may not be for the serious sharpener, but they do work well enough for some people like me.

[Mike Henderson]

I use the WorkSharp to establish the primary bevel at 25 degrees, then go to a Shapton 8000 stone for a microbevel at maybe 30 degrees. This is fast because I never change the diamond plate that I use on the WorkSharp and putting the secondary bevel on using the Shapton is quick.

My technique is documented here.

Mike

[Jerry Olexa]

I generally use the Worksharp for the initial bevel/sharpening..But for the final sharpening, I reco one move on to stones, diamond plates etc for this step..

[Patrick Chase]

I am sure there are better ways but it does work fine. I find the diamond plates to be a good value and considerable improvement in results, consistency, and longevity over the paper. They may not be for the serious sharpener, but they do work well enough for some people like me.

Yeah, I suppose we all need to focus on being less snobbish about such things now that your teacher/mentor has pulled a Dylan-at-Newport on us and "plugged in"... :-).

[lowell holmes]

I use a diamond hone plate. I need to find mine though, it is miss-placed after Harvey came through.