Worksharp 3000?

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I am considering a Worksharp 3000. Anybody have one and use it regularly? I am not a handtool advocate but I have to admit my block plane sharpened after Rob Cosman class sure came in handy a time or two....... a sharp chisel was pretty useful too.

Any opinions would be appreciated!
 
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BUY ONE!!!

You will be happy for ever more if you do. Glenn absolutely loves his also. He purchased it after using mine. It is one of those tools that does what they claim it will do. It has several advantages:

It is fast
It is 100 % repeatable---even a month later.
.....I record the angle and the bevel angle on the blade with a Sharpie. If I am through with the tool and don't come back for a month, it takes all of 10 seconds to do a tool set-up and I am ready to go.
It is great to be working with a chisel or plane and be able to turn around, sharpen the blade to shaving sharpness and go back to work in less than a minute with a chisel, about two minutes if you have the Veritas planes. Those are conservative figures; Glenn and I do it faster. With other planes it depends on how long it takes you to get the iron out, put it back and get it adjusted where you want it again.

It is so simple that I could teach any normal 6 year old boy to use it in about 15 minutes. Man, I love that tool.

I know it sounds like it, however I have absolutely no connections to the company except I love the WS 3000.

To me, the WS 2000 has no advantage over many other systems. As Glenn would say, "You need the sharpening gene with the 2000; you don't with the 3000."

The time and ease figures I gave are for blades that fit in the slot. If you go to something like 2 1/2 blade width and have to sharpen outside of the port, the 3000 works more like the 2000.

It is easy to make your own abrasive disks and that is a money saver. I also have made several of the disks that hold the abrasive. I made them out of 1/2 inch MDF. I spray the abrasive disk I cut out of a sheet of abrasive with a low adhesive factor spray. Then I apply it to the MDF disk.

Enjoy,

JimB
 
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I can't believe the timing of your post Ken. It is almost if we were in collusion; with you posting this thread in order to solicit accolades of the Worksharp 3000. Why do I say that? I have been wanting to sell mine for a while and finally decided to quit procrastinating and do it tomorrow. Here first and then on Craigslist. Mine contains extra glass wheels (including a leather honing wheel) and the plane blade attachment (never used, still in package). Why am I selling? I initial bought it for a fast way to flatten chisel & plane backs, but that technique was too aggressive for me. I am a very proficient free hand sharpener and I never use it. Nothing wrong with it, but does not make sense to keep something I hardly ever used and probably never will. I will post a thread in the classifieds with photos and my price, which will be below retail and a good savings to anyone interested.
 
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Agreed; quicker, cleaner, more repeatable. Great for those of us that mother nature deprived of the sharpening gene. Not as enjoyable for those that enjoy the romance of hand sharpening. The WS3K will not put the edge on a blade that hand stropping will but, for daily use, it pretty much rocks. The major benefit IMHO is the ability to put it on the bench when I know I will be doing a lot of chisel work. As soon as the cutter shows the slightest loss of that razor edge, I just switch on the WS3K, give the cutter a couple touches to the wheel via the port, switch it off and go back to work. No setup time, no muss-no fuss ;-) I'd PM Bill right away if I were you.
 

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I use it to set the primary bevel on my chisels and then use a stone to put a secondary bevel on. That system is fast and gives me a good edge. Also, the way I do it I don't have to change the disk.

Also, if you buy a box of 6" PSA disks, you can use them just by punching a hole. I mount the PSA disk to the glass and then use a knife to cut the hole in the sandpaper where the hole is in the glass. So if you're not exactly centered, it doesn't make any difference.

Mike
 
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Glen, thanks for the pictures :thumb::thumb:

I got my WS3000 last month and am loving it. I leave a .5 micron (around 9000x) disk mounted on it and give all my chisels a quick touch up after each use.

My only complaint is the wide blade platform shouldn't be an add-on. Been thinking about how best to make my own and I think I'll borrow heavily from Glen's pics.
 
If you are not getting an edge on a chisel that you could shave with, we need to talk about it when you are down here next time.

I hope I didn't lead people astray. You can shave with an edge right off the Worksharp. However, edges can get much sharper than that ;-)

Glen, thanks for the pictures :thumb::thumb:

I got my WS3000 last month and am loving it. I leave a .5 micron (around 9000x) disk mounted on it and give all my chisels a quick touch up after each use.

My only complaint is the wide blade platform shouldn't be an add-on. Been thinking about how best to make my own and I think I'll borrow heavily from Glen's pics.

I agree the add-on is priced a bit high. The platform on mine has oversized holes at each of the four tightening knobs to allow for small adjustments. Different grits (and the leather hone) have different thicknesses of course. When stepping through the grits for repairing a chip or dressing in a new cutter, this is a bit of a bother so I employ other methods along with the WS for this.

With the top of the glass wheel being the reference surface, this height changes as you flip the wheel or move up in grits. For touch-ups (which is 90+% of my use of this tool) this is not an issue so the rare 'stepping through the grits' procedure is a small price to pay for the daily convenience :thumb:.
 
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Stop it! You guys are giving me seller's remorse. Yep, I won't be posting a thread in the classifieds, as someone took Glenn's advice and PM'd me. We have come to an agreement and I will package it up and put in the parcel post on Monday. I threw in a box of coarse PSA sanding disks (the coarse ones wear the fastest as you are probably removing more material). Mike is right on about buying the PSA's and then punching or cutting the center hole out.

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Just a question, has anyone bought the knife attachment? I was wondering how it works? I am going to miss that leather honing wheel.
 
Just a question, has anyone bought the knife attachment? I was wondering how it works?

I did buy this add on. It gives mixed results. It relies on two metal registration points above & below the sand paper belt to position the blade. Works alright on long knives, but for pocket knives forget it. You also have to be very careful how far in you push the blade into the belt or you end up rounding the edge you are trying to create.

Overall, I'll probably use it on the kitchen knives now that I have it but wouldn't buy it again.
 
*** THREADJACK ***

The Lanskey systems are inexpensive and give me great results on kitchen and shop knives. I don't know if they would meet the needs of a hunter or not.
 
Searching around a bit, so far the cheapest deal I've found is on Amazon. There are several vendors, but Hartville tool includes either an extra slotted wheel, ot the leather honing wheel for the same $199 that seems to be the 'standardized' price. Free shipping, and no tax, of course...
 
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