sharpening system

[Michael Sheldon]

I do a bit of woodworking as well as leatherwork, and had been in the market for a sharpening system for my woodworking chisels and plane blades. I ended up getting a WorkSharp WS3000. This is a relatively new machine on the market, and differs from most in that it is a dry system instead of wet.

This machine uses thick glass platters that spin on a "turntable". You put an adhesive grit disk on the platter, which becomes your sharpening surface. My machine came with two platters, which means that each of the four grits can be mounted, you just have to exchange or flip the platters to change grit. There is an optional platter with a leather surface for stropping.

Because it's a dry system, you do have to pay attention to how much heat you generate on the blades, but I found that was not a big concern. The plus side is that the machine is much smaller than wet systems, is always ready, and is a lot less messy.

After using it to sharpen my chisels and plane blades, I decided to try it on my head knives.

It put a very nice, very sharp edge on them. Easily as sharp as any edge I had put on them using my arkansas stones. And the time needed was around ten minutes, as opposed to 45-60 using the stones.

The WS3000 model is the more expensive one, for most leatherworkers, I suspect the WS2000 would be plenty sufficient, and is only $100 in the local shops. You can buy it online direct, but a couple of the woodworking shops like Rockler carry them, so you might be able to find it locally for less money, plus no shipping.