Getting the Most out of the Work Sharp Sharpening System Text and Photos by Jerry Work One of the great benefits from having my studio and small gallery where I design and handcraft fine furniture located in the 1907 former Masonic Temple building in historic Kerby, OR, is that I get frequent visitors who stop to see my work or just to chat. The ones who are woodworkers range all the way from well known professionals to advanced hobbyists and to those just beginning their learning process.
They are the ones who talk about a near Zen-like experience from getting their tools “scary sharp,” and they seem to be willing to go to any end or spend any amount of money just to get something sharper than they ever could before. I always pause a bit before answering questions about how I sharpen to make sure I really understand which type of person I am talking with. I’m one who uses tools to build fine furniture. Tools for me are just that, tools.
my toes so didn’t ever appreciate the need to adjust for the cutting angle differences as well. Most of the devices I used in the past tried to overcome this inherent design weakness by suggesting the grinding of a “micro-bevel” after grinding the primary bevel angle. The micro-bevel is just a second cutting edge five or so degrees different from the angle of the primary cutting edge that only extends a millimeter or less back from the point.
somewhere else in my studio where I could contain the oil or water mess, store all those jigs and fixtures, and where I could reread the instruction manual every time I simply wanted to sharpen a chisel or whatever. As a result sharpening was a process that took me away from building fine furniture, so subconsciously it became a process to be avoided. I simply worked with far less than sharp hand cutting tools far too much of the time.
So, how does this thing work? The Work Sharp machine rotates a 150mm diameter (6”), 10mm thick tempered glass plate in a horizontal plane. Pressure sensitive adhesives in a progression of grits are applied to the very flat surfaces of these glass plates. The plates can be dismounted, turned over and remounted quickly with just a thumb screw. No tools required. So that you can see how this works, the pictures here were taken with no abrasive on the glass plates.
quarter inch or so for about a second or two and repeat these motions to the point that you remove all the scratch marks left by the previous, coarser grit. Invert or mount a new glass plate with the next finer grit and repeat up through the grits. When you have reached your final grit, you can optionally mount a leather faced glass stropping plate and polish the now perfect back and edge to a mirror-like finish. If you do manage to damage the edge, back up a few grit steps and renew the edge.
ting edge by shaping and honing the diagonal face. If you ever did need to reestablish the flat on the top edge, that can be done by placing that edge down against the top surface of the glass plate. abrasive.
This is a very accurate way to establish and reestablish such odd angles as well as shapes like a fingernail gouge, for example. In this photo the slotted wheel has been removed so that again you can see how the rear port allows you to easily position odd shaped or angled cutting tools relative to the abrasive on the bottom of the slotted wheel. The photo below shows the underside of the slotted wheel and one of the several grits of abrasive available with matching slots.
There is one final wheel available and that is the leather strop wheel. This is a glass plate with leather bonded to one face. It can be used leather side up for polishing the flat back of a chisel or plane blade or one of the odd shaped cutters you elect to sharpen from the top using the included upper tool rest. machine in more detail.
Now let’s examine the machine in more detail. Here is the machine without the glass plate or the abrasive mounted. A simple thumb screw attaches the glass plate or the slotted abrasive wheel onto the motor spindle (red arrow). The spindle is mounted with sturdy sealed ball bearings to provide a long service life and no maintenance.
Note that the surface of the tool rest and heat sink (also called the “sharpening port” in company literature) is also covered with a pressure sensitive abrasive (blue arrow) that serves two purposes. First, when you pull the tool to be sharpened back away from the abrasive on the underside of the glass plate, the tool rest abrasive fractures the micro wire edge that is formed by the sharpening process.
long, long time. No planned obsolescence here. The side close-ups on this page show how the lower tool rest angles are estab- lished by a tooth and notch formed into the metal housings (red arrow). Note how the tooth locks on both sides of the notch for a positive repeat each time you select that angle. As we discussed earlier, this one feature alone makes the Work Sharp machine stand head and shoulders above all the other machines I have used in the past.
Now let’s look at the fence in more detail. fence with the moving fence placed against the other side of the tool to make sure you guide the cutting tool squarely up against the abrasive on the underside of the glass plate. You can also use the left fixed fence if you want to even out wear on the surface of the abrasive. The movable fence and the left inner fixed fence are grooved so the the movable fence can be positioned all the way over the fixed fence to make room for cutting tools as wide as 2”.
screw) which forms the right-most support for the tool rest pivot rod. The rotating lever is located on the right side of the Work Sharp and shown here by the red Now that we know a bit about the machine, let’s go to work sharpening our hand cutting tools. We want that “scary sharp” edge we have heard about and will find that it is well within our grasp. arrow. This photo also shows the knob used to locate the movable fence (green arrow).
Using the Work Sharp Here is a collection of hand cutting tools, probably a lot like those in your shop or studio. I use two sets of standard chisels, some mortise chisels, lathe tools of several types, carving tools and hand planes. These are the items that we will sharpen in this section. The roll-around stand that the Work Sharp is sitting on is one I built to house both the Work Sharp and the Drill Doctor drill bit sharpening system.
Before we do that, let’s start with an old beat up construction chisel that has not been sharpened with Work Sharp before. It has been badly abused by digging out nails, whacking knots, being used as a crow bar, and all those other necessary tasks that I’m sure none of you ever do (grin)! The highly magnified cutting bevel and cut- ting edge images show just how bad this chisel was before it was sharpened. The edge is nicked all across and the bevel and back are both rusted and pitted.
Before using the Work Sharp for the first time, you need to affix the grits you want to use to the glass plates. The photo below shows the two glass plates and four grits that come standard with the Work Sharp before the grit is adhered to the glass plates. The standard grits are P120, P400, P1000 and MicroMesh 3600. This is a really good range of grits and will handle most needs. As we saw earlier, you can We will look at the slotted plates in a minute.
Putting the grit on the plate is simple. Just peel off the clear backing, align the abrasive with the center hole, and roll it on out as is shown in these photos. I like to write the grit number on the face of each abrasive near the mounting hole. That way it is easy to see what grit is mounted since once you have abrasive on both sides of the glass plate you can no longer see the markings on the back.
The photo right shows how the grit on the second side will obscure the numbers so marking the grit number on the face will be a handy reference. The photo below shows the MicroMesh 6000 rolling onto the back side of the leather strop plate. You can either start from the center and roll it out both directions, or start at one side with the center hole aligned and roll all in the same direction.
The first step is to set the proper bevel angle. Put your thumb on the lower tool rest and pull up on the bar to index the tool rest to the angle desired. Check by inserting the chisel on the tool rest up to the point that the bevel angle is even with the top of the Work Sharp plate surround and sight across. The bevel on the chisel to be sharpened should be roughly even with the top of the plate surround when the correct bevel angle is selected.
With the back nice and flat (but far from polished at this point) adjust the fence to properly align the sides of the chisel but loose enough that you can easily push it up against the underside of the glass plate (the P80 surface) for a second or two and then pull it down across the abrasive on the face of the tool rest to remove any burr or wire edge formed. Continue that motion until the bevel is nicely formed all the way across the cutting edge.
If you are using the standard four grit sequence on two glass plates (instead of the seven grit sequence on three plates and the leather strop plate that I use) your first plate will have P120 on one side and P400 on the other. Once the scratch pattern on the back has been refined to the P400 level, work the bevel on the underside of that plate on the P220 grit, invert the plate and take the bevel to the P400 level.
side and the leather strop material on the other. By working both the bevel and the back on the MM6000, followed by buffing on the leather loaded with the polishing The first time you use Work Sharp to initially condition a chisel, you will likely be amazed by how much fine mat of grit is collected under the plate and behind the machine. You can see it in the bottom photo. Just brush or vacuum it away.
These side by side photos tell their own story. The only difficulty is trying to photograph the newly formed polished bevel, back, and cutting edge. I backed up two grit levels to produce the scratch marks shown here to make it easier for you to see the fine edge. In person you can barely see even these scratch marks and they do not affect the fine cutting performance. The close-up photo on the next page shows how fine a curl can be taken off hard to cut end grain with chisels this sharp.
Before we move on, there are a couple of things to note. First, remember that in this sequence we used a four plate, seven grit sequence instead of the two plate, four grit sequence that comes standard with the Work Sharp. The standard set up works very well and is all most will want or need starting out. Adding additional plates is a convenience, not a necessity, but I think a lot of you will wind up with the leather strop plate and at least one more glass plate, as I did.
Taking the wire edge off as you go enhances the quality of the cutting edge. Working the back with every other grit in the sequence along with constantly pulling it over the abrasive bed on the sharpening port tool rest accomplishes that. Once you start using them, the abrasives will begin to load up. I find it handy to use the supplied rubber eraser material on the top surface each time a glass plate is installed or rotated. It only takes a few seconds and keeps the abrasive clean for the next use.
Lathe tools are difficult for most to sharpen since they often have curved or compound bevel surfaces. Sharpening is most often done on a rotating stone (aka “grinder”) which really can butcher the cutting edge unless you use a very fine stone and are quite skilled. The curved surface of the grinding wheel cuts a concave shape on the bevel surface, often weakening the cutting edge and badly scratching it as well.
This photo shows the slotted plate and slotted abrasive. They are the same 150mm in diameter as the glass plates and mount the same way. The difference is these are one-sided with the abrasive always down. that, given the way lathe tools cut. Hence, two of these slotted wheels will do well for most applications. You can always just use the one that comes with the Work Sharp and change the slotted abrasives as you work, but the cost for the second slotted wheel is modest compared to the time you will save.
Be sure to mount the abrasive with the slots aligned with slots in the plate so you can see clearly the cutting edge while you work. Some will find it easier to align the abrasive to the disk as shown above, while others will find it easier to align the disk to the abrasive as below. I tend to use this latter method. As with the abrasives on the solid plates, I like to mark the grit on the abrasive side near the center so I can see at a glance which grit is mounted.
spinning, it is very easy to see through to the bevel on your cutting tool. On the original version of the sharpening center rolling cart that I built, I installed an adjustable arm light that I could position to see through the slots to the curved or odd shaped bevel edge on the cutting tool.
Here is another example. This time it is a double bevel cut on an angle in the end of an ovaloid tool shank. Most of the time a tool of this shape is used to cut primarily on the upper point to create very fine detail. Once in a while the whole of the cutting edge is used as well. This first shot is how the tool looked after being subjected to a grinding wheel. Like the round nose tool, this one is made by a well known English company highly regarded for the longevity of their lathe tools.
left by the grinding wheel. Before and after cutting tests on the lathe again confirmed just how much better this tool cut with just this light P400 dressing. From here I took the tool to a proper flat bevel with P400 and polished it with P1200 to the state in which I use it today. I should note that the “before” bevels on these two tools were not hacked out by hand on a blue-light-special grinding wheel.
Summary In this manual we have seen how the Work Sharp system makes it easy to establish and maintain perfectly flat, repeatable bevel angles on all your hand cutting tools time after time. It doesn’t matter whether the hand cutting tool is flat like a chisel or plane blade, or whether it is curved or complex such as some lathe or carving tools.
Appendix 1 - The Sharpening Center Throughout this manual we have talked about and shown the Work Sharp sitting on a shop made rolling cart I call a “sharpening center.” I find this cart really convenient as it keeps my Work Sharp right at hand no matter where I am in the studio. It lives here behind my 24” band saw right under an adjustable arm light. It is simple to build. You also might find something similar in the kitchen section of a specialty furniture store.
run a small orbital sander with a synthetic woven abrasive (similar to 3M pads) across the surface in a cross pattern. That imparts a nice look and removes any blemishes. I do the same thing with my cast iron surfaces and follow it up with a coat of paste wax to keep surface rust from forming. Put shelf bracket holes on the inside of the side pieces of your sharpening center for an adjustable shelf. Make the drawer however you wish. I used inexpensive bottom mount runners for this one.
Appendix 2 - What Comes in the Box? The Work Sharp comes very nicely packaged with everything you need right in the box to do an outstanding job of sharpening all your hand cutting tools. The Work Sharp and standard accessories are in the yellow box. The photo below shows the very secure packaging. The Work Sharp unit is encased in foam bags to prevent shipping damage. The included accessory items are in the inside cardboard box shown.
type grit cleaning block, and a good factory manual. Everything you need to get started.......right out of the box.