Work Sharp Sharpening System User Manual
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. After the exchange
of pleasantries and (hopefully) some oogling and ogeling around the gallery, the conversation often turns to the layout of the studio or the tools and techniques I employ.
It is during that part
of the conversation
that the question is
normally asked
about how I
sharpen my hand
cutting tools. Most
everyone I know
sends out power
cutting tools, such
as saw blades,
shaper cutters and
router bits, to a
specialized sharpening service, but
nearly everyone
tries to sharpen
their chisels, plane
blades, lathe tools
and carving tools
themselves. And,
most everyone expresses some level of
frustration trying to do so.
They read about people who are able to
put a “perfect” edge on these tools and
see pictures of the long curl of wood
shavings coming from a well tuned and
sharpened plane, but few have been able
to achieve such “perfect” edges by the
techniques they have used in the past,
hence the frustration.
Once in a while a visitor will be one of
those for whom the act of sharpening, the
process itself, is the end they are after.
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. They are the
means to the end, not the end in and of
itself. A sharp
hand cutting
tool is a must
to do fine work
and to do it efficiently enough
to keep my
prices affordable. I sharpen
because I need
sharp tools.
Since I never
really know the
questioner’s
intent, I have to
probe a bit to
find out if they
want to
sharpen to do
good work or
sharpen for the
experience of
sharpening.
Over the decades that I have been doing
this I think I have tried just about every
kind of gizmo and gadget ever marketed
as being a sharpening machine, jig or fixture. Most were messy, requiring water
or oil as a coolant. Some really tweaked
my interest initially but quickly proved to
be too much of a hassle to actually use
very often. Some were simple and
worked but were very slow and the results haphazard. Some had all kinds of
holding fixtures for each different kind of
hand cutting tool while others offered
some sort of one size fits all contraption.
Some turned an abrasive wheel vertically,
some horizontally, some had you push
the cutting edge over a stationary abrasive while still others had you push an
abrasive over a stationary cutting edge.
Independently of how they performed the
sharpening task, the biggest weakness in
all the systems I used in the past was the
inability to quickly reestablish the exact
same bevel angle I used when I sharpened that tool the previous time. Each
time I sharpened a tool the cutting edge
was different by some amount, and I had
to learn to compensate for that difference
one use to the next. I always thought
there were enough variables from one
piece of wood to the next to keep me on
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. The idea
is that this micro-bevel can be established quickly since little material has to
be removed, so even though the microbevel angle is likely different from sharpening to sharpening, it is at least fairly
quick to produce. Kind of the “no harm,
no foul” mentality.
I never have been able to buy into that
idea and always wanted a simple, fast,
convenient way to reestablish the exact
same bevel angle each time I sharpen.
That way I wouldn’t need to remove very
much material to reestablish the perfectly
sharp edge and would not have to spend
the extra time and set up to do a microbevel.
Only recently did I find a way to do
that time after time, edge after edge,
across the whole gambit of my hand
cutting tools.
It all started with a call from the Professional Tool Manufacturing company located in Ashland, OR. This company is
well known for it’s excellent “Drill Doctor”
brand of drill bit sharpening systems.
The caller said they were developing a
new hand cutting tool sharpening system
and asked if they could come talk with me
about it. I was intrigued because their
Drill Doctor line is so well received in the
marketplace, so I agreed to the meeting.
At the appointed time the product manager and the lead designer/engineer on
the project came in carrying a box. I expected some sort of cobbled together
model or prototype to be used to explain
their idea. I was stunned when out of the
box came a fully functional, well machined, pre-production prototype constructed from polymer and metal materials carefully EDMed to simulate the form
and function of what were to become the
cast metal components of the production
machine.
It was clear from the first glance that
they had addressed and perhaps
solved the problem of reestablishing
the exact same bevel angle every time
you sharpen.
Here we were less than a few moments
into the conversation, and they were presenting what I had always hoped to find the same cutting bevel angle time after
time, no matter what grit of media was
being used and with no need for jigs or
fixtures! This was no arm-waving whiteboard discussion of what might be. Here
was a fully functioning machine that did
exactly what I wanted, and it was sitting
on the table in front of us. Sure, it was a
prototype so it would not stand up to the
rigors of daily use, but it worked and
worked very well indeed.
Now let’s jump forward a whole bunch in
time and talk about the production version of what they designed, now called
the “Work Sharp” machine, and how it
has changed my work habits so dramatically.
In the past the process of sharpening my
hand cutting tools had to take place
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.
The Work Sharp machine
has done away with all
the water or oil mess as
it is air cooled. It needs
no jigs or fixtures as we
will see shortly, and it is
intuitively obvious to use
with no measuring, positioning, guessing, or repeat set up so I don’t
need to reread the instruction manual all the
time. It is also small,
compact, and robustly
made so I know the results won’t change over
time either.
As a result, the Work
Sharp machine now lives
right where I store and
use my chisels, planes, gouges and lathe
tools. Any time I reach for one of these I
simply place it in the Work Sharp for a
few seconds to reestablish that “perfect”
edge so I am always cutting with exactly
the same bevel angle and can rely on
getting the same result time after time.
What a difference that has made in my
work processes and my efficiency.
As we progress through this “Getting the
Most...” manual we will talk first about
how the Work Sharp machine functions
and then progress through the different
kinds of hand cutting tools and how to optimize their performance using the Work
Sharp system. Along the way we will also
talk about construction of a “sharpening
center,” a very handy piece of shop/studio
furniture I designed to accommodate both
the Work Sharp and the Drill Doctor. It is
on wheels so
you can keep
it close at
hand no matter where you
are in your
work space.
If you are like
me, one who
likes to build
and create far
more than
you like the
process of
sharpening, I
think you will
quickly
change your
work habits
just as I did.
By keeping
the Work
Sharp close
at hand and by
being able to quickly reestablish that
beautifully polished and “scary sharp” cutting edge, every cut will perform in a
known and predictable way. You will enjoy your hand cutting tools more and use
them more productively as well.
If you are into the art of sharpening and
want to spend hours doing it, this tool just
might ruin your day. It nicely produces a
perfect edge every time with little or no
effort. Sorry about that!
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. I will add
abrasives when I show the Work Sharp
in action.
the movable fence to allow you to create
a space between the fixed fences that is
exactly the width of the cutting tool you
wish to sharpen.
The tool rest can be set to 20, 25, 30 or
35 degrees relative to the glass plate.
This is done by lifting a cast metal lever
and indexing a tooth on the tool rest to a
notch formed in another cast metal piece
so the angles will not change from use to
use or over time. They will always be exactly the same.
The tool to be sharpened is registered off
of the flat back of the tool held to the surface of the tool rest. The fences hold the
edges of the tool
in exactly the
same orientation
relative to the
glass plate time
after time as well.
Below the plane of the glass plate is a
cast and machined metal tool rest which
has fixed fences on both sides as well as
a movable fence. Turning a knob moves
With the machine
turned on and
the glass plate
turning at a low
RPM (so as not
to over heat the
cutting edge,)
you place the flat
back side of the
tool on the top of
the rotating glass
plate to make the
leading inch or
so perfectly flat.
Then register the
flat back on the
tool rest and
push the tool up
to contact the abrasive on the bottom of
the glass plate. Leave it in contact with
the abrasive on the glass plate for about
a second or two and then pull it down a
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. Fast, easy and very repeatable.
What about the hand cutting tools that
are not flat on the
back?
The Work Sharp provides four different
means of sharpening
things such as lathe
tools, carving tools,
gouges and the like that
are not flat on the back
as chisels and plane
blades are.
A supplied tool rest (red
arrow) can be placed
into grooves machined
into the metal top casting
and set to the desired height as shown
here. In this example the lathe tool cut-
On the first sharpening you will be machining a known bevel angle into each of
your cutting tools. Use the angle that
most closely matches how those tools
were machined in the first place. You will
most likely be going up through four or
more grits from coarse to fine to both establish this known angle and to hone the
back and bevel to produce a very sharp
cutting edge.
Leave the last (finest) grit plate you used
mounted on the Work Sharp. From that
point forward, each time you pick up a
tool that you intend to use, just place the
flat back on the tool rest and repeat the
up and back motion described earlier. Do
that a few times and your cutting edge
will always be just as sharp as the last
time you used it.
ting surface is the sharp edge formed between the top of the tool and the diagonal
face cut in the end of the tool. By resting
the bottom edge of the tool on the tool
rest you can quickly reestablish the cut-
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.
To make that both easy to do and easy to
see, the Work Sharp comes with a specially slotted wheel shown in this photo.
If the width of the tool is not too
great and the angle of the diagonal face is one of the four
angles to which the built-in tool
rest can be set, you could use
that tool rest, hold the body of
this lathe tool against the fixed
fence and then just push the
face up against the abrasive
on the underside of the glass
plate, just as we did with the
chisel example.
There also is a port accessible
from the rear of the Work
Sharp which allows odd
shaped cutting tools to be
sharpened. In the photo below
no abrasive is mounted on the
glass plate so you can see
more easily what is going on.
The odd multiple bevel angle of this
gouge can be brought up through the rear
port to be flat against the underside of the
Slotted abrasives are adhered to this slot-
ted wheel, and it is mounted in place of
the glass plate as shown. When the slotted wheel turns, you can see through the
moving slots and actually watch the cutting edge of the tool as it is machined by
the slotted 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
abrasive available with matching slots.
You can purchase additional glass plates
and slotted wheels if you want a broader
range of grits for your sharpening.
wheel and one of the several grits of
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. These strong,
tempered glass plates are amazingly flat
on both sides and uniform at 10mm in
thickness so they make possible the use
of everything from very coarse grits to
grits smaller than one micron (one millionth of a meter!) with equally fine results.
Work Sharp supplies standard with
the unit 150mm diameter pressure
sensitive grits in FEPA (European)
ratings of P120, P400, P1000 and Micromesh 3600. Other coarse grits
can easily be obtained from hardware
or woodworking stores while other
grades of finer grits can be found in
most auto paint stores.
These very flat glass plates will produce a perfectly flat bevel angle unlike wheels which produce a concave
bevel angle potentially weakening the
the cutting edge that is doing all the
work for you.
You can also turn it over,
leather side down, and use it
in conjunction with the built-in
adjustable tool rest to polish
the bevel angle established
by the positive positioning of
the lower built-in tool rest. It
comes with polishing compound to load the leather
strop surface.
One last comment on the very
flat glass plates before we
move on to examining the
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.
In the close-up of the front and side of the
machine you can see the tool rest,
fences, back-side honing surface, sharp-
ening port heat
sink, the tool
rest adjustment
handle, and the
fence positioning knob.
By lifting the
handle (yellow
arrow) you can
move the tool
rest and heat
sink to one of
four bevel angles; 20, 25, 30
Surrounding the motor shaft is a hard
rubber ring that supports and cushions
the tempered glass plate (green arrow). It
also further seals the shaft and bearings
from the very fine metal shavings produced by the abrasive action of the grit.
or 35 degrees relative to the flat surface of the glass plate (shown here
without abrasive for clarity).
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.
Since you normally push the cutting tool
up against the abrasive on the underside
of the glass plate for a second or two and
then retract it for a second or two, repeat-
ing this process five or ten times per grit,
the wire edge is constantly removed as it
is first formed.
With most sharpening systems the wire
edge is only removed after it is fully
formed which can result in a microscopic
fracture of the very cutting edge you are
trying to establish. By constantly removing it as it is formed, the quality of the cutting edge is improved.
The second purpose of
this grit face on the heat
sink and tool rest is to
help you position the tool
so it has less tendency to
slide down the incline of
the tool rest and will keep
the cutting bevel nicely in
contact with the abrasive
doing the sharpening.
The heat sink that is built
in as part of the tool rest
directs cooling air to reduce heat build up on the cutting edge
which otherwise might burn or damage
the edge.
The strong upper and lower body castings are held securely in registration, one
with another, by sturdy steel machine
screws (orange arrow). This robust construction is evident throughout the Work
Sharp. It looks to me as if it will last a
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.
hold the tool firmly down on the tool
rest and push it up against the same
finest abrasive you used to sharpen
the tool in the first place. Hold for a
second or two and pull back for a
second or two. Repeat that motion a
few times. It could not be easier, faster
or more accurate. As
a result you
will do it
every time
you pick up
a tool such
as a chisel.
Now you
will always
be working
with the
sharpest
possible
hand cutting
tools.
Once the bevel is well
formed, all you need
to do for normal daily
resharpening is just
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