This review is of the Work Sharp WS3000 Wood Tool Sharpener. It is a portable, bench-mounted electrically operated tool oriented first and foremost to doing a good job of sharpening wood cutting tools have flat, chiseled blades, e.g. wood chisels, planer ‘irons’, etc. It can also be used for free-hand sharpening of various tools, and also does a good job with helping you to manually sharpen wood lathe chisels/tools of various shapes.At its core, this tool consists of an electric motor (120VAC, 3-prong North American style power plug on the end of the power cord) driving a turntable and a fan that provides cooling air. Various ‘wheels’ can be attached to the turntable using a threaded ‘top knob’ into a center hole; various abrasive disks (or just abrasives on certain wheels) are attached with removable adhesives to the wheels, and the tool to be sharpened is then brought into contact with the spinning adhesive surface in various ways. Some wheels will have adhesive on both top and bottom surfaces, while other wheels will have adhesive on only the top or the bottom surfaces.The primary sharpening method involves placing a flat chisel, or planer ‘iron’ (blade) into an aluminum ‘sharpening port’, which holds the chisel at the correct angle relative to the abrasive surface, and using an adjustable ‘fence’ holds the chisel secure in a sideways direction, preventing unwanted rotation, and using the abrasive bottom surface of the ‘port’ removes the burr from the bottom of the chisel as you sharpen it, and finally acts like a heat sink to keep the chisel cool during sharpening. The motor’s fan blows cooling air over the fins on the bottom of this aluminum sharpening port. The angle of the port can be adjusted to any of four detented positions: 20°, 25°, 30°, and 35°; this is done by pulling a spring loaded lever to release the detent lock, and then moving the port until it snaps into position in one of the other three angle positions (the numerical angle appears in a small window). All you need to do is follow the ‘plunge and pull’ movement several times; PLUNGE means sliding the chisel forward in the slot created on the sharpening port by the fence until the end of the chisel has contacted the spinning abrasive wheel for a couple of seconds, then PULLing it back about one inch so that it can be off the abrasive for another couple of seconds (allowing it to cool slightly) and simultaneously allowing the abrasive surface of the port to remove the bottom side burr from the chisel edge. Repeat this ‘plunge and pull’ until the sound made during the ‘plunge’ diminishes to near silence.The tool comes with two (2) glass wheels and one (1) slotted plastic “Edge-View” wheel, along with a set of abrasive disks for the glass and Edge-View wheels. The included disks for the glass wheels include a pair of each of four different grades/grits; 120, 400, 1000, and “Micro Mesh” 3600. There are also disks in three different grades for the slotted Edge-View wheel. Finally, one replacement abrasive pad is included for the sharpening port (for de-burring). All of the abrasive disks come with a pre-punched center hole, and pre-punched slots for the Edge View versions. All abrasive disks have a self-adhesive backing, with protective paper you peel off first. The disks are attached to the wheels by curving them into a tight “U” shape, and aligning the center hole with that of the wheel, pressing down the bottom of the “U” until it starts to stick to the wheel, then carefully rolling the sides of the “U” down onto the wheel surface such that air bubbles can escape. The adhesive is not too strong, so you can easily peel off worn out disks for replacement.For a damaged, very dull, and/or nicked chisel blade, you will need to start with the 120 grit wheel, just to remove the boogered up metal. Then you progress through the grades, 400, 1000, finally ending with honing using the 3600. For occasional touch-up of basically sharp edges, you can skip the coarser grades.For those folks who like the tradition of doing a final honing using a leather strop, Work Sharp sells a special wheel with a leather top.Some people prefer to make their own wheels for this machine, using MDF circles that they cut out themselves, and either stick on the adhesive disks, or apply abrasive paste to directly. You can also make your own abrasive disks from regular sandpaper, and affix in the manner desired.A normal sharpening operation, from a rough blade to a very sharp and ready to use one, typically would involve:- First wheel, coarse (120) grit side down, with the back side of the chisel laid flat on the top of the wheel to smooth that side (presumably you placed the two more abrasive disks on one glass wheel and the two less abrasive disks on the other glass wheel), so the 400 grit side will be facing up for this step.- Move the chisel to the sharpening port and do the Plunge & Pull, which will be against the 120 grit abrasive on the bottom of the wheel.- Flip the wheel over and do the Plunge & Pull against the 400 grit abrasive on the bottom of the wheel.- Change glass wheels, with the 1000 grit side up, and touch up the back of the chisel.- Flip the wheel over, and do the Plunge & Pull against the 1000 grit bottom surface.- Flip the wheel over, and do the Plunge & Pull honing against the 3600 Micro Mesh 3600 abrasive on the bottom of the wheel.- Flip the wheel over again and do a final honing of the back side of the chisel on the top of the wheel.For free-hand sharpening, there is a raised tool rest along one side of the turntable, and you can rest the tool of your choice on the rest and then lower the edge onto the top side of an abrasive wheel.For sharpening irregular or curved tools, such as those used on wood lathes, you can use the Edge-View wheel. In this case, you work from the rear of the machine, not using either the sharpening port or the tool rest, and bring edge of the tool up from underneath the wheel, against its abrasive underside. Because both the wheel and the abrasive disk are slotted, the spinning wheel looks mostly invisible, so you can look down and see the work surface of the tool as you sharpen it, and thus can visualize what you are doing and how the tool’s edge is coming along in its sharpening process. I find it useful to have good downward facing lighting over the Work Sharp while doing this. It is also beneficial to cover the entire edge area of the chisel with black Sharpie marker, so you can more easily see when you have abraded away areas of the cutting surface.Work Sharp also sells a number of accessories, one of which turns it into a belt sander for sharpening knife blades. I find that it is important to secure the machine to a table or bench top, because you don’t want it slipping sideways when you are trying to sharpen a tool.I have had very good results with this tool so far, and have rescues several badly abused wood chisels and a couple dull wood lathe chisels using it. It seems well designed and solidly built, with many metal parts.Footnote: This tool is a product of the Darex company in Ashland, Oregon, which is family owned and operated, and in business for over 45 years. Their website says that all of their products are designed and manufactured in their Ashland facility. I have several of their products under the Work Sharp and Drill Doctor brands, and so far I have found them to have good customer service using their own personnel, as opposed to a remotely located call center; I think this should be applauded.
