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http://www.ericschaeferguitars.com

Thanks for the tutorial. I really love sharp tools but often don't want to be bothered with sharpening them. I tried stropping chisels and plane irons to touch them up - but I found it messed up the edge geometry too much... It rounded off things - especially the back.

I have been thinking about a worksharp because I really don't like sitting there with my jig grinding away hand sharpening when I want to be working on guitars. In your view... What are the pro's and con's of the system? How long do the sandpaper disks last?

Thanks

The sandpaper disks don't last long, which is always the drawback to sandpaper based sharpening systems. But from a "time is money" frame of mind, it is easily worth it to spend the extra cash on sandpaper, rather than slave away at hand sharpening over stones.

Pros: fast and easy to use. No mess of sludgy water.

Cons: Hmm, It's hard to come up with any... If you're not careful you can ruin a chisel by holding it against the paper too long, but I've never actually done that. It's easy enough to get into a rhythm of how long you hold the chisel against the disk.

I'm pretty much sold on dry abrasives at this point. I think alot of people think that it will ruin the temper of the steel, which it can if you hold it there too long....but as long as you don't let it touch the paper for too long, you're good. For my needs, it beats waterstones and diamond stones and all that. But everybody has their way.

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http://www.ericschaeferguitars.com

The one other issue that I did notice with the worksharp is that the spinning disks cut faster on the outside of the disk than they do closer to the center. If you think about it, this should be common sense. The grit is moving faster on the outside than it is on the inside because it has to travel a greater distance in the same time.
The effect is very slight and really only becomes apparent on wide chisels. The result is a slight skew to the bevel, which I don't really mind. It still performs how I want it to.
It looks like with the robert sorby system, though, you wouldn't have that problem. No spinning disks. I probably would have purchased that system instead if it wasn't so expensive.

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http://www.ericschaeferguitars.com

How about plane irons. Will it handle a 2" or 2 1/2" wide iron... Or am I pushing into Tormek land with that? I agree on the price of the Sorby or Tormek vs the Worksharp... It makes you want to figure out how to get the worksharp to work right.

It looks like it should be able to handle the iron on my block planes... But putting a taper on them is concerning.

Thanks for your feedback.

Yes, it handles my 2" wide plane blades just fine. Also with my plane blades, I notice that skewing effect on the wider tools, but it doesn't actually bother me. They still cut as good or better than when I was hand sharpening.
As for 2 1/2" blades, I don't have any of those. And I think the ramp for sanding the bevel on the worksharp only goes up to 2", so you might not be able to use the worksharp on those.

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http://www.ericschaeferguitars.com

I keep a bottle of windex next to my surface plate and use it to adhere the paper to the plate.
Also use windex to wet my paper- Windex is slightly soapy and contains surfactants that eliminate the surface tension of the water.

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Measure Twice,

Karl Borum

I have a worksharp system and love it. I use for just the reason you describe. I also used to work with slightly dull tools. Now the Workshap sits on my bench plugged in and pre-loaded with 3600 micro-mesh top and bottom. It is perfect for touching up the edge of a tool while using it. I have a full set of disks that I use for establishing the bevel, making a micro bevel and sharpening. I can get a better edge using stones but the difference in usability over what I get from the worksharp is not that much. Also I generally work with sharper tools because it is so easy.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com