Hand Planes

[tdubnik]

Have you had your Work Sharp long enough to say whether or not you would recommend it to others. It is for sale at my local Woodcraft right now for $199.00. I am thinking real hard about going to get one tomorrow.

I spend a lot of time hand sharpening and I'm not always pleased with the results even after all that time.

I do fairly well on my flat chisels but then maybe I don't know. It is possible that I have never used a really sharp chisel.

I've had mine long enough to recommend it to anyone. The basic system does a very good job on chisels and straight plane irons. The wide blade attachment does OK on wide plane irons IF the sides are parallel to the edge. I built a wooden jig that I use on the wide blade platform that can sharpen non-parallel sides and skew irons or chisels. Once you go through the process to sharpen your iron or chisel the first time subsequent honing takes about 15 seconds. I'll try to post my methods using the Work Sharp soon. It has reduced my sharpening time by at least 80%.

[shydragon]

I thought it did a great job on the chisels, in just a short time they were really sharp. I'm still expermenting with plane blades, flattening that is. This morning, I thought it went well. But, I don't have the wide blade attachment, so I will have to do the bevel on the stones.

I bought mine at Rockler in December. They had a special price of $149. and the leather honing wheel was thrown in. So, really got a good deal.

If you have already flattened your chisels, you can skip most of the grits. The highest grit I've used so far is the 1000 and it gives a really nice mirror finish. It comes with three glass wheels which are double sided. It also comes with another wheel for sharpening lathe chisels, it works ok when you get the hang of it. And at anytime you can buy more wheels to put even the finer grits on. And with the optional wide blade attachment, the possibilities are endless.

One other thing, while using a chisel and you need to touch it up, just slide it into the worksharp for a couple of seconds, and you are back in business.

[ryanbp01]

I love using my Worksharp. I use mine to sharpen knives as well. Dusty, I think there is a related thread on this topic in this category.

BPR

[robinson46176]

There are variations of "sharp" between users and for different applications as well. As an example my Foley Belsaw abrasive belt grinder does what I consider a fine job on planer blades but then again I am old school and we believe that a planer is a dimensioning tool first and a surface finishing tool second. Many want a perfect finish behind the planer but I believe the any good surface needs sanding to prepare a proper finishing surface especially for even stain absorption. I think on a fine piece that a planed surface that is not sanded is too tool glazed (does that make sense to anybody?) to make an ideal finishing surface. It is akin to how a good nursery man will not plant a tree into a machine bored hole without using a shovel to remove the first half inch or so of the dirt where the auger rubbed against the surface while the hole was bored . I'm tired tonight, I hope I'm making sense...
On a hand plane I generally like to use a white wheel grinder I have that will give it a slightly hollow ground edge for a lot of work. On one old smooth plane I often grab for rougher carpentry work I prefer to grind the ground surface flat so that there is more "meat" to back up the edge since I tend to use that plane on pine lumber with more than average knots that can be almost as hard as iron. Those "scary sharp" edges we all like do not hold up very well in something like knotty pine planing.
-
Loose thought here: As about everybody here knows I am a tool and machine freak and try to stay technically valid (I have 6 or 7 computers running right now with a mix of Windows, Apple and Linux). I worry though that many folks in the hobby are becoming more wood machinist than wood craftsmen and that some worry so much about details and are so hung up on the technical aspect of it all that they are in danger of evolving into technicians instead of artisans... All of which kind of defeats the whole concept of hobby.
I think it might improve the quality of life for many if one day a month was declared "National Close Is Good Enough Day"... Everybody would have to make one small project without measuring anything.
Those that could not handle it and pulled out a measuring device would be sentenced to 4 hours of chainsaw carving.
I just want to see everybody relax and enjoy the hobby and not get quite as uptight and serious as many seem to get about their woodworking. It's supposed to be fun.