Woodpeckers Sharpening Jig

[Luthier83]

Extremely disappointed that an American company refuses to stand behind their over-priced products to such a degree.

I purchased a Woodpecker’s sharpening kit online brand new and when I started using it I noticed my plane blades would get a sharp edge that was uniform, however they were uniform to an odd angle. It wasn’t until I tried using it on my 1/8” chisel that the problem was revealed. The workpiece was small enough to actually roll over in the rounded grooves at the shoulders that should be square. I tried squaring up the workpiece and clamping down even harder, to the point I took a channel lock to the knob to squeeze it down as tight as I could and still it immediately rolled over from the rounded corners.

The anodizing isn’t cracked or anything, there isn’t a scratch on it, so this wasn’t worn into the tool, it was machined out of square from the factory. That’s obvious. And Woodpeckers also verified the UPC label and said it was a legit tool. However, because I can provide any receipt that states it was purchased “new” implying that I could’ve bought it used, so they will not honor the warranty. I was shocked. I didn’t even ask for a refund, I simply wanted a tool that was machined properly and was willing to exchange it but they refused.

First of all, it shouldn’t even matter. This specific issue was clearly from faulty machining, likely a broken bit or maybe the workpiece wasn’t clamped down properly, but it’s clear that the shoulder is not square and it wasn’t from wear…because both sides are uniformly out of square. Now if this had been a craftsman or snap-on wrench, you can walk in and swap it out no questions ask. What else is there to warranty on a chunk of aluminum other than simply cutting it to the right specs? There is nothing else that can go wrong with a block of aluminum and yet they won’t even honor that much.

$200+ dollars for a paperweight. I’m in absolute disbelief this company is acting like sone Chinese-made toy factory and trying to use a technicality as a cop-out by claiming it might have been purchased used and so the warranty is void. Especially when it’s clear this defect was there from the beginning. If it it WAS purchased used…they sent out a defective tool and then referred to their shady fine print to avoid replacing it all for the sake of $200?! Can’t imagine what they will weasel out of with more expensive parts.

Do not buy from these scammers. They are not a proud USA company, they are a joke and they clearly build crap and then dodge accountability when someone expects their tool to work. I could’ve bought a veritas honing jog for half the price and it would probably work 100x better. Lesson learned I guess.

[stew]

If you did not purchase it new, maybe Woodpeckers did stand behind their defective tool with the original purchaser and replaced it for him. Many times a manufacturer will replace the tool and then instruct the purchaser to keep the defective part or pitch it, they may not want it back. Maybe you bought a used/defective part from someone who new it was defective. I can't blame Woodpeckers in this situation because they could be replacing this tool every time it changes hands. Sorry to hear about your situation but I have always been very happy with Woodpeckers.

[Ed in Tampa]

If you purchased it from woodpecker they should have records that prove it is new. However if you bought it from someone else I can see them not wanting to do anything. They may have sold it a defective at a discount and then someone sold it to you at full price. It could have been already replaced in warranty. Hey you probably got a “deal” on it online from some shady person and you got burned. It happens all the time. As the saying goes if it sounds to go to be true it probably isn't. The problem is not woodpecker and you but is the seller and you. Go back to him and demand a refund.
Sorry you got burnt!

[HopefulSSer]

That tool was retired in 2020 so if the OP just bought it (which he doesn’t explicitly say but seems likely), then by necessity he was not the original purchaser.

And if I’m understanding the “problem” correctly, it’s made as designed. The surfaces which hold the tool aren’t supposed to be 90 deg and parallel, they’re slightly “wedge-shaped” to hold the tool securely and against the bottom (top?) of the channel. At least that’s how my non-woodpecker sharpening aid is made. Works great for wider tools but for extremely narrow tools I could see running into the problem the OP describes. Woodpecker states a maximum tool width for which it works; they should have stated a minimum as well.

[JPG]

I doubt Woodpeckers envisioned any one sharpening a 1/8" chisel.

I think thee envisioning a work around will be more productive than bashing the manufacturer.

I do understand thy frustration.

[roy_okc]

Interesting topic for a first post on the Shopsmith forum.

[Luthier83]

The manufacturer shouldn’t want a defective part in circulation bearing their name and logo, first of all. And so in order to exchange it, they should require the return of the defective tool. That’s standard policy and for three reasons…

1) to protect their reputation, as I’ve stated. That’s obvious and I don’t know any manufacture that would tell someone to keep the defective tool. Maybe a distributor or re-seller would say that because they don’t care. But the direct manufacture would never want a defective part in circulation. That’s just business 101.

2) To avoid being scammed, as others have suggested, the return of the defective part allows them to be sure the part was genuine in the first place, and to make sure it can’t be re-sold. Also what others here have suggested. Seems to me that requirement makes more sense than simply saying “regardless of what flaws we send out the door, warranty covers nothing if it changes hands!”

3) And also to examine the part to see what potentially caused the defect, and track the lot number to ensure measures are in place to avoid problems in the future and sure the rest of that lot wasn’t defective. They didn’t seem to be at all concerned with the issue at hand which is then saying they don’t care what happened. Not a very quality conscious manufacturer in my opinion.

Again, this is not standard for a “lifetime warranty” manufacturer. My fender guitars all have transferable warranty. My snap-on tools, no questions asked warranty. Making excuses for bad business practices is exactly why companies get rich off of poor people.

Even if they did nothing wrong, which they even admitted am over e-mail that the part is not as it was designed, for the sake of customer satisfaction I know I would just replace something that I had made if a customer wasn’t happy. Especially over $200!? That’s not worth pissing people off over and I certainly don’t think I’m being unreasonable. $200 for a honing jig that doesn’t work, and by their admittance is flawed, is certainly worthy of being upset about.

I’m glad the parts that others have paid lots of money have turned out to be ok. But that wasn’t my experience and I have a right to simply say that these guys straight up ripped me off and I did purchase this new, from a reseller. They should have records of the original purchaser based on the UPC and therefor would be able to tell if it was already issued a warranty claim also. There’s no excuse anyone can give for a company treating its customers this way. I’m sorry. Even Amazon has better customer service than that. And I would certainly hold a company like Woodpeckers that boasts exceptional quality and charges insane prices, to a standard at least equal to or better than a company like Amazon.

And lastly, no I didn’t buy it from a “shady” online seller and got “burned”. The tool was brand new. I didn’t get it for a deal, I paid even MORE than retail because it was a retired tool and no longer available. I’m not retarded and well aware of situations that appear to good to be true. And funny you should mention the “get what you paid for” adage when I paid over $200 for a tool that is worthless, hence the reason for being upset. If I paid $10 for a useless tool, I wouldn’t waste time even complaining about it. I’m upset because I paid an hell of a lot more than any other product and got zero value out of it.

Even if, other than cutting it to the right dimensions, what else can go wrong with a block of aluminum? As I originally stated, Woodpeckers themselves admitted the tool is flawed, and agreed that it had to have left their facility that way. It was not used/altered/or discounted to someone. They admitted fault. But due a technicality, to prevent tampering of OTHER products that do have things that can be modified by others, they implemented a rule that exists for OTHER reasons. They are simply admitting fault, but implying they won’t do anything because they simply don’t HAVE to.

If this had been a product from China, which would’ve been $10 not $200, everyone would agree with me. “Yup, crap product from a crap company” blah blah blah. But instead everyone makes excuses that I already covered in my original post: genuine part/paid full retail/unopened and brand new/mfg admitted fault/it’s not me or my workpiece that’s the problem/etc…everyone is still making excuses for them and suggesting it is somehow my fault. This is exactly why companies get away with producing junk. Holding them to a standard less than they would a foreign Chinese mfg and blaming the customer. It’s plain to see where the future of American consumerism is headed.

[RFGuy]

So, I own this Woodpeckers product and I can tell you that the pictures posted on this thread don't match the look of my product, nor do those posted match the pictures on Woodpeckers website for it. Yes, it looks similar, but if you look close you can tell the differences. I noticed a couple of years ago that A LOT of Woodpeckers products started being knocked off by Chinese copy cats and often I would see them for sale on sites like Banggood (not posting link for them, but you can find them on Google if you want). They even have the Woodpeckers logo copied. Based on the pics shown, I highly suspect that this item is a Chinese knockoff as it doesn't match what Woodpeckers produced in either production run of this OneTime Tool. I believe the OP got scammed and this happens A LOT particularly if you purchase tools off of FB links, etc. My Dad got scammed just in the last year on a combo tape measure/distance meter posted on a FB link. Always buy direct from a manufacturer. JMO.

P.S. My version of this tool purchased directly from the manufacturer works exactly as advertised.

[Luthier83]

Once again, people not reading and just talking. The product was already verified. UPC was checked, and the product was unopened. The etching stamped into the tool matched the date, the UPC number and barcode verified the time-stamp, etc.

Beyond that, I’m not an idiot. This is not a knock-off. The extrusion itself is very heavy. It would’ve been a costly “knock-off” to make. To that end, I will give them credit for using quality extrusions to make their parts. But please read the facts in the post before jumping in and saying it’s not genuine when even the mfg themselves verified all of this already and I explained that.

Furthermore, I WOULD buy direct from mfg if the mfg didn’t discontinue its tools just for the sake of driving up the market price and demand and creating a market that is essentially the same as ticket scalping. “One-time tool” is making your product exclusive like a “one-time event” so people can buy 100 and then sell them again for a profit. Claiming its a better economic ideology is just stupid. If that were true, they wouldn’t turn around and make another “run” of them 2 or 3 or 4 more times afterwards. That’s the same as just forecasting potential sales and building continuously. It’s a marketing campaign to trick people into thinking they only have one shot if they want this tool and so instead of thinking about it or considering it down the road, they make a more impulsive decision. Every company in the world operates production either on a forecasted sales estimate, or a custom made/made to order policy. If this is such a better economic way of doing business…why is a small machine shop the only business in the world to operate that way? So these machinists just happened to be experts and geniuses of micro and macro-economics and are going to revolutionize the standard of American economics? No. Because that’s all bullshit to begin with.

The reason I took the bait is because of people doing this. Ranting about how great sone company is, even lying to people and saying “I can tell you for an absolute fact, that tool is not real.” Do I need to post the email from Woodpeckers themselves claiming ownership? So many people making excuses simply because they don’t want to believe they paid a ton of money for sub-standard tools that are NOT as exceptional as they want to believe. Seems like people just can’t fathom that they were victims of good marketing and that they bought into the complete bullshit.

A Veritas honing jig costs a quarter of this, and when it arrives I suspect it will actually work. AND if it didn’t or it was flawed, I expect Veritas would GLADLY replace it provided I send back the flawed piece. I’ll find out when it arrives I guess but I’ve just never seen such denial and excuse making (especially when I already ruled out all the avenues which could lead someone to sympathize with the mfg). Again this is what keeps bad companies in business, people flat out lying to defend their precious Woodpeckers brand that I’ve just proven to be nothing more than marketing hype. They don’t create quality parts, they don’t stand behind their supposed “exceptional” quality, and they don’t even care if they leave defective products in the market bearing their logo. That’s the kind of company they have proven themselves to be and it’s insane for someone to come back with “yeah but maybe it’s YOUR fault”?! How the hell did I do anything wrong? What is wrong with people? Denial because they refuse to accept that maybe…just maybe…they bought into the hype and so are victims themselves. And if your tool actually works, great! But what happens when it doesn’t? You’ll be left dealing with a company that will use every technical or ridiculous excuse to NOT help you. So good luck with that. I’m just here because maybe someone like myself will research before buying from them and see a post that shares the truth instead of a bunch of misleading posts and lies to defend a company that shouldn’t even need defending in the first place. People don’t have to defend Lamborghinis. People don’t have to make excuses for Snap On or even Craftsmen tools. Come on, this is ridiculous.

[edma194]

Once again, people not reading and just talking. The product was already verified. UPC was checked, and the product was unopened. The etching stamped into the tool matched the date, the UPC number and barcode verified the time-stamp, etc.

Where did you get the tool?