sharpening station

Check out Rob Cosman’s site, he has some good info for stones, height of the work surface, etc.

I use Shapton stones with their diamond plate, a little more expensive but sure cuts down on sharpening time…

All the Best!

-- Randy "You are judged as much by the questions you ask as the answers you give..."

Super fan of the Tormek system. It’s a little time consuming to learn but it is very versatile, excellent factory support and the tools are scary sharp. Oh yeah, it’s expensive.

I have a wolverine with the woodcraft slow speed grinder. Works great.
Check out capn. eddie.

-- It must be jelly baby, cause jam don't shake like that...

After doing some research, I recently got the Work Sharp WS3000. It’s been very user-friendly, produces VERY sharp stuff and is not too expensive. I hear great things about the Tormek system, but requires some more dedication, $ and time that I felt wasn’t worth it for my limited uses.

-- - Kevin from Cincinnati. All my work is guaranteed: Three minutes or three feet; whichever comes first.

Shapton ceramic stones and veritas sharpening jig (1000, 5000, 8000 grit). Pricey but the BEST I have ever used. Don’t even need a grinder.

As jusfine and jayman7 said, learn to sharpen by hand using shapton stones. The Rob Cosman method works great. Have some method of flattening them too, especially if you’re doing plane irons.

I do pretty well with ceramic stones.

helluvawreck aka Charles
http://woodworkingexpo.wordpress.com

-- If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. Henry David Thoreau

Here is my sharpening station. The “system” that I use is a combination of diamond and water stones. I have some Shapton stones that I use occasionally. I keep the water stones in the container with the blue lid beneath the station and a five gallon bucket of water for rinsing the stones.

This system is a pricey investment up front. You can go on the cheap with water stones by purchasing a combo grit stone and a diamond stone (to flatten the water stone). For beginners, I suggest a honing guide for ease of sharpening and move to freehand later if you like. Even that is more costly upfront when compared to a sandpaper system. However, from what I have read and experimented with, the sandpaper system will cost more in the long run if you sharpen frequently. The best advice I think I can give, and several others will echo this, whatever system you pick, stay with it for awhile and don’t try to switch without getting proficient with that one. That can be very costly and you may never learn how to effectively sharpen anything.

Good Luck!

-- Mike

I have the Worksharp station and I wasn’t impressed. It still would burn tools and it wasn’t very utilitarian.