Work Sharp Sharpening System - Manual (Page 23)

side and the leather strop material on the
other.
By working both the bevel and the back
on the MM6000, followed by buffing on
the leather loaded with the polishing
compound included with the leather strop
plate kit, you can achieve as high a shine
as you wish.
A mirror-like finish takes some time to
achieve and it really does not improve
the working sharpness much, but it will
impress your friends!
The reason I polish (to far less than a
true mirror finish) is so that I can more
easily see nicks or blemishes. As dis-
cussed earlier, I like to insert my chisels
into the Work Sharp port (with a fine
abrasive mounted, either the MM3600
or the MM6000) each time I pick one up
so that the cutting edge is always the
same. If I do manage to nick the edge
(probably by doing something I shouldn’t
do,) it shows up on the polished surface,
and I know to back up a couple of steps
to reestablish the fine edge before use.
The first time you use Work Sharp to ini-
tially condition a chisel, you will likely be
amazed by how much fine mat of grit is
collected under the plate and behind the
machine. You can see it in the bottom
photo. Just brush or vacuum it away.
If you leave the bevel in contact with
the abrasive for long enough with
the coarse grits, you may even see
this mat glow red/orange and burn.
Just lighten up on the amount of
time the bevel is in contact with the
abrasive.
The air cooling is very effective at
keeping the cutting edge from burn-
ing, but this fine steel wool-like mat
will get hot and burn far earlier than
the cutting edge will.
Now that we have seen the process
of bringing this beat up old chisel
back to life, let’s look at the out-
come.