Work Sharp Sharpening System - Manual (Page 6)

quarter inch or so for about a second or
two and repeat these motions to the point
that you remove all the scratch marks left
by the previous, coarser grit. Invert or
mount a
new
glass
plate
with the
next
finer grit
and re-
peat up
through
the grits.
When
you have
reached
your final
grit, you
can optionally mount a leather faced
glass stropping plate and polish the now
perfect back and edge to a mirror-like fin-
ish.
On the first sharpening you will be ma-
chining a known bevel angle into each of
your cutting tools. Use the angle that
most closely matches how those tools
were machined in the first place. You will
most likely be going up through four or
more grits from coarse to fine to both es-
tablish this known angle and to hone the
back and bevel to produce a very sharp
cutting edge.
Leave the last (finest) grit plate you used
mounted on the Work Sharp. From that
point forward, each time you pick up a
tool that you intend to use, just place the
flat back on the tool rest and repeat the
up and back motion described earlier. Do
that a few times and your cutting edge
will always be just as sharp as the last
time you used it.
If you do manage to damage the edge,
back up a few grit steps and renew the
edge. Fast, easy and very repeatable.
What about the hand cutting tools that
are not flat on the
back?
The Work Sharp pro-
vides four different
means of sharpening
things such as lathe
tools, carving tools,
gouges and the like that
are not flat on the back
as chisels and plane
blades are.
A supplied tool rest (red
arrow) can be placed
into grooves machined
into the metal top casting
and set to the desired height as shown
here. In this example the lathe tool cut-
ting surface is the sharp edge formed be-
tween the top of the tool and the diagonal
face cut in the end of the tool. By resting
the bottom edge of the tool on the tool
rest you can quickly reestablish the cut-