Reasonably priced Sharpening-Stone Package Delivers
My sharpening stones have advanced stepwise since I started woodworking. After just a few weeks of utilizing sandpaper, I used oilstones for just a few years till I found waterstones. Now, Zen-Wu Toolworks’ ZenSharp starter package has taken me ahead by an enormous leap. The system cuts quick, is tremendous handy, and leaves an amazing edge.
The ZenSharp package consists of 4 skinny, magnetic playing cards—three diamond playing cards and one charged strop—which affix to a stout, principally nonslip base. The diamond playing cards are coarse, medium, and superb, which Zen-Wu says are 45μm (i.e., 45 micrometers), 20μm, and 9μm, respectively. The playing cards measure about 3 in. by 7-7/8 in. and, in line with Zen-Wu, are flat to inside 0.015 mm. A slotted maple block to carry the playing cards can be included.
The sting off of those playing cards is implausible. I labored pine, poplar, and ash with A1 and O2 metal sharpened with the package, and my outcomes have been all the time stellar. As a result of I hadn’t stropped my edges since utilizing oilstones, I didn’t use the Zen-Wu strop at first. The pine nonetheless felt like glass after a go with my smoother, a fundamental classic Stanley with a Hock iron.
I appreciated the strop once I did use it, particularly for my carving instruments (trendy and classic). I wanted to shoot a board, however I didn’t need to sharpen my Lie-Nielsen No. 62. I took just a few shavings with my just lately stropped Craftsman No. 5 with its inventory iron—one thing I can’t recall attempting earlier than. To my nice shock, the shavings have been pretty much as good as with my Lie-Nielsen and waterstones.
Utilizing the package is a breeze. As a result of the playing cards don’t require flattening, you simply splash and go. They’ve notches on the corners that register towards matching shapes within the base, permitting for dependable, repeatable—albeit typically finicky—registration. The bottom has small scoops alongside the perimeters in your fingers, a essential characteristic for eradicating the playing cards and for maintaining your fingers from getting pinched whenever you insert a card and the sturdy magnets finally seize.
The playing cards’ sharpening layer is fairly skinny, however Zen-Wu’s web site guarantees the playing cards will proceed chopping and stay flat for a whole lot of sharpenings. Alternative playing cards can be found.
Zen-Wu additionally sells a professional package, which features a coarser and a finer card and an extra strop, however I didn’t take a look at it. Zen-Wu says customers don’t want it until they’re chopping sushi.
—Barry NM Dima, a former affiliate editor at FWW, may be very missed.
Zen-Wu Toolworks ZenSharp starter package $115
Alternative playing cards, 3-packs $35
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