Trend Fast Track sharpening system

I spent a while battling with a Trend Fast Track sharpening system that I picked up at a tool show. The results were somewhat disappointing.

[BrainFizz]

The black is the chisel metal mixed with the lapping fluid that's running down onto the base plate.
I bought mine about 8 years ago, and although I'm not a big fan of this way of sharpening, either to be honest, but I've never seen anyone struggle as much.... once you have your bevels set to the same angle as the top slider it's a super quick method of sharpening. You're putting too much side pressure on the chisel which is causing it to jam.

[TimJohnsonRoyalTudor]

I bought one, as a disabled woodworker with only one hand that works properly, and that's not my dominant hand, I found it to be extremely useful and accurate. I do have to clamp my chisels and plane blades down to use it...but that's just a one-handed thing. I also bought additional grit inserts so that I can take nicks out of blades quickly. Finally, I have sharp chisels and planes without a shed load of different stones and guides. Each to their own I suppose and what works for some might not work for others.

[HolzMichel]

Hi Susie,
without having watched anyone else use or struggle with this tool, the one thing i can pick out right away is that the guides need a heavy grease to prevent galling which is why the slide locks up and making the black shmoo you're seeing. of course putting grease on the guides takes the "clean" out of the concept.

the other thing that fails this is the guiding of the tool into the jig. the groove is machined to accommodate any woodworking tool. you could make a set of supplement guides out of maple or UHMW, similar in shape to your bench hook that close the gap in the tool guides so you don't have to dink around trying to find the sweet spot. that way you can concentrate more on the correct inward pressure instead of 5 million other things.

next, diamond hones don't require much pressure to work, but do need ample whetting to carry off the swarf generated from the blade being sharpened. this type of tool is meant only for a final touch up and not a coarse sharpening. if your blades have nicks or are really dull you won't get around grinding them first.
your blade needs to be ground a few degrees steeper than the angle of the diamond holder. example: if the diamond holder is 35 degrees, your blade needs to be coarse ground at 32 to 33 degrees. you're essentially only wanting to hone a very narrow edge of the cutting tool of maybe a millimeter.
years ago i bought a set of wood chisels made by marples in sheffield. they had a very peculiar grind to them, essentially a double bevel which cut like a dream. your crazy little tool is intended to give you that double bevel on your cutting tools. so honing the entire face of the cutting blade is not the thing to do.

hope that helps a little
cheers
mike

[darrenbeale]

A wonderfully realistic review of this product. I was going to buy one as the brand and marketing made it look amazing. Thank you for showing us the reality Susan!

[fauxpost]

That's just so useful! The marketing guys show the tool being used with a really narrow (10mm??) chisel and, of course, there is far less friction involved and it appears to work well. But with the large chisel that Susan is using - comparable with a plane blade - this looks really duff. Also, abrasive fluid must get onto the guides, wearing them as you go. Thanks for saving me the money, Susan! :)

[colinshaw]

Hi Susan
Flattening the back of a chishel or plane iron is the first step of owning one, more important than sharpening the bevel, there are many videos showing how to do it. Also sitting down does not help as you are unable to use all your body strength. Also it does no good screwing the gig to a work bench that moves when you apply pressure and IMHO unless you are left handed you should steady the tool with your left hand and use your right hand to operate the slide, don't give up yet with the gig and by the way what do you use the big chishel for?

[monophoto]

Susan - there are several YouTube videos by others who report that this device works well for them. The fact that its not working well for you causes me to wonder if there is something about your situation that could be confounding the operation of the device. I don't have one of these devices, and I don't work for Trend, but I do like solving problems.

I notice that the scratches you are getting at at the back of the bevel. Did you check the angle of the bevel before starting to sharpen it? Intuitively, one might expect that it would be harder to hone if the angle of the hone exactly matched the angle of the bevel because that would put the face of the hone in contact with the entire face of the bevel. On the other hand, with lapping fluid lubricating the face of the hone, it should move smoothly against a bevel on the blade if the two surfaces re in uniform contact.

But it's possible that if the angle of the face of the bevel is less than 25deg, the hone could actually be catching on the corner of the bevel face. You mentioned that there is some resistance, and that the scratches appear to be on the corners of the chisel rather than across the face, and those symptoms could explain why you are having a problem.

[quentinfitzgerald]

I have one that works perfectly and have seen lots of utube vids showing it working well. I have it screwed to the bench. Try some smaller chisels until you get the knack of it. Sharpening it first time especially one that wide will a lot of effort but after that it only needs touched up with with the wider angle and that usually only takes about 30 secs. It looks to me as if you were cutting with light pressure although it feels that you were not. The black stuff is small fragments coming off the chisel and you should see small fragments on the diamond plate that shows you are cutting. Of course it doesnt help that you used the widest chisel you could find. In the vid it looks as if you were far enough back and could use the 30 degree to finish which would probably take you less than a minute. At 18:50 you were putting the correct pressure on and cutting but then started to jam it in harder and it seized up. Although it doesn't feel like you are cutting at times i would recomend you give it another go.

[RogerR]

Is there a hobbyist's garage or shed anywhere that doesn't have one of these "neat idea, pity it doesn't work" gadgets stuck in a corner?

[myworkshop]

Susan suggest you take a look at the product on You Tube and see how it is used by others ... seems to work ok for them ;)

[peterleonard]

Hi I've just watched another two or three presentations on youtube.
Try watching them yourself, and see if there is anything you can identify that you are doing wrong!
Left or right handedness shouldn't resentation make any difference!
Don't give up on it too soon!
One of the presenters had a larger plate for deburring, supplied by the company too!
There is also a presentation by the manufacturer too!
I have faith in you Sue, have patience!!!!

[williamlewis]

greetings from France. i just got off the phone with Trend in Watford. They're sending me a unit because Amazon sent me the wrong item with no 'optional accessories !' on a positive note, may i compliment you on your magnificient manicure. cheers

[scottmartinezguitarandbass]

Susan, I use the Veritas honing guide system, and I have to say I get really great results quickly. I highly recommend.

[woodwork]

A tool is as good as the person upswing them I’ve been in construction for 30 years never had a problem with this it’s quite frankly brilliant

[fractionjackson]

i've got one. havent got anything sharp with it yet, and mine doesn't lock up... it just scratches.

[simonecamplani]

It Is slightly off topic, but does anyone know if the "multi Sharp" whetstone sistem Is efficient? similar to this but with a drill powered wet grinder

[GeorgeCooper_LoneWolf]

Susie, I can understand why you would buy this product, at first glance it looks like it could be useful. However as you said it's Junk. 120 grit sandpaper glued to a board with a strap of leather next to it works great for planning blades. Once again another great video

[sergecheval]

Bonjour Susan, Ou peut-on trouver cette appareil. est-il expédier en France, Merci
Google translation
Hello Susan, where can we find this device. is it shipping to France, thanks

[eddyflynn]

I've used one of these for years and find i great for putting that edge back on my tools you really made this look difficult, did you check if the chisel was straight corner to corner or what angle it had previously been ground at, saying that you are not the first ive heard of having difficulty with it, if you put it up for sale please let me know .

[jimmc]

I could probably pay for a very nice weekend out of town if I had the money I have wasted on sharpening jigs over the years. Thanks for taking the time to help me avoid yet another one.

I recently made a sharpening jig from plans sold by John Heisz at www.I build it ca. com. The downloadable plan is inexpensive ($8.00 if memory serves), well drawn, very easy to follow, and resulted in the best sharpening jig I ever used. You use scrap plywood and less than $5.00 worth of hardware and went together in less than two hours.