New sharpener from Woodcraft?

[cgallery]

I don't remember seeing this in the Woodcraft catalog before. And the web site says order today for shipping after 6/9:

http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?familyid=4866

Price is very reasonable. $94 for the sharpener, $39 for the planer jig. About 1/3 to 1/4 the price of high-end units?

Interesting.

After having spend two nights getting my planer knives "scary sharp," (two knives, one long evening per knife), I have some interest in a machine that could do it faster.

However, I think my initial sharpening took longer than anticipated because the planer's previous owner had so badly cared for the knives. I'm hopeful that next time around it may go faster.

[Pappy]

That has been around for a while. There are also similar ones from Makita and Delta. Biggest problem I have heard is keeping the stone flat and true.

[leehljp]

I have one of those under a Japanese name. Mine was about half the price of the Makitas and Deltas. I bought 2 and gave one to my son in law a few years ago. Both still work well. Ours have a softer but finer stone (3000 grit) than that one in the link but we have been able to keep them flat. The harder stones might be a tad more difficult to keep flat once a grove is made in it.

Anyway, mine puts a super fine edge on it.

[final_t]

Yup, not new, I got one a while back when it was on sale for $50 IIRC. I used it as part of the inital prep for new tools. If you look around via Google I think you can find where someone has managed to convert into a scary-sharp-like system with an MDF replacement wheel.