Does a better job of sharpening then having done by a shop. With some practice i got a good sharp planner blade that was flat across its length. At $45 a planer set to have sharpened (12" and 6" pairs) it wont take long to justify the purchase of the sharpener.The following are my observations when using the sharpener:- The supplied 1000 grit stone is fine but to fine to deal with nicks or worn arches in a blade. It will just take to long to grind them out. One will need to also purchase the 60 grit stone to support that practical needs of dealing with nicks in a planner blade.- The body is plastic and will likely crack if you drag the heavy unit across the workbench. YOu need to pick it up to move it.- The blades are held in a holder that sits in grooves on a jig and slides across and whose angle can be adjusted.- The knife holder does hold the blade securely.- The holder will hold 2ea 6" knives.- The knobs that are used to set the blade protrusion out of the holder are simple bolts that push against the back of the blade to set the protrusion. These are very fiddly to adjust with my blades since they have slotted holes for mounting on the planner and positioning of the blade is difficult such that a bolt is not lined up with a slotted hole. Also somewhat of a course adjustment as the threads are not fine.- The angle adjust is surprisingly course so it takes some very light touch to get it right but when its set it seemed to stay at that setting.- The holder is heavy and will tip off the left end of the slide jig so you have to get used to supported the holder with your hands.- The water reservoir has an adjustable drip and provides good lubrication for the 1000 grit stone but does not provide enough water when using the much more porous 60 grit stone.- the 60 grit stone fairly quickly ground through the problem areas on my blade which were primarly arches in the edge from over using the blade and running recovered planks through the planner.- In practice using the blades after sharpening I found the wood surface to be silky smooth and even the sound level was reduced during the cutting.Conclusion:A bit fiddly to use but with practice you will get an excellent edge on planner blades but likely you will also need the 60 grit stone to grind through the inevitable nicks.

Great Machine, really underrated. Provides a great edge on planner and other large blades, without ruining the temper of the steel.

The device is as exactly as described - i am presently also looking into buying the 120 grit stone to see if i can refurbish a set of 13" planer blades that have been chipped up a bit. i am presently planing a good amount of rough timber and wide baseboard and have been chewing up the blade edge on a regular basis. i am still learning how to use the sharpener effectively but am confident that it will do what i need. It is a heavy device and sits squarely where it is placed enabling the operator to concentrate efforts on the sharpening work.

Great machine. Does a nice job. One thing I would like to know. Do you stock coarser wheels for this unit? If so could you send me details.

The title says it all. I know my review is a minority opinion with this unit but I was very disappointed. I purchased this sharpener a couple months ago on Amazon. I tried to sharpen my joiner blades for hours with unusable/poor results.For $350 it should be dead simple to use and super precise with super accurate repeatability. It is none of that. It is frustrating, slow, messy and primitive.Repeatability with this sharpener is terrible. You will never get the same bevel angle twice, you're lucky if you can get a consistent bevel across the blade length once. All the adjustment mechanisms are primitive without any stops or detents or feature that would allow someone to quickly set it to achieve the same bevel angle more than once.I own the Veritas Mk II sharpening system for the smaller blades on my chisels and hand planes. The Veritas is exactly what a sharpener should be. Dead simple to use, super accurate with precise graduated bevel angle adjustments and great repeatability. Oh yeah, it is fraction of the price this thing costs.I have an 8" Grizzly joiner which is what I purchased this Makita unit for. For now I will purchase new (razor sharp) blades from Grizzly at $50 a set once a year or so until someone comes up with something that works with longer blades that is equal to the performance the Veritas Mk II delivers on smaller blades.I put this thing up for sale on Amazon (used/like new) within 72 hours of unpacking it. I took a $75 loss on the turnaround.If you find yourself crawling around on the floor with lights behind the blade running the adjustment screws up/down over and over till your back aches from all the stooping and bending you might ask yourself, as I did, why did I buy this thing?

This tool is great for what its made for: power planer and jointer blades. However you will note a lot of people use it to sharpen a lot of things, and this is the beauty and the curse of the machine. Well, "curse" might not be the exact word, but you're looking at a significant time investment to be able to use this machine to sharpen your tools, at which point it will prove a practically invaluable asset towards easily restored hand tools. If you get it set up this well you might even use a lower quality chisel to chop a nail in a pinch because it is in fact that easy to fix chips etc. The issue is that you CANNOT use regular hone guides with this tool, alone. Within minutes you will make a flat spot in the brass wheel, essentially destroying the guide. And, the wheel WILL skid, no matter what, and you will end up with a conical wheel, because the inside covers less ground than the outside. I was able to use mine for one very large chip in a plane blade, and that was it. But it was worth the sacrifice to me.So, be prepared for somewhere between a moderate and large engineering feat to sharpen tools. If you have a steady hand, I use the fixed cast slider directly for my chisels. Sometimes I throw in a shim or wood jig, but I now want a steel jig, and that's a bit of a 3D design and custom made parts feat.The tool can be very versatile, and is limited by your imagination and ability to make a custom jig. But as for out of the box, it does what it says and well, but don't expect to sharpen every piece of steel in your house with it without a lot of extra effort, unless you have extreme confidence in your hand, in which case you might not need this machine.For jigs though, Makita was wise to make the planer/jointer blade guides very easy to remove. I would also suggest a better water distrubution system made by the user, and to search "David Reed Smith Makita Sharpening" to get an idea of what can be done with the tool. The design challenges begin whether you want to make the jigs from the tool or external, and from there it seems you can sharpen practically anything to the ideal bevel from basically no bevel**, if you can make the jig.

I bought this from Amazon in April of 2007. In those (almost) 4 years, I have formed some strong opinions. Please allow me to share them with you.I just came up from the shop where I sharpened nine bevel chisels, five lathe chisels of various types, one plane iron, and three 6" jointer knives. My session took about 3 hours, including cleaning and drying the machine. My usual session is only an hour or so, but the lathe tools were in bad shape. All the tools were ground with the 1000 and 6000 grit stones. The lathe tools required a little fixing with the 120 grit stone first.This machine requires some practice to get great results from it. I suggest reading highland's white paper on its use. It is on their web site. IMHO, if you are good with tools, you can learn to be expert with this machine.Here is my setup:Basic Makita machine with 1000 grit factory stone (and a spare 1000 grit stone I picked up somewhere).Makita 6000 grit stoneHighland Woodworking 120 grit "green" stoneHighland Woodworking chisel jig. This thing is utter simplicity and only $15 or so.Here are my experiences sharpening various types of tools:Plane Irons - Fabulous. Using the Highland jig in the Makita tooling is just the ticket. Flattening the back of the iron is easy too.Bevel Chisels - Excellent, just like plane irons.Jointer Knives - Excellent. The Makita tooling is unsurpassed for knives.Planer Knives - Don't know. I sharpen two 6" knives at a time, which can't be too different than a 12" planer knife though.Lathe Chisels - Anything with bevels is easy - just like bevel chisels. Gouges must be done freehand, but that works fine.Thoughts on this machine, including some trouble others have reported.Stone Quality - Terrific Japanese water stones. Flat & true. I own 4 stones, and I've never experienced the wobbling and vibration that one reviewer hsa reported. The only thing I can imagine is that the reviewer isn't properly engaging the drive tab on the bottom of the stone's platter with the mating feature in the drive disk. This would certainly cause crazy wobble and vibration.Tooling Quality - Excellent. Cast iron platten. Adjustable height and angle. Clearly indended for jointer knives. When teamed up with Highland's jig, the tooling is superb for chisels, plane irons, etc.Machine Quality - Just fine. No problems. Some have called it flimsy. I don't get it. Runs quietly, without vibration.Corrosion - Not a speck on mine after almost 4 years. The steel parts are plated to resist rust. The cast iron is not. Maintenance is required, including emptying the water from the machine and allowing it to dry. I use WD40 on the cast iron and on the steel too after a grinding session. If you don't maintain the machine (that is, if you allow it to stay wet after use), of course it will rust eventually.Mess - A little, yes. The machine has an excellent spray shield that can be raised to just below the plane of the work surface. Most cast-off water or slurry is caught by this shield. As I type this, I am wearing the sweatshirt I was wearing 30 minutes ago when using the grinder. My shirt is bone dry.Conclusion - Excellent sharpening system for knives, chisels, plane irons, and the like. Accessories are easily available. Maintenence is required. Practice is required.UPDATE January 2014 - it's all still true. Great machine. No rust. I still use it with excellent results as described above.UPDATE Sept 2019 - It’s now been 14 years. This grinder still serves me well. It’s like many tools, it requires some finesse. But this tool has done me right for more than a decade. Plane irons and chisels emerge in a state that I can only describe as ridiculously sharp. It’s a perfectly decent freehand grinder too. The tool still looks new, as I clean and dry it after use. In summary, I’m completely satisfied.

First the downside: I agree with another reviewer regarding getting other wheels. Accessories are very hard to source. However, the wheel that comes with the machine is perfect for obtaining and maintaining a very sharp edge on a blade in good condition. If you have serious gouges in your blades, you may want to consider a one-time sharpening by a pro and then use this machine to keep the edge.The good stuff: It works perfectly!! The directions were simple enough and the operation of the machine is basic: start the water flow, set the angle guide, turn on the wheel, and bring the blade to the wheel. The manual does not speak specifically to sharpening chisels (the holder provided is for planer/jointer blades and so are the instructions). But here's how I did it. Don't use the holder. Place the chisel ("back") flat on the guide. Adjust the angle of the guide so it brings the chisel to the wheel at the correct angle. Take the chisel away, start the machine and place the chisel on the guide but away from the wheel. Bring (slide)the chisel forward on the guide, keeping it flat on the guide. Keep it moving forward until it makes contact with the wheel. Think of it as trying to slice away a very thin layer of the wheel rather than grinding the chisel with the wheel (if that makes sense).I am very pleased with the results.