Multipurpose Sharpening Tool / Bench Grinder

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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14,662
It's my dad's birthday soon and he's had his eye on this — Clarke CMPS2 Multipurpose Sharpening Tool.

It's bench-mounted, electric, and can sharpen knives, drill bits, chisels, plane blades, etc.

However, all of the reviews I've found for it suggest that it's useless.

I don't want to get him something that won't be any good, so does anyone have any recommendations for similar tools or a better alternative?

Would a standard bench grinder be a better option? Something like this — Sealey BG150W — If so, is there any benefit of going for the 200mm diameter wheel over the 150mm?

I assume a bench grinder would be more versatile (adding buffing wheels etc) but it might take some practice to get a good edge on your blades, whereas the CMPS2 above you're just meant to be able to "shove it in and it comes out sharp".

What would the collective wisdom of OcUK recommend?
 
Soldato
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Forget the clarke cmps one,that design will be useless for more than sharpening a pen knife
The sealy is a better option.200mm wheels will be better and as big a motor as you can afford
What type of sharpening will he be doing?
whetsone grinder is ideal for wood chisels and a horizontal whetsone grinder is the best for this but a lot more expensive and specialist
 
Associate
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15 Jan 2011
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If the primary use case is knives then this - it's brilliant. Get some additional finer belts so you aren't putting a new edge on every time you want to bring the knives back to razor sharpness. It does sharpen other tools but I've only used for knives.
 
Soldato
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Bedfordshire
Personally if it was me i would go for the Sealey.
As you said its just more versatile imo, you can add finer grinding discs to get a better edge on your knives/chisels

Going by the reviews i saw the clarke is much too coarse
 
Soldato
OP
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Thanks for all of the replies so far.

I've just spoken to him and got some more information:
  • He agrees that a bench grinder will be the better option as being able to add wire brush/soft buffing discs would be a plus.
  • It will primarily be used for sharpening chisels and planer blades (up to 50mm wide).
  • However, it will also be used to sharpen drill bits and the odd knife.
  • He's ruled out the horizontal whetstone option.
  • He has some whetstones for manual sharpening but he says he can never get the angle right, so he's also talking about a honing guide/jig for the planer blades to go with the bench grinder. I guess he can get separate jigs for the other bits later.
  • He would prefer 200mm discs over 150mm
So, it looks like I need a 200mm bench grinder with two wheels. The Sealey BG200WL looks decent enough and I think the light will help him.

In terms of a jig does this look decent — O'skool Adjustable Sharpening Jig? It has good reviews (if you trust Amazon reviews). Most of the other ones I've found are either for hand sharpening, look like they're made of plastic or look really complicated to use.
 
Soldato
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14,662

Thanks Andarial, I'll mention it to him and get him to look at that link. :)
 
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