I haven't goten to that paticular article yet but...it sure seems to me that
any of FWW's reviewers are way too careful about stepping on any toes. Is
this a case of biting the hand that feeds you? I also wish that they could
be more critical of the tools that they review. At least they finally
started using the "Best Value" and "Best Overall" indicators. Before that it
was neutral reviews in the EXTREME. At any rate, I still wait by the mail
box each time an issue is due to arrive.

Jon


"Stephen M" wrote in message
...
I have been thinking about upgrading my sharpening capabilities.
Consequently, I was excited when I saw that FWW did a review of motorized
sharpening systems.

Boy was I disappointed. The author did a minireview of each machine, but
used different criteria for each machine, or at least commented on
different
aspects of each machine. This approach made it pretty much impossible
compare and contrast products.

I paid particularly close attention to the Makita 9820-2.The author said
that it is great for jointer and planer knives, it is a weak for plane
irons
because you have to freehand the iron on the tool rest.

I find this odd because Steve Knight has been a proponent of this tool
and
he uses it primarily for plane irons. On top of that he just invested in a
spiral jointer setup (abandoning the ability to in-house-sharpen his
knives). It just seems all very counter to the articles assessment.

I specifically want to in-source my jointer and planer knife sharpening.
The
review of the Makita would have been more helpful if it told me what other
systems had knife sharpening capability and if it was any good.

In fairness, knife sharpening was probably outside the scope of the
article,
but the introduction said that he would test the systems on chisels plane
irons and carving tools. I don't recall him commenting on carving tool
capability anywhere in the article.

My dad has a Delta 23-700, one of the tools reviewed. Frankly, I think the
quality of that unit sucks. The article really did not pan any unit. It
just
picked a favorite.

Did anyone else think that article left allot to be desired?

-Steve