The clamping bar holds the tool securely. But for sharpening on a surface plate with sandpaper, where this isn’t an issue, this guide is a good choice. Sled requires that your sharpening stone has perfectly parallel sides. The large handles on either side of the sled make it easy to grip. Of all the guides I tried, this one was the most comfortable to use. (Extra pairs of sides are sold separately.) The sides detach from the body of the sled, so you can change heights by simply swapping one pair of sides for another. Sled is offered in three heights to accommodate different sharpening surfaces, from thin surface plates to 2"-thick waterstones. This wide stance makes it easy to control. Sled straddles the stone rather than riding on top of it. At approximately $70 apiece, this starts to become an expensive proposition.Īlso features sidemounted rollers. But the wide version is awkward to use with narrow tools, so you really need to have both models. Makes a wider version of the guide that will accommodate blades up to 2 5 ⁄ 8 " wide. It’s biggest downside is that it only handles blades up to 1 1 ⁄ 4 " wide, making it useful only for chisels. Rather than positioning the roller at the rear, this guide uses a pair of rollers on the sides of the jig. Made in England by craftsman Richard Kell, it’s beautifully machined and is silky smooth in operation. Honing guide is a simple and elegant design. But if you’re looking for a basic, no-nonsense honing guide, this one is hard to beat. Because it’s so narrow, you have to be careful to avoid tipping the jig in use, especially with narrower blades. The design automatically squares up the tool in the guide, which cuts down significantly on set-up time. Plane irons fit in the upper opening and chisels fit in the lower opening. style honing guide holds the tool to be sharpened between a pair of stout jaws. Guide is no longer made, there are a number of slightly lesser quality knock-offs that sell from $10 to $15. Honing guide was made for years by a company in England, and was a favorite of many woodworkers. Once you have everything set up though, the jig performs adequately. You have to tighten down two thumbscrews to hold the tool in place, and they’re uncomfortable to grasp and difficult to access. In use, I found clamping up a tool in the guide to be a bit difficult. One improvement that has been added to this honing guide over the years is a plastic, flip-down gauge (see photo below) that helps you to position the edge of your tool for one of three commonly used bevel angles. It’s available in a kit that includes an 8" oilstone and lubricating oil. Honing guide has been around for quite awhile, and hasn’t changed much. It seems only natural that a company known for its hand planes and chisels would also make a tool for sharpening them. But I think there are better options available. Honing guide is one of the less expensive models on the market. Additionally, you’ll have to reset the guide whenever you switch to a sharpening stone of a different thickness. This poses a problem if the faces of your sharpening stone aren’t parallel. Instead, it rides on the surface of your workbench. Guide doesn’t ride on the sharpening stone. Unlike most of the other honing guides, the roller of the A clamp at one end holds the tool, while a roller on the other end allows the guide to travel back and forth. This guide is made up of two halves that are hinged to adjust the bevel angle. The first honing guide I tried was one by As you might expect, they also range in price, from under $20 to well over $100 at the upper end of the scale (see page 51 for sources). They range from simple, no-frills examples to ones loaded with bells and whistles. Recently, I took a look at ten different honing guides and compared the features of each one. Most honing guides are also adjustable, making it easy to dial in an exact bevel angle. Since a honing guide holds the tool at a fixed angle to the sharpening stone, it’s a lot easier to get a flat, consistent bevel. This can result in a rounded bevel that won’t cut as effectively (seen in drawings).Ī lot of woodworkers (myself included) find it easier to achieve consistent results with less hassle by using a guide of some sort. But when honing freehand, there’s a tendency to slightly shift the angle of the tool at the beginning or end of each stroke. It’s certainly possible to learn how to sharpen accurately without the use of a honing guide. You can hardly open a woodworking catalog without finding a new device that promises to make sharpening your hand tools foolproof. Which probably explains the popularity of honing guides. Unfortunately, it’s one that also seems to give a lot of woodworkers trouble. Sharpening is one of the most fundamental skills in woodworking.
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