Honing Guides Help

[Matt Woessner]

I tried to find this in the search with no luck, and I am sure this has been covered a thousand times. I am looking for a honing guide to use with my waterstones. I am looking at the Veritas Sharpening System. Is this a good guide? Are there better ones for less money? I would like to stay in the $50 range. Any input would be great as I am new in the world of sharpening hand tools. Thanks for all the help in advance.

[Tri Hoang]

I had both the Veritas Sharpening System and the Veritas MK II guide. I think the MK II guide is much nicer.

[jerry nazard]

I recently bought a used General honing guide for a few bucks. That's really all it is worth. I would not recommend the General.

[George Clark]

Matt,

I have tried several honing guides. The Veritas Mk.II is my absolute favorite, hands down. A quality product and definitely the easiest for me to keep square with the blade.

George

[Danny Thompson]

Another vote for the Veritas Mk.II.

If you need to go cheaper, you could try the Side Clamping Honing Guide sold by Lie Nielsen ($14). According to the site, this guide is based on the discountinued Eclipse guide. In Popular Woodworking's Hand Tool Essentials, I think David Charlesworth recommends the Eclipse guide primarily because its smaller wheel allows for easy cambering.

[Joel Goodman]

The Elipse style of guide will work fine. They are inexpensive (LN $14 as well as many other places) -- but you need to make a jig to help you set the iron consistently. You need a setting on the jig for your bevel and for a microbevel. LN's website gives you approximate distances for each angle. For the jig look at Derek Cohen's website: http://www.inthewoodshop.com/WoodworkTechniques/The%2010%20Cent%20Sharpening%20System.html
The LV mark 2 is excellent but is a lot more money and you need to buy the additional roller for cambering. I would get the Elipse style to start with and then see if you want to spend the extra dollars. I would not get the older LV.

[John Keeton]

Having had the older Veritas honing guide, and recently upgraded to the MK II, I agree with Joel on that one. The MK II is a little more costly, but it is quick, easy to set, and consistent.

Although I am relatively new to the sharpening game as well, I see this as a lifetime purchase and can't see why I would ever need anything else. I ended up with the camber roller and skew jig and should be able to do whatever needs done.

[Matt Woessner]

Well looks like I need to roll with the MKII. I will have to keep my eye out for one, maybe post a wanted in the classifieds. Thanks for all the input!

[Justin Green]

I just ordered one of the MKII's as well. Woodcraft says they're not shipping til 3-6-09, so I have to wait a while longer. Unfortunately, in the meantime, I've played around with the chisels enough that I'm a much better freehand sharpener than I was a week ago... But I'll still use the MKII on the thin plane irons.

[Zahid Naqvi]

I've got one of these (http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=2417&cookietest=1) and I think I paid less than $10 for it. I think it works great. Due to the single roller in the middle you can create a slight camber by just changing pressure on the corners. I always wanted to graduate to free handing so I didn't want to invest in an expensive honing system. I made the transition earlier this year, you'd be surprised how easy it is if you have a hollow ground bevel.

[Joel Goodman]

That is the same style as the one LN sells.

[Rusty Elam]

Ive got the Veritas you are talking about and I really like it, a little harder to set up than the MKII but its solid when you do, just depends if the $20 matters to you.

[Danny Thompson]

BTW, you can camber irons using the standard roller on the Mk.II by simply pressing firmly on one corner or the other during the pull stroke. The camber won't be scrub plane-ready, but will be more than enough to prevent plane tracks.

[Joe Cunningham]

I've got one of these (http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=2417&cookietest=1) and I think I paid less than $10 for it. I think it works great. Due to the single roller in the middle you can create a slight camber by just changing pressure on the corners

I've got that one and the veritas mkII.

I prefer the narrow little roller one for my plane blades, but for my shooting planes and chisels I use the MKII.

I had the MKII first, but just could not get the camber I wanted from it without ponying up the $$$ for the camber attachment. The narrow roller one was cheaper.

[Matt Woessner]

Thanks again for all the responses!

[Eric Brown]

I also have the Mk II and it works well for plane blades.
It does not handle chisels as well if the tops are not flat and square or narrow. Either do these freehand or get a side clamp style. The best side clamp is probably the ones made by Kell. Also, I really like my Shapton glass stones from L-N.

Eric

[Mark Koury]

Veritas MK II guide!