Jig for honing guide?

[Bernie Vail]

I have seen a jig for a vise type honing guide that has stops for the various angles you might want to hone. Does anyone know where I could find the lengths necessary to set the stops for the various angles?

[Joe Cunningham]

The one I have has them on the honing guide itself (in mm).

[Paul Murphy]

Bernie, depends on which guide you have, because the guides all have differing "wheel heights". If you don't have the height from the bottom of the wheel to the clamping surface, you cannot do the math to answer your question.

[Hong Le]

i believe you can probably figure it out by drawing the angles on a square block then hold it upright, then put the jig with a blade up against it and adjust accordingly.

[Richard Magbanua]

Hello, I JUST made one a few days ago! You can see how I made it here... angle jig (http://richardmagbanua.blogspot.com).

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4060/4404253977_658c54b1de_b.jpg

You can use a protractor to just draw it on a block of wood and set the blade on the honing guide to match the angle. If you don't have a protractor, you can google it and find images of protractors or angles and then print one out.

It's not important to get the EXACT angle. The idea is to be able to sharpen to a consistent angle every time to be efficient and have consistent results. My goal is still to sharpen by hand someday though.

You will get slightly different angles for different width blades, but this difference my not be very significant. You may want to check this for yourself and your particular blades.

Be sure to show us pics when you're done!

[Don Dorn]

Go to the Lie Nielsen web site and under sharpening, there is a PDF file that is two pages. On the second page, the distances are listed for the elipse style honing guide. I couldn't live without it.

[Richard Magbanua]

Thanks for that, Don! I never noticed that link there. Don't you like simple, easy to understand instructions? :)

[Nicholas Lingg]

I think the dimensions on the Lie Neilsen web site are for plane irons. Here are some additional angles for chisels. (please check them to be sure. I just finish them for some sharping I'm going to do next week)

[Bernie Vail]

Thanks a million guys.

[Don Dorn]

According to Lie Nielsen, if you put a chisel in the lower part of the elipse jig, simply subtract 5 degrees. Therefore, to put a 30 degree secondary bevel on plane iron, select the 30 degree block, for the same angle on a chisel, select 35. It has worked well for me.

[Don Naples]

Be aware that honing jigs such as the Eclipse type shown in this thread reference the iron to the top of the iron not the back. When sharpening tools that are of even thickness this is not an issue, If you have a plane iron (most cast steel plane irons) or chisel that have a taper on the side profile, then the angles will be off. This is one reason to use a guide that uses the back of the tool as the reference surface. Certainly you can compensate for this difference. Use a bevel gauge to measure from the surface of the abrasive to the back of the tool. You can then make your measurements or stop blocks to enable the repeating of that angle for the tapered tool.