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Thread: Woodpeckers One-Time Honing Guide

  1. #1
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    Woodpeckers One-Time Honing Guide

    Woodpeckers is offering a One-Time tool honing guide until May 20. It's basically a copy of the Kell honing guide but with wheels that can be moved to either the inside or outside position. This allows the guide to handle 1/8" chisels to wide plane irons with a solid base from having two wheels while keeping the wheels away from the edge of the stone. Looks like a good design for 90 degree sharpening. It won't work with skewed blades. If I hadn't spent so much money on other honing guides over the last 15 years I would probably buy this one even with a relatively high price of $150.

    I know, lot's of you guys do free-hand and that's great for you. But, I and others have problems getting a 90 degree alignment and a repeatable bevel angle from free-handing. If you do, you may want to consider this Woodpecker guide.

    Bob

  2. #2
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    I just bought a Veritas Mk2 honing guide. But, this one looks very good and I might have bought it if I had seen it first.

  3. #3
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    I, too, have the Veritas Mk2 with all the gizmos except the camber wheel. It’s okay but the Woodpeckers, except for the fact that it doesn’t work with skewed blades, looks like the perfect honing guide, if there is such a thing. Pricey, but I’d sell my Mk2 and get this if I didn’t have so many planes with skewed blades.

  4. #4
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    Sep 2011
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    I think it more closely looks like the Lie Nielson honing guide than the Kell guide. I have both of the Kell ones and LN one. Unlike the LN guide, the Woodpecker doesn't need different jaws for different chisels/plane iron. But the LN guide will do skewed tools.

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Ralph Boumenot View Post
    But the LN guide will do skewed tools.
    The LN guide will handle skewed LN tools, but if you have skewed tools from another manufacturer then you will still need another jig, or learn to sharpen them freehand.

  6. #6
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    https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=5qAx0gG8Ubw

    Designed by an engineer and not by a woodworker. This honing guide will only sharpen bench chisels and is unsuited for plane blades. Why do I say this? Because it is designed to be used with widely spaced wheels ("for stability"), and it will not be possible to create a cambered edge on this (without building a special jig to do so ... and that is getting unnecessarily complicated).

    I suggest that Woodpecker design a central wheel ala the Eclipse and the LN.

    The other limitation is that the angle setter only goes up to 47 degrees. For BU planes - which would again be limited to straight blades - the highest cutting angle is 59 degrees. Compare that the LN can do 62 degrees and the Veritas 65 degrees.

    The other major issue is that it seems designed around parallel-sided blades. That might rule out many vintage types with tapered sides.

    This is an awfully expensive guide when compared with the much cheaper LN, which has so much more potential and is beautifully built.

    Regards from Perth

    Derek
    Last edited by Derek Cohen; 05-01-2019 at 9:13 AM.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Derek Cohen View Post
    The other major issue is that it seems designed around parallel-sided blades. That might rule out many vintage types with tapered sides...
    Not seeing how is this jig any less effective for tapered-sided blades than the Eclipse/LN guides? Also, I expect that the inboard wheel setting will be fine to feather the edges of blades to eliminate plane tracks, but I agree that heavy-camber blades will need a different approach.

    This is an awfully expensive guide when compared with the much cheaper LN, which has so much more potential and is beautifully built.
    Price wise, the LN jig at $125 (jig only) and the WP jig at $150 (jig+bevel gauge) appear to be comparable. Of course, the WP jig is more pricey if one adds the angle fixture. Not saying that this is a particularly nice design and/or value priced, but I’ve seen a lot worse jigs offered over the years. It’s nice to have options.

  8. #8
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    This is an awfully expensive guide when compared with... [ellipsis added]
    Freehand sharpening, imo, a guide is helpful when rehabbing an old blade or establishing a new bevel. If one ever needs to sharpen something other than a straight edge, the guides will not help.

    In my case sharpening involves gouges, molding plane blades, axes, metal working chisels, garden tools and so many other items that a guide can not hold.

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  9. #9
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    Not seeing how is this jig any less effective for tapered-sided blades than the Eclipse/LN guides? Also, I expect that the inboard wheel setting will be fine to feather the edges of blades to eliminate plane tracks, but I agree that heavy-camber blades will need a different approach.
    Greg, neither the LN nor the WP guides hold tapered blades. The Eclipse will. The Veritas (being a top holder) will.

    Feathering a camber on the WB? It is not designed to do this. Trying to do so will require heavy angling of the guide/wheel, and I suspect that this will damage both the wheel and the stone.

    Regards from Perth

    Derek

  10. #10
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    Feathering a camber on the WB? It is not designed to do this. Trying to do so will require heavy angling of the guide/wheel, and I suspect that this will damage both the wheel and the stone.
    Maybe the next offering from Woodpecker will be a slightly smaller wheel to be used to tilt the holder.

    As an alternate a person could wrap tape around one wheel.

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Derek Cohen View Post
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=5qAx0gG8Ubw

    Designed by an engineer and not by a woodworker. This honing guide will only sharpen bench chisels and is unsuited for plane blades. Why do I say this? Because it is designed to be used with widely spaced wheels ("for stability"), and it will not be possible to create a cambered edge on this (without building a special jig to do so ... and that is getting unnecessarily complicated).

    I suggest that Woodpecker design a central wheel ala the Eclipse and the LN.

    The other limitation is that the angle setter only goes up to 47 degrees. For BU planes - which would again be limited to straight blades - the highest cutting angle is 59 degrees. Compare that the LN can do 62 degrees and the Veritas 65 degrees.

    The other major issue is that it seems designed around parallel-sided blades. That might rule out many vintage types with tapered sides.

    This is an awfully expensive guide when compared with the much cheaper LN, which has so much more potential and is beautifully built.

    Regards from Perth

    Derek
    Derek,

    Thanks for the link.

    If I had to go through all that hoo haw every time I sharpened iron I'd never get any work done. I think the phrase I'm looking for had something to do with "one born every minute".

    ken

  12. #12
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    Aug 2012
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    LMAO, Note to new woodworkers: All you need to get started, one each of LN, LV, WP, and Kell jigs, one complete set of water stones, a set of 4 Aldi's chisels, and a used Stanley #4 and you are good to go. Advice given right here on SMC but not all in the same posts.
    Jim

  13. #13
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    Jim, a selection of plane blades for the #4 would not go amiss. An an original Eclipse jig, not one of the copies. Common now - get serious!

    Regards from Perth

    Derek

  14. #14
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    It does seem limited in what it can do for you for the price point. Bevel angle, skew and camber limitations are the first thing I think of. I see others have noted other concerns. I do not believe it is designed to be "all things" but, is priced as such. Like a hammer, there are many variations in honing guides but, when you get right down to it, it is just a hammer (or a honing guide). The subtleties of variation will appeal to one person or another for their own reasons but, the function is pretty basic. As a disclaimer I have Kell, Eclipse and Veritas guides and turn to each for different purposes. I do not use a guide for every sharpening effort lest I spend more time "setting up to sharpen" than cutting wood ;-)
    "A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg".


    – Samuel Butler

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Derek Cohen View Post
    Jim, a selection of plane blades for the #4 would not go amiss. An an original Eclipse jig, not one of the copies. Common now - get serious!

    Regards from Perth

    Derek
    Eclipse is too inexpensive. You can have inexpensive tools but should have the best maintenance equipment. Makes the tools work better.
    Jim

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