Sharpening Jig

[John Pace]

I need a sharpening jig. I have an ancient Veritas Honing Guide and I have always had a hard time clamping a chisel in it and aligning it properly – which means I have not used it lately. My chisels suffer… I have recently bought a couple hand planes so I need to get better at sharpening. I love Lee Valley and Veritas stuff, other than that jig, so I am looking at:

Veritas Side-Clamping Honing Guide, Item 05M0940
Veritas Mk.II Standard Honing Guide, Item 05M0901

Why would you chose one over the other? I think my sharpening needs are simple, basic chisels and plane blades.

Outside of LV, what other sharpening jig would you recommend?

Other sharpening options? Pretty sure I will never be Rob C and be able to do it all freehand.

My current sharpening stone setup is:
Trend Double-Sided Diamond Sharpening Stone, Extra Fine/Coarse, 8 x 3 inch, 300 / 1000
Shapton Glass Stone 4000
Leather strop

Thank you in advance!

[Ben Ellenberger]

I’ve got the standard honing guide. It works great for plane blades. I agree with their guidance that it is appropriate for chisels down to 1/2”. It seems it would be very difficult to use with narrower chisels. I got it with their narrow-blade guide and find the combination of the two to work great.

that said, I’m sure their side clamp guide works great too. I don’t think it was for sale when I got mine. Having a single guide that works for everything sounds appealing.

[Cameron Wood]

I got this on Amazon to try out. Modified it with a longer bolt and putting the bearings in the center section,

but so far it has been 100% useless. Intended for long narrow carving tools I think.

Not recommended.

510S1bp8xzL._AC_SL1001_.jpg


I use one that I've had forever similar to this. You can adjust the angle of the tool to hone evenly, and holds Japanese blades.

https://www.amazon.com/KAKURI-Honing...s%2C107&sr=8-1

[Stephen Rosenthal]

I have the Veritas Honing Guide with small blade attachment and the MkII with narrow blade attachment and skew guide. They’re just okay. I bought them before Lie Nielsen released their sharpening jig, which I would have purchased over either of the Veritas. I still might someday when the attachments I need are back in stock.

[Luke Dupont]

Just FYI, free hand isn't difficult at all. Start with a very coarse, fast cutting stone at first, and you'll quickly get the hang of it. Your hand will learn the angle -- and it will be surprisingly accurate / replicable. As you get the feel for it, you can start going straight to the finer stones.
Just remember, you're setting the bevel angle yourself. Be patient and bring the whole back down without lifting up more and more to get down to the blade. Be stubborn about making the bevel conform to the angle that you've decided it should be, and grind away 'till you get there.
This first step of setting the bevel is where I think most people go wrong with free hand sharpening. They get impatient and start lifting more and more. In the end, its not a complicated or difficult process at all. It just takes a bit of patience, practice and muscle memory.

There will always be some tool that just doesn't fit into a jig, so it's a very good skill to have, and one that will pay off. Then you'll be able to improvise and sharpen just about anything anywhere on any media. I regularly touch up dull knives on the underside of a ceramic mug when I see people struggling with them, to both their amazement and delight. Can't do that with a jig!

Anyway, nothing wrong with jigs if that's what you're set on though. Just trying to explain the merits of free hand and make it seem less intimidating, because it's not! If you're doing hand-tool woodworking, you're already quite good with your hands, I'll wager.

[Tom M King]

Get the side clamping one.

[Brandon Guergo]

I know I'm new here, but I've got Item 05M0920 from Lee Valley, I just cleaned it all, it's all mint and was considering posting it on eBay. I notice that most of my Japanese tools (chisels) end up hand sharpened at about 27 degrees or more, and with the guide there is no wiggle room in selection, 25 degrees would take quite an adjustment on all my tools. The planes seem to stay at around 25 degrees so that's why I was hesitant to sell. But I kind of like free hand anyway.

If you use mostly Western styles and especially Lee Valley or Western planes with the thinner blades, the guide is a no-brainer.

[glenn bradley]

I've been a MK-II user since I don't know when. I have the cambering roller and a skew registration attachment for skew chisels. No complaints. I also have a large wheel and small wheel Richard Kell primarily used for small or awkward irons. This pretty much handles everything for me except gouges which I do free hand.

[Rob Luter]

I had the whole LV MKII kit and it worked well. That said, it was a little fussy to get set up. The regular blade clamp didn't assure a square presentation to the stone and I had to add a leather pad to the clamp to keep it gripping tight. The side clamp jaws worked well.

A couple years ago I sold the whole lot and bought the LN honing guide and a spare set of jaws for spokeshaves. It was a little spendy but didn't really cost any more than my investment in the whole MKII kit. It's solid as a rock and greatly simplified things. I use a little spacer board to establish blade angle (see photo). Too add a small secondary (or tertiary) bevel I just back the blade up 1/32". In process touch up sharpening is handled freehand.

[Tom M King]

I have both of the mentioned guides, and others. When I had helpers, I hired people that no one else would hire, because they had learning issues. Long story shortened, I had to come up with a way so they could sharpen edges. I had started with an Eclipse bought 45 years ago, switched to by hand only for a couple of decades, but went back to a guide so anyone could sharpen and easily repeat the angle I wanted.

One thing I needed was a way to repeat an exact setting regardless of which guide was used. The common projection guides work for only one guide, and really don't produce exactly the same angle with every thickness of cutter.

Pictures should be self-explanatory. They work with any kind of jig, including not having to fumble with the MK-II thing on the end, and any cutter. I just made these as a test about 7 years ago, thinking if they worked I would make some "good" ones out of Corian. We are still using these, and I have added a few more angles since these. I still intend to make a different version, but as long as these work as good as they do I won't take the time. When I do get around to making a "permanent" one, they will all be lined up on one base. I have since added 18, 27 degree angled ones.

The narrow chisel in the old Record jig with a little ball for a guide would never be sharpened with that jig. I just did that in the picture to show that any cutter and any jig can quickly be set to the angle you want. They work for the MK-II as well, but you have to limit the length of the angled part of the jig. Short is fine for them anyway.

When you make them, the angle of the end is the complementary angle (subtract the angle you want from 90) to the one you want the cutting edge. They are very quick to use, and anyone can use them to repeat an exact cutting angle. There is nothing to adjust or fumble with, and cost nothing.

I suggest a side clamping jig to start with.