The only blades I have that I cannot sharpen with the Lie-Nielsen guide are the skew blades of my Veritas skew rabbet planes. Lie-Nielsen doesn't make a set of jaws at that angle.
The only blades I have that I cannot sharpen with the Lie-Nielsen guide are the skew blades of my Veritas skew rabbet planes. Lie-Nielsen doesn't make a set of jaws at that angle.
Lie Nielsen has one of their Hand Tool Events in Denver next month. You give the honing guide a try before buying if you stop by the venue.
No issues with Wiggle as the sides are perfectly parallel. Mine are Sheffield made chisels. Seems to me I heard when they moved production to China the sides ceased to be parallel. Here's my 3/4 size in the guide, set for a 25* bevel. These are the standard jaws. Rock solid with just finger pressure on the clamp screw.
IMG_0932.jpg IMG_0933.jpg
As an aside, some scoff at these chisels. They were a "price point" buy when I was getting back into the hobby 14 or so years ago. I bought the whole set from 1/8' to 1". The backs weren't very flat on some and the machining was not terribly refined. That said, they were a great study in how to prep chisels and the steel is fantastic. They will take a very keen edge and it lasts. I save them for rough work and keep the Lie Nielsen's for the finer jobs. Sometimes I find myself wondering why as well as they cut.
Sharp solves all manner of problems.
Just because no one mentioned them I'll show the Kell guides. I got these for short and narrow irons but do use them for other things. I also have and use the Eclipse and Veritas MKII. The MKII and Eclipse work for most things, the Kell covers everything else in my arsenal.
kell guides.JPG
"A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg".
– Samuel Butler
The only chisels I have found that don't play well with the LN honing guide are the Barr chisels. Too bad, since the Barr chisels are very nice.
You’re right. Gotta look at those dates. Chalk it up to a senior moment.
Senior moments FTW!
Thanks for the reply, Rob. My Irwin-Marples are parallel, but I’ve still got the wiggle. While the sides along the length are parallel, the edges along the thickness taper to the front. I’ve diagrammed these four photos to help describe it:
1). The thickness at Z1 is greater than Z2 because of the taper from back to front
2). With the chisel in the L-N honing guide looking at the back end, Z1 is meeting the jaws on both sides
3). Looking at the front end, however, Z2 (right) does not meet the jaw
4). Chisel pushed to left so that Z2 (left) meets jaw and Z2 (right) does not meet jaw
Since Z1 > Z2, there’s (Z1-Z2) distance above the chisel edge before it meets the jaw and this is allowing the left to right wiggle. Really hand tightening, I can reduce the wiggle, but I’m just biting into the chisel and/or jaws in back.
Now I’m looking around the house to find something more refined than toothpicks to basically convert the angled jaw opening into a straight one... Or giving the mortise jaws a try. Those should reduce the space causing the wiggle, but still not eliminate it.
IM-chisel-in-LN-HG-1.jpgIM-chisel-in-LN-HG-2.jpgIM-chisel-in-LN-HG-3.jpgIM-chisel-in-LN-HG-4.jpg
What about the Barr dimensions made them a no-go in the LN honing guide?
Hi Benjamin and welcome to the Creek.
Do you have an angle gauge like:
Angle Gauge.png
This might help to find if the guide might have a problem or if the chisel bevels may have a slight misalignment.
A small bevel gauge might be enough for comparison purposes.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)