Jap. Waterstones Which waterstone should I choose? KING and SUN TIGER Suehiro and Cerax Shapton Ha-no-kuromaku line 1STONE NANIWA Lobster Naniwa Sharpening Stones Naniwa Professional Stones Imanishi Bester Sigma Select II Juuma Cobalt Blue JUUMA Whetstone Pro NANIWA Traditional Stones Japanese water stones: The Veritas Honing Guide Mk II is an excellent tool, and a class above most cheaper guides. It can be a bit fiddly to set up at first, but when you know how to use it, you can get your blade ready to hone within a minute. The second thing I really like about this honing guide is that it does everything you want it to do. Some other honing guides (especially the cheap ones) don’t provide a way to set specific angles, meaning you have to make jigs yourself. They also don’t guarantee squareness, meaning you have to test for square yourself every time.

It is easy to set the angle you want, easy to align your blade to be square, and comfortable to use. It is also not too expensive, being about half the price of the more barebones Lie-Nielsen honing jig. All-in-all, the Veritas Honing Guide offers great value for money, and is a great help especially to beginning woodworkers who find freehand sharpening daunting. Where to buy the Veritas Mk. II Honing Guide It seems only natural that a company known for its hand planes and chisels would also make a tool for sharpening them. The style guide is the roller. Because it’s so narrow, you have to be careful to avoid tipping the jig in use, especially with narrower blades. But if you’re looking for a basic, no-nonsense honing guide, this one is hard to beat. sled requires that your sharpening stone has perfectly parallel sides. But for sharpening on a surface plate with sandpaper, where this isn’t an issue, this guide is a good choice. honing guide is a simple and elegant design. Made in England by craftsman Richard Kell, it’s beautifully machined and is silky smooth in operation. Rather than positioning the roller at the rear, this guide uses a pair of rollers on the sides of the jig.A honing guide is really an essential for sharpening plane irons and chisels if the intention is to maintain or renew a clean, straight bevel. In fact, the aid is the only way for a beginner to manage this at all, and it is appreciated by the expert sharpener because it makes the job so much faster and easier. Synopsis: Some folks prefer to sharpen their plane blades and chisels freehand, but Chris Gochnour is a proponent of using a honing guide. These guides hold blades at a consistent angle while you sharpen and are essential to getting keen, repeatable results. He tested a variety of guides with different blades, focusing on ease of setup, accuracy of setup, versatility, and consistency. This review focuses on guides that sharpen on the stone. Models reviewed include the Lie-Nielsen, Veritas Mk.II Deluxe Honing Guide Set, generic side-clamping guides, the Kell No. 2, Nano Hone’s Sharp Skate 4, Trend, and the Veritas Sharpening System.

style honing guide holds the tool to be sharpened between a pair of stout jaws. Plane irons fit in the upper opening and chisels fit in the lower opening. The design automatically squares up the tool in the guide, which cuts down significantly on set-up time. Credit subject to status and affordability. Terms and conditions apply. Axminster Tool Centre Ltd trading as Axminster Tools is a credit broker and is Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Credit is provided by Novuna Personal Finance, a trading style of Mitsubishi HC Capital UK PLC, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Financial Services Register no. 704348. Sharpening Stones Japanese Natural Stones Natural Nagurastones Natural Stones from Kyushu Koppa style natural Ozuku sharpening stones Using Japanese Waterstones Other Sharpening Stones, Honing Guides, Accessories Missarkastones Not all the aids are all things to all blades. Japanese and European tools, being differently designed, present different challenges to the honing guide. Always take care to fix the tool in the guide at as near to 90° as you can. This is especially important for planes with a narrow throat and no adjustment for the blade.Not only for use with Veritas miniature tools, the system is also a sharpening option for other small blades, such as those used with the Veritas flat detail palm plane and other small planes. Comes in a French-fitted leatherette presentation box. Made in Canada. I bought mine at a local Dutch store, but these are some good places to buy the Veritas honing guide:

Veritas has produced miniature versions of their tools for years, and while they certainly have appeal as collectibles, each is fully functional. To support their utility, this honing guide is a natural extension, so that those who use the Veritas miniature chisels and planes can keep the blades properly sharpened. In use, I found clamping up a tool in the guide to be a bit difficult. You have to tighten down two thumbscrews to hold the tool in place, and they’re uncomfortable to grasp and difficult to access. Once you have everything set up though, the jig performs adequately. It’s certainly possible to learn how to sharpen accurately without the use of a honing guide. But when honing freehand, there’s a tendency to slightly shift the angle of the tool at the beginning or end of each stroke. This can result in a rounded bevel that won’t cut as effectively (seen in drawings). The jig's machined aluminium base provides skew angle markings that are laser etched for accuracy and legibility. The skew angle graduations cover the range of 10° to 45° in 5° increments, and there are additional marks (18°, 22°, 28°) to cover the angles of popular skew plane blades.It’s hard to find fault with this guide, but if I had to, I’d say that it’s a bit large and heavy compared to some of the other guides. This can make it a little harder to control when sharpening narrow chisels. Still, it remains my favorite in the mid-price range. For holding very short blades, such as those found on many spokeshaves, see our small blade holder.