![]() ![]() And the blade will never budge from its honing angle. It works for hollow- ground bevels and flat bevels alike. Now set up your honing jig to raise the tool to 27° or 28° (go higher for chisels that you will pound and chop with, and forĬertain bevel-up planes), and start honing. Just grind at a slightly shallower angle than you want for your secondary (honed) bevel. Sandpaper platter, or any way that is convenient. So feel free to use your honing guide to form the primary bevel on a few sheets of sandpaper stuck on glass or granite, on a coarse diamond plate, on a motorized Bench grinders take a bit of skill to avoid burning the edges and softening the steel. Now you’re a goner, because you have no good way of knowing if each successive grit is getting to the very tip.Ĭontrast that tricky operation with the simplicity of a honing guide. Unless you have a good feel for this and practice frequently, you eventually will rock the bevel off its high points, rounding the tip slightly. Now picture what happens as you hold that blade by hand, rock it onto its bevel, and try to lock your arms and hold it at precisely the same angle while sliding it back and forth along the stone. ![]() Like sanding a wood surface, you need to work your way up through the abrasive grits (grinding at a coarse grit, then usually going to a series of stones: 1,000-grit, then 4,000, then 8,000) to end up with a polished secondary bevel at the tip of the tool. (It’s easier on chisels, which have a longer bevel, than on plane blades, which are thinner.) But if you rock the blade at all as you move it, the system breaks down. Then you rock the tool on the sharpening stone, feeling for the little bumps that tell you the bevel is resting flat, and then try to keep at that same angle, riding those two tiny points evenly as you move the blade up and down the stone. For starters, it works much better with a “hollow grind,” the scooped-out bevel formed by a wheel of some kind. To understand why handheld honing is tricky, you need to understand the process. Then you’ll know what all the hand-tool fuss is about. You might experience true sharpness for the first time. And if you rock that edge on the stone, even a little bit, you might not be sharpening the very tip. I admit, with zero setup time the method is faster than a honing guide, but most hobbyists don’t sharpen their chisels and plane blades every day, or even every week, so they never develop and maintain the finely tuned muscle memory that handheld honing requires. Those who advocate handheld honing are mostly professional furniture makers, who sharpen their tools every day and don’t want to waste time. That’s not the best advice for hobbyists, if you ask me. Roughly half the teachers I know tell their students to hone by hand, balancing the tool on its bevel by feel. To view the entire article, please click the View PDF button below.I hear from a lot of readers who struggle with sharpening, and I always pass along my two personal breakthroughs: Use a honing guide and go up to 8,000 grit. Used mindfully, either will be a great addition to your sharpening arsenal, getting you back to your bench with razor-sharp blades in little time. No single guide did everything perfectly, but two were easily my top picks: the Lie-Nielsen honing guide and the Veritas Mk.II Deluxe Honing Guide Set. To determine the best models, I tested each with a variety of different blades and focused on four areas: ease of setup, accuracy of setup, versatility, and consistency. Should it ride on the stone or off? I prefer on. Should it clamp from the sides or the top? It depends. With all the guides on the market, it’s hard to know which one to pick. Intended to hold blades at a consistent angle while you sharpen, these guides are essential to getting keen, repeatable results. ![]() While some may prefer to sharpen freehand, I’m a big proponent of honing guides, and I recommend one for anyone looking to get sharp edges. To be successful, a sharpening routine for woodworkers must be easy, quick, and versatile, and it must produce accurate and consistent results. 2, Nano Hone’s Sharp Skate 4, Trend, and the Veritas Sharpening System. Models reviewed include the Lie-Nielsen, Veritas Mk.II Deluxe Honing Guide Set, generic side-clamping guides, the Kell No. This review focuses on guides that sharpen on the stone. He tested a variety of guides with different blades, focusing on ease of setup, accuracy of setup, versatility, and consistency. These guides hold blades at a consistent angle while you sharpen and are essential to getting keen, repeatable results. Synopsis: Some folks prefer to sharpen their plane blades and chisels freehand, but Chris Gochnour is a proponent of using a honing guide. ![]()
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