My day job at a woodworking magazine forces me to try out new sharpening equipment all the time, which drives me bonkers. No matter how long you have been sharpening, it takes some time to get tuned into a new stone or guide or system.
However, sometimes all this agony results in some ecstasy.
For example, I’ve become fond of the small Kell honing guide for chisels. No honing guide I’ve ever used can produce such accurate edges. Why? Two reasons. The jig clamps from the sides, which prevents your chisel from shifting. However, my old Eclipse-style guide also clamps from the sides. So what’s the big deal?
Where the Kell excels is that you can secure the chisel with its unbeveled face against the Kell’s guide bars. Brilliant. While my Eclipse guide tends to make my chisels twist, the Kell does not. As a result, it’s far easier to hone a straight secondary bevel on chisels (and on straight irons for joinery planes).
The irony about the Kell is that I was introduced to the guide by Joel Moskowitz, the owner of Tools for Working Wood. Joel is an advocate of freehand sharpening. But now I’ve even more attached to my honing guides because of him. Thanks Joel!
My other favorite bit of sharpening equipment is the little block of wood shown in the photo. I mark common honing angles on it using my daughter’s protractor. Then I set it on the end of my bench and use it to set the chisel to the proper angle for sharpening in the guide.
I have tried myriad devices and techniques for setting angles. I have marked up my workbench with dozens of lines for setting a wide variety of irons to a wide variety of angles. Nothing works as simple and brilliantly as a direct reading from my block of wood. And it’s portable and I never – ever – have to compensate for the thickness of a tool or its taper.
I had to make up this new block of wood recently because I lost my old one at Kelly Mehler’s School of Woodworking. My old one was fancier – it had the radius of my fore plane’s blade shaped into the back end. That way I could just trace the shape onto a fore plane blade and grind to the line.
— Christopher Schwarz
So how do you hone your plane blades?
Jason
Jason,
With my old $10 Eclipse side-clamp guide. Wide blades don’t twist in it.
Chris
Chris – What’re the guide rollers made of? Some of these jigs have teflon or xytel rollers, which I find get quickly gunked up with loose grit from a water or oil stone.
David,
The rollers are Ertalite TX. Read about the guides here:
http://richardkell.co.uk/honingECom.htm
I have sharpened more than 100 chisels with the guide. The rollers are still smooth and perfect. The Kell is *very* well made.
Chris
Chris, can you explain more about setting honing angles from your wooden guideblock. I can see how you can read an existing angle from it but don’t see how you’d use it for setting up a honing guide.
Who you trying to kid? That bench hasn’t got a mark on it. It’s too pretty to use for anything except as a backdrop for photos. You need to stand back about 8 feet and heave a big old chunk of angle iron up on to it a few times. Get you a few nicks, dents and scratches then you won’t be afraid to use it. It’s like a new pair of work boots, can’t get a damn thing done until you get a few scuffs on them. My old boss, when he saw a man with new boots he would walk up and spit on them then scuff up the toes with the bottom of his shoe and say, now, you can go to work.
Jerry,
The photo must have fooled you. My bench has been to hell and back. It just doesn’t show there.
Chris
Oh by the way Chris, I was having so much fun poking you about the bench I forgot to give you these 2 URLs. They are on the Gutenburg web site and I thought you would find the books interesting if you haven’t seen them before.
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/21531
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/27238
Cheers
Jerry
Chris,
Did you check Kelly’s apron? He does go by nickname "Stickey Fingers Mehler" or "Kelly the Lifter"! Don’t ask me how I know this.
Michael
I’m relatively new at woodworking and I have found a truly gifted instructor here in South Dakota of all places. He’s amazing and I pay him more than he asks for his time, not that I have a lot of either to spare. However, he is a die-hard freehand sharpener. His test to see if the back is honed well enough is reading the maker and wattage on the light bulb he inspects the blade with.
I’m going on six months and I’m still not impressed with my freehand sharpening ability. Some days I can’t miss and on others it looks like I just found out what a water stone is. Is this honing device for me or is this one of those accessories you buy to save time when you’re good enough at woodworking that sharpening is a time consuming chore that detracts from your $$$ making time or is this something for me to stretch my budget for to get me over this hump of sharpening? Thanks!
p.s. I’d go with the larger one for the chisels and plane blades.
Scott,
I’ve been sharpening tools since 1993. I’m good at freehand sharpening, but I use a jig most of the time because it’s repeatable. And unerring.
I use two jigs. The small Kell and the $10 side-clamp honing guide you can get almost anywhere.
The big jig is really too big. It doesn’t work on standard-size stones very well.
Chris
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