Why You Need A Honing Jig

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A honing guide or sharpening guide can be a huge benefit to the new woodworker or even the seasoned vet. the honing guide takes a lot of the gues to work out of the skill and lets you get back to woodworking.

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[JFioriMan]

I have Parkinson's Disease - I'm not bothering learning freehand, and using jigs helps with a lot of things. I love my Mark II!

[MrMNRichardWright]

I learned the expensive way starting with a cheap jig, it did help me learn that sharp tools are way better to use. After just a short while I wanted to get really sharp, after getting frustrated, I bit the bullet and got the Veritas. Works great, wish I started with the better tool. Buy once cry once.

[coldwoodcowboy]

I love freehand sharpening. I find it relaxing and enjoyable. But when I’m restoring a plane and the iron needs a lot of work and reprofiling, it is soooo nice to be able to put it in a guide and not really have to pay too much attention to it while I do it. Just watch some videos or something and go to town. Makes it a lot easier and makes the time go by faster.

[douglashopkins]

Free hand sharpening was a game changer for me.... sure, sharp chisels and so forth... the real benefit is that my kitchen knives are sharp for a change, and scissors, and blender (yes, makes a big difference to just square of the 90 degree bevels) and everything else in the house. Of course this has also dropped me down the rabbit hole of Arkansas stones. Big thing I have found though is that I hardly ever use the stones for my tools... strop often and regularly. I have a jig which I only use to regrind an edge.

[Rwjudy]

James, thank you. Good info on the need for 90° from the side. The limited number of strokes you took and not removing the burr after each stone was interesting and helpful, too.

[philaandrew]

Plus one for the Veritas. Even after 35 plus years I use one to restore old plane blades simply because it is easier to pull that out of the drawer than it is to pfaff around with the wet stone grinder.. Once the bevel is established all it takes is a few swipes on the 1000 grit diamond plate and 20-30 swipes on the strop and back in action.

[sparkyheberling]

8:05 The thumbs-down hold is the only one I use—ever since the jig accidentally tipped and the chisel gouged the water stone.😢
Applying pressure thumbs-down feels more stable.

[jeffsimpson]

Hand sharpening changed my life and took my woodworking to another level, but I still use a jig to sharpen the cambered irons on my bench planes.

[ay]

As always, this video was spot on! I started using the Veritas jig, but now do most of my sharpening freehand. Just like you said, I now sharpen much, much more frequently which gives me much, much better results. I do use the jig every now and then to "re-initialize" a blade. By this, I mean that I like to put a very, very small camber on my smoothing plane irons to minimize plane tracks (just a few extra strokes on either edge), if that camber starts to get too big, I use the jig to restore a straight edge.

I am really glad you made the comment about squareness! I have obsessed about that in the past, and it caused me no end of frustration. I have started being less fussy about it, and your comments reinforced my own observations.

Finally, no matter how much you try to learn by watching videos with diagrams and all sorts of tips, you actually start putting metal to stone to really understand exactly what is and what isn't important. It seems like it should be so simple, but (for me anyway) it took a lot of fussing and experimentation to understand what really is going on and develop a sense for how to quickly and easily get good results.

[Rwjudy]

Thanks, James. You answered several questions that will save me time and effort: how much of the edge needs to be at a 30-35º bevel, how little time is needed on the finer plates or stones, and not worrying about squareness of the edge.

[robertweldon]

I have a Stanley plane very similar to the one you had on the bench. It had been MY great uncles (I'm 75), and is now over 100 years old. When I was a bout 8, I tried to sharpen the blade with a file, Ya I know, remember I was 8. Years later, about 50, I decided to do a clean up restoration to the plane. I was fortunate to have been working in a print shop that had an in house maintenance shop. The maintenance super had a surface grinder and re-beveled the blade to a perfectly square 35 degree angle. Since I have never had to go through any heavy sharpening cycles. He showed me the finger pressure method to help keep the angle at 35
I place the blade on a piece of 400 grit wet and dry, with a bit of water and drag the blade away from the edge, keeping a little pressure on the bevel. It works fine for my needs, I'm sure that under heavier use your more extensive work must be done.
Great informative video, like every other video of this type. ;-)

[pettere]

I find that plcing a block of wood with the desired edge angle cut onto one side ontop of my sharpening stone helps learning to hold the tool at the correct angle a lot easier.

[GNU_Linux_for_good]

06:17 The thumb screws are the problem, James. You can't tighten them tight enough (at least my thumbs aren't strong enough..), you have to use pliers in order to keep the blade straight. I replaced both of them with normal hex nuts, fixing them with an open-end wrench.

[captaincoyote]

Great educational video, once again. This will help me “hone” my skills at being a “sharper” woodworker! Thank you, Braveheart!

[chesterwsmith]

I love that mk.II honing guide. Every new iron or chisel I use it to set my main bevel and then use the little microbevel wheel thing to start my hone. Then I can easily freehand for a while until I think I'm getting off track and I can come back to the guide and get it fresh again. It's crazy how many features it has and I think I've left it on the same depth setting since I've gotten it, lol

[marksexton]

I think it was a game changer for me, when I found out, figured out, that only the front of the bevel needed to be sharpened.... prior to that it was taking forever trying to get the entire bevel "polished"....
And I'm finding out, if I use a plane or chisel a lot during a project, that it's way easier to give it a quick maintenance touch up, rather than waiting until I need to sharpen it...

[frankstalteri]

When I decided to learn how to use hand tools like planes and chisals, I purchased that jig so I can learn how to sharpen consistently. So that I can spend more time on learning about my planes. I do love the jig. Plus my lifestyle at this point I don't get to spend enough time in my shop to develop the muscle memory to master free hand sharpening.

[peter-na]

a final twisting motion on each stone improves the result a lot. a very thin piece of plastic protects the roller from being damaged.

[jeffsimpson]

Also, the Mark II has a little spring-loaded knob on the side to increase the bevel angle 1-2 degrees to make a microbevel.

[marcslonik]

Another great video James. Thanks! I use that Veritas jig as well. It works great. So great, that I'll probably never get good at freehand sharpening.
At 3:53 you wanted to say "jig", but you repeated "bevel" one more time :) I guess you can't add a caption anymore, but I'll still leave it here.
Also that jig does not require moving the mount to different mounting points (10:17) to get the secondary bevel. There is a notch on the side of the brass screw that keeps the roller in place. Normally that notch is set to 12 o'clock, but you can pull the cap and rotate it 180 degrees, so the notch points to 6 o'clock. That changes the angle by about 1 or 2 degrees for the secondary bevel.