First experience with Veritas MKII honing guide

[Eric Schubert]

So, I got sucked into the Lee Valley free shipping shindig going on, and my package already made it to my door today. Eagerly, I ripped open the box to check out my new chisels and the Veritas MKII honing guide that I plan to use to sharpen them. The chisels look great, and are lighter than I had expected. But I suspect I'll enjoy them quite a bit. The Veritas MKII, however, was what I was really after. I've tried sharpening some blades before, and it's always been difficult to really get a good edge on them. I knew this would really help me become consistent in my sharpening efforts. Since this is my very first experience with it, I thought I'd share. I apologize for the long post. Hopefully it's helpful.

Firstly, let me express that I'm a complete and total noob to true woodworking. I had woodshop in high school and absolutely loved it. But that was 15 years ago, and much of what I had done was forgotten, aside from vague happy memories and a couple of surviving projects. (I still use my large round cutting board made of maple and black walnut for pizzas!) But I don't have much experience building projects at home, away from a fully-equipped shop environment. I don't have a planer, jointer, bandsaw, tablesaw, drill press, etc. All I have are a few handheld power tools and some basic hand tools. The set of Narex Classic Bevel-Edge and mortise chisels I ordered are my first-ever woodworking chisels. And I just acquired a few old hand planes that need sharpening (or even a blade, for that matter). I've never used these tools, let alone sharpened them. So, having something like the MKII could be critical for my success.

Before beginning any work on my Narex chisels, I figured I would try this MKII out on my only other chisel; one with which I didn't mind experimenting. It's a 3/4" bevel-edge chisel from Ace Hardware that could very-well be 40 years old. And not only was it old, it was dull as a butter knife. I had some work cut out for me...

The Veritas MKII came with excellent instructions. And once I figured out how to use it, the honing guide was very easy to use. Here are the steps:

1. Attach the "registration gauge" to the guide and choose an angle setting with the stop.
2. Slip your chisel or blade into the guide with the side (if the sides are parallel) against the fence on the registration gauge, and the tip against the stop on the gauge.
3. Clamp in the chisel or blade with the tightening screws.
4. Remove the registration gauge.
5. Have at it!

It really is quite simple. The gauge, stop, and markings really make it easy to set this tool up consistently. My only issue is that the chisel can slip a bit if you're putting sideways pressure on it during sharpening. The clamp bar isn't textured, so there's not a ton of friction holding the blade in place, even when the screws are really tight. Just don't put excess sideways pressure against the tool and it'll be fine.

I started with a marble plate and sandpaper with spray adhesive holding it to the marble. First I worked on flattening the back of the chisel. I did a rough flattening using up to 220-grit paper on the entire back, but got lazy and only finished through 600-grit within about 3/4" of the edge. I'm not sure if this is a problem or not. If it is, I'll go back and really polish up the back of the chisel. Then I worked on the bevel. It took a LOOOOOOOOONG time, even with 100-grit sandpaper, to get the bevel set. This blade had a convex bevel and needed some help. But once that bevel was good to go, the rest of the progression moved quickly. I went through 100, 220, 400, 600, and 1000-grit paper. Then I moved on to lapping film. (I got this for my straight razors.) The progression was 12, 5, and 3 micron films. I have a 1-micron film, but was too lazy to grab it.

In the end, the chisel came out REALLY sharp! It's not quite to a point where I could shave with it, but I think it's definitely ready for some chopping. I still need a little more practice sharpening, and it's possible that I need to do more work to really make this chisel razor-sharp. The first thing to try is probably putting a micro-bevel on it.

Overall, I really like the Veritas MKII. It's going to help a LOT as I start into using hand tools that require sharpening. I feel it'll pay for itself in no time at all. I'd highly-recommend it to anyone new to sharpening, or someone looking to get consistent results. It's an excellent tool, and I'm looking forward to getting my Narex chisels in tip-top shape using it.

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On a side note, I also discovered that I'm not a fan of my Naniwa 1K Superstone. I don't know why, but I just couldn't hit the whole bevel with that stone. It would polish up most of the bevel face, but it kept missing the edge. I didn't have that problem on the lapping film and marble. I've had some serious difficulty sharpening my straight razors on the Naniwa, too. I'm starting to question if the stone is the problem, rather than my technique. Either it's not a high-quality stone, or how I use it isn't a good technique on that stone. Perhaps it might be time to move on to harder natural stones.

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Lastly, I figured I would share some pictures of this old chisel that I worked on tonight. Here it is! The Ace Hardware 3/4" bevel-edge bench chisel. It was my grandfather's. When I got it, this thing had paint and grime all over it. I used a wire brush on my dremel and cleaned it up a bit. Now I think it looks pretty good! Notice in the second photo, you can actually see some letters reflecting on the bevel from my phone as I took the photo. The last photo shows the back of the chisel. It looks more scratched than it is because of the lighting. But you can tell where I concentrated my efforts along the edge.

[Shannon Brantley]

How long does the sandpaper last? When I first got into hand tools (not too many years ago) I went to a Lie Nielsen demo at Highland Woodworking. The sharpening technique they showed involved adhesive back sandpaper and it looked great. Just rip off a new piece when it loses its abrasion. What I didn't consider is that the guy sharpening wasn't footing the bill for that expensive sandpaper. Can you get a few uses out of one piece?

[bob blakeborough]

You shouldn't really be putting a lot of pressure on the guide while sharpening. Try and think of it is exactly that... Just a guide. I used to try and muscle everything while I was sharpening and it took a bit to figure out, but really I find now I get tools sharper, faster by using less pressure. Less pressure also reduces or eliminates accidental skewing of the blade. As a matter of fact I am now at the point I really only use a guide for re-establishing a bevel.

I do not regret a minute learning to sharpen with the MKII, but I am happy that I have slowly moved over to freehand for most of what I need to do...

[Prashun Patel]

"Try and think of it is exactly that... Just a guide. "

This is a very rich and true statement.

You may (as did I) find that your plane blades are tricky to sharpen squarely. This is caused by uneven and excessive clamping pressure on one side of the blade. I learned from others that you should tighten each knob in turn, a little at a time until both are snugged but not too tight.

Adhering to Bob's advice not to put a lot of pressure on the roller will prevent your blade from wiggling loose.

[Eric Schubert]

You can absolutely get a few uses or more out of one piece of sandpaper, especially if it's the better-quality type. The cheaper stuff will fall apart or the abrasive will start crumbling off after a bit. I used a red sandpaper for my coarsest grit (150), but I don't remember what brand it was. It's a deep, ruby color, not the rusty red-orange color some sandpapers have. I can find out what brand that was, if you want. But it looked similar to Norton "RedHeat". It came in sheets, though.

After that, I moved into Norton 3X for the 220, and on to Norton wet/dry for the 400, 600, and 1000.

Bob, I agree that lighter pressure is key to getting the sharpest edge. But I did use quite a bit of pressure to remove material quickly as I set my initial bevel. I had to take off a fair amount of metal to get a continuous flat bevel. Fresh sandpaper and pressure was the quickest way to make that happen without a grinder (I don't have one.). After the initial bevel was set, the rest was easy. Only light pressure is needed, at most, to get the bevel to the next grit.

I wouldn't be surprised if I end up honing freehand in the future. But this bevel was rounded over and needed a guide to get a good, flat surface.

[Eric Schubert]

"Try and think of it is exactly that... Just a guide. "

This is a very rich and true statement.

You may (as did I) find that your plane blades are tricky to sharpen squarely. This is caused by uneven and excessive clamping pressure on one side of the blade. I learned from others that you should tighten each knob in turn, a little at a time until both are snugged but not too tight.

Adhering to Bob's advice not to put a lot of pressure on the roller will prevent your blade from wiggling loose.

That's good to know. I had noticed that they mention tightening the screws alternating just a bit at a time on each side, and that makes sense. Clamp too hard on one side, and it'll throw off the angle just enough to cause issues. That could be especially true if you go to resharpen it later on and do it differently, it won't hit the bevel properly all the way across and you'll have to reset the bevel again.

[bob blakeborough]

After you tighten the screws just lightly snug and even, do a few light strokes and check the edge. If you see it beginning to skew slightly one way, all you have to do tighten the opposite screw a bit and test again. This will straighten the blade in the jig if you were off a little.

The first few tries I had to play with it a bit like that, but pretty quickly you get a feel for the screw tightening and now I can pretty much set it perfect the first time, every time...

[Steve Friedman]

On a side note, I also discovered that I'm not a fan of my Naniwa 1K Superstone. I don't know why, but I just couldn't hit the whole bevel with that stone. It would polish up most of the bevel face, but it kept missing the edge. I didn't have that problem on the lapping film and marble.

Keep in mind that it's probable that the flatness of the Naniwa probably doesn't match the flatness of the marble. It doesn't really matter which one is flatter. The important thing is that they are probably not flat relative to each other. That may not make a difference when free hand sharpening, but it does when using a honing guide.

A simple solution (in addition to checking the Naniwa for flatness) would be to raise the honing angle a couple of degrees when moving from the abrasive to the stone. You should quickly get a small micro bevel along the edge of the chisel.

I would also echo the comments above about using the MKII only as a guide. That's especially true when trying to use it with narrow chisels. In my experience, the MKII doesn't hold narrow chisels that securely, so that any lateral pressure will cause the chisel to skew.

Steve

[Eric Schubert]

I just assumed it would be similar to tightening lug nuts on a wheel. Alternate tightening and try to keep them as even as possible. That seemed to also help eliminate any shifting of the blade, since there's even contact across the top and bottom of the blade.

I plan to give this a try with a couple plane blades that I have, possibly even tonight. It should be interesting to see how it behaves with a wider blade.

Thanks for all of the advice, guys. Since I've started here, everyone's been nothing but kind and generous with their advice and experience.

[Eric Schubert]

Keep in mind that it's probable that the flatness of the Naniwa probably doesn't match the flatness of the marble. It doesn't really matter which one is flatter. The important thing is that they are probably not flat relative to each other.
...
A simple solution (in addition to checking the Naniwa for flatness) would be to raise the honing angle a couple of degrees when moving from the abrasive to the stone. You should quickly get a small micro bevel along the edge of the chisel.

That's interesting, since I actually used the marble tile with sandpaper to flatten the Naniwa stone. I've noticed that it's a very soft stone, and it can wear quickly. After a bit of honing, it can develop a bit of a dip in the stone, especially if you don't use the entire stone. But I didn't even think to raise the angle to just make a small micro-bevel. The MKII can do that really easily.

[Mike Henderson]

My only issue with the MkII jig is using it with narrow chisels. It just does not hold the chisel in place very well - it's way too easy for the chisel to move sideways a bit, which means you are now honing at an angle (sort of honing the chisel into a skew). I wish LV would do something to the jig to give is better side support for narrow chisels. Some jigs clamp the chisel from the sides, which holds narrow chisels in place while you hone them.

I've reached a point where I don't use the jig very much any more. I grind a primary bevel on the WorkSharp, then freehand a secondary bevel.

Mike

[Eric Schubert]

I wonder if maybe a rubber block might help. Something similar to the chisel's thickness that can kind of hold it against the "fence". There has to be a way to make it easier with narrow chisels.

[Mike Brady]

There was a hint awhile back that LV was developing a side clamping Mk.II fixture for narrow blades. The time frame apparently has gone from "within the year" to "within a year". What is it about honing guides that makes new ones so late to the party?

[Tom M King]

I whet by hand if I'm in the middle of working on something, but if a new bevel has been ground, I use this jig.

I used the rig that attaches to the front to establish the distance for various angles that I use. Once I had a wide chisel clamped right by the jig, I used it to set a limit block on a shop made gauge like you see a lot of people using for Eclipse guides and such.

The bar that clamps the iron or chisel in doesn't free float. I would like it better if it did, but it works fine like it is. I put the chisel or iron in the jig, turn it over so I can see that the bar is touching on both sides of the iron or chisel, but not really tight yet. I then slide the iron or chisel against the stop block in my made gauge, and tighten the little knobs.

This goes a lot quicker than fumbling with the contraption that attaches to the front.

Make sure the two stop microbevel knob is in the top position to start, and you are ready to go.

My helpers, who are hopeless at honing by hand, can sharpen something as good as anyone with this jig. They know to use it, and I know they will hand me something sharp.

[Brian Holcombe]

I find a guide is great to put a micro bevel on a blade, beyond that I find them a hinderance. Reason being is that I maintain my edges with a 6k whetstone and doing so by hand allows me to fine tune where the pressure is being applied, to keep plane blades square and get a razor edge quick.

Not trying to pee on your birthday cake, and hopefully it doesn't seem that way.

My advice, for what it's worth, put a micro bevel on your bench chisels and mortise chisels, flatten the back if you feel you need to, but i think it's probably fine just to lean on the front of it when you are taking off your burr. Save your efforts for paring chisels, where an incredibly sharp edge and perfectly flat back is noticeably helpful.