I just received my Veritas honing guide yesterday. I tried it today and I
like how you can adjust the cam and create a micro bevel easily.

(I did Google, and I saw the same comment, but no solution)

Question: I am having trouble keeping the chisel square to the guide. If I
am off a little the chisel ends up skewed. To check before I hit the water
stone too aggressively, I brush the face of the bevel with a sharpie pen.
This way any skew is quickly noticeable before too much metal is removed.

Any thoughts, comments, or suggestions?

--
Stoutman
www.garagewoodworks.com

On Sun, 24 Dec 2006 17:15:27 -0500, "Stoutman" .@. wrote:


I just received my Veritas honing guide yesterday. I tried it today and I
like how you can adjust the cam and create a micro bevel easily.

(I did Google, and I saw the same comment, but no solution)

Question: I am having trouble keeping the chisel square to the guide. If I
am off a little the chisel ends up skewed. To check before I hit the water
stone too aggressively, I brush the face of the bevel with a sharpie pen.
This way any skew is quickly noticeable before too much metal is removed.

Any thoughts, comments, or suggestions?


Which Veritas guide did you get? This one:
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=33001&cat=1,43072,43078&ap=1
or
this one:
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=51868&cat=1,43072,43078&ap=1?

I have both, the first one has the problem you describe. I've found that
the second one is a tremendous improvement as it provides a means of
squaring the chisel to the guide and being able to tell if it is skewing.
The angle guide really helps with repeatability, shortening the time
required on subsequent sharpenings by preventing the angle from changing
from sharpening to sharpening.


+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

"Stoutman" .@. wrote in message
...

I have the first one you referenced. I wish I had known about the second
one, I would have gotten it instead.



I got the first when it was the only game in town. Used wedges to stabilize
chisels. Now I have the second variety, though the first is still extremely
usable for plane and shave irons. More difficult to set up a shave iron in
the new guy, especially the Veritas low angle type.

Worth getting the new. It's not just version 1.1, its a full 2.0

"George" wrote in message
.. .

"Stoutman" .@. wrote in message
...

I have the first one you referenced. I wish I had known about the second
one, I would have gotten it instead.



I got the first when it was the only game in town. Used wedges to
stabilize chisels. Now I have the second variety, though the first is
still extremely usable for plane and shave irons. More difficult to set
up a shave iron in the new guy, especially the Veritas low angle type.

Worth getting the new. It's not just version 1.1, its a full 2.0

And I too have both. :-)
I love to use the new one on my L-N chisels.
:-) :-)

"Stoutman" .@. wrote in message
...

I just received my Veritas honing guide yesterday. I tried it today and I
like how you can adjust the cam and create a micro bevel easily.

(I did Google, and I saw the same comment, but no solution)

Question: I am having trouble keeping the chisel square to the guide. If
I am off a little the chisel ends up skewed. To check before I hit the
water stone too aggressively, I brush the face of the bevel with a sharpie
pen. This way any skew is quickly noticeable before too much metal is
removed.

Any thoughts, comments, or suggestions?

--
Stoutman
www.garagewoodworks.com


Hi -

Have to confess that I still use the first version (the one you have)...been
using it for more than 20 years... though the new version does offer some
different features.

A few comments WRT to these (or any guides!) follow...

Firstly - I always approach a guide as an aid to - not necessarily a
replacement for - developing manual skill. I don't sharpen often enough to
develop/keep the muscle memory needed for freehand sharpening. What a guide
should do for you is maintain cosistent geometry, and offer repeatability in
setting up the tool - both honing guides Mark mentions will do that...

How you hold the guide, and use it, will affect how it sharpens - no matter
whether it's square in the jig or not. If you're familiar with hand/finger
positions for playing volleyball - that's the sort of hand position you need
for guiding a jig... touch the tips of your thumbs together (inline), and
the tips of your forefingers (not four fingers! ) together .... your
thumbs are used to push the jig, while the tips of your forefingers are
placed on the edges of the tip of the blade being sharpened.... it's your
hands that really do the work of applying pressure evenly at the tip, and of
moving the entire assembly. Even if the blade is not square in the guide -
you should still be able to hone perfectly square with jig #1 (the
original)...as it's your grip and hand pressure that determine where metal
get removed.... with the second jig - the wider wheel really fixes the
geometry - so it's much more important to get things square.

You'll also have to make a concious effort to apply pressure evenly at the
tip of the blade - a right-hander will ususally apply more force on the
RHS - a left hander vice versa...

Note too that feed bias will affect how metal gets removed - if you work
consistently right to left on a stone - you'll notice that the LHS of the
chisel gets sharpened more (looking at the chisel - you'll see a wider bevel
on the RHS, with the bevel facing you)....try to move in both directions
equally...

I guess the basic "trick" here is to understand that, even if using a guide,
your technique still has a tremendous impact on what happens at the tip of
the blade during sharpening...

Hope that all helps - if not, give me a shout by email, and I'll have
someone give you a call...

Cheers -

Rob

Hope that all helps - if not, give me a shout by email, and I'll have
someone give you a call...

Cheers -

Rob



Thanks Rob! I think I just need to use it more and develop my technique.

--
Stoutman
www.garagewoodworks.com

"Stoutman" .@. wrote in message
...
(snip)
Thanks Rob! I think I just need to use it more and develop my technique.

--
Stoutman
www.garagewoodworks.com


No worries - be glad to help however you need it...!

Cheers -

Rob

Thanks, Rob, for the tips. I have a version 2, and narrow chisels still
sometimes slip out of square if I'm not careful. (Putting the angle
setting guide back on can inadvertently damage the developing edge.)
Tightening the clamp evenly helps, as does a light touch. I've also
found using it backwards (sharp end toward me and guide wheel away)
seems to make it easier to keep the pressure even on the chisel and not
shift it in the holder. It seems to make me concentrate on the chisel,
not the guide. For removing nicks and more coarse sharpening, it is
also less fatiguing.

Thanks for a great tool.

David

Rob Lee wrote:
"Stoutman" .@. wrote in message
...
I just received my Veritas honing guide yesterday. I tried it today and I
like how you can adjust the cam and create a micro bevel easily.

(I did Google, and I saw the same comment, but no solution)

Question: I am having trouble keeping the chisel square to the guide. If
I am off a little the chisel ends up skewed. To check before I hit the
water stone too aggressively, I brush the face of the bevel with a sharpie
pen. This way any skew is quickly noticeable before too much metal is
removed.

Any thoughts, comments, or suggestions?

--
Stoutman
www.garagewoodworks.com


Hi -

Have to confess that I still use the first version (the one you have)...been
using it for more than 20 years... though the new version does offer some
different features.

A few comments WRT to these (or any guides!) follow...

Firstly - I always approach a guide as an aid to - not necessarily a
replacement for - developing manual skill. I don't sharpen often enough to
develop/keep the muscle memory needed for freehand sharpening. What a guide
should do for you is maintain cosistent geometry, and offer repeatability in
setting up the tool - both honing guides Mark mentions will do that...

How you hold the guide, and use it, will affect how it sharpens - no matter
whether it's square in the jig or not. If you're familiar with hand/finger
positions for playing volleyball - that's the sort of hand position you need
for guiding a jig... touch the tips of your thumbs together (inline), and
the tips of your forefingers (not four fingers! ) together .... your
thumbs are used to push the jig, while the tips of your forefingers are
placed on the edges of the tip of the blade being sharpened.... it's your
hands that really do the work of applying pressure evenly at the tip, and of
moving the entire assembly. Even if the blade is not square in the guide -
you should still be able to hone perfectly square with jig #1 (the
original)...as it's your grip and hand pressure that determine where metal
get removed.... with the second jig - the wider wheel really fixes the
geometry - so it's much more important to get things square.

You'll also have to make a concious effort to apply pressure evenly at the
tip of the blade - a right-hander will ususally apply more force on the
RHS - a left hander vice versa...

Note too that feed bias will affect how metal gets removed - if you work
consistently right to left on a stone - you'll notice that the LHS of the
chisel gets sharpened more (looking at the chisel - you'll see a wider bevel
on the RHS, with the bevel facing you)....try to move in both directions
equally...

I guess the basic "trick" here is to understand that, even if using a guide,
your technique still has a tremendous impact on what happens at the tip of
the blade during sharpening...

Hope that all helps - if not, give me a shout by email, and I'll have
someone give you a call...

Cheers -

Rob

In article ,
David wrote:

I have a version 2, and narrow chisels still
sometimes slip out of square if I'm not careful.
I keep a cheap 3" engineer square in the sharpening box. (An acrylic
square would be better.) Such a square allows you to re-align if a
narrow chisel gets tilted. You can also use the outside edges of the
MkII guide as a quickie square in this situation. Be sure to register on
the top of the clamp, not the bottom.

Even tightening of the MkII's knurled nuts is critical to keeping a
narrow chisel in place. Count threads.
(Putting the angle
setting guide back on can inadvertently damage the developing edge.)

I've put a couple layers of electrical tape over the stop. That part
should be brass...

--
"Keep your ass behind you."