sharpening chisels and plane blades

Do a search for Eclipse chisel guide. Works for me

On Mon, 3 May 2004 19:36:12 -0500, "bowhunter" brought forth from the murky depths:

Grab a copy of the sharpening bible. Then decide how you want to proceed. I found an old General plane blade holder which works for me when I'm Scary Sharpening(tm).

"The Complete Guide to Sharpening" by Leonard Lee is available from

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Note that some jigs ride on the abrasive and some have their wheels supported off the abrasive. It doesn't strike me as a very good idea to have the wheels of the jig rolling around on your sandpaper, but no one seems to complain about the Lee Valley style jigs. I use a General jig from home depot (when I'm not attempting freehand), and it has the wheels well away from the blade tip.

There's nothing inherently wrong with having the rollers roll on the sandpaper or waterstone, unless it rusts on the axle and you grind a flat spot on the wheel the next time you hone. Doh. Happened to me. :-/ Now I *remember* to squirt a little LPS 1 (WD40 alternate) were the wheel and the axle meet. FYI, I use the inexpensive honing jig that's in several catalogs. It's silver and clamps the chisel or iron on the sides. One side of the clamp is straight and the other side is slightly curved so that the blade is automatically square and you won't grind it skewed. Simple. Cheap. Works. Probably the most important tool I use, next to my combo square.

Layne

My hands-down, absolutely favorite guide is this:

For chisels over 3/8" or so, plane irons, and anything too wide to fit in the guide above, the Veritas guide works fine:

Some folks can do it freehand, I can't.

Barry