Simple & Quick Honing Jig for Jointer/Planer Knifes

This jig is just something I came up with last night on the spur of the moment. Last week my dad let me move his Jointer/Planer combination machine to my shop and after using it for a short while I realized the blades were dull. I was in the middle of a project so I didn’t have time to do a lot of research on how to hone them or build a jig let alone send them off to get sharpened.

There was no micro bevel on the blades and the primary bevel looked good still. The first thing I did was to figure out what the current primary bevel was. Using my very helpful digital angle cube I was able to find the bevel angle very easily. The primary bevel on the knifes was 38.80. I wanted to make the jig so that I could hone a slight micro bevel in the blades.

I really had no plan as to how I was going to make this the idea was to just whip something together real quick so I could get the blades done asap. I started by ripping a piece of scrap with a 40 degree bevel. The idea was for the jig to let me hold the blade slightly higher then the primary bevel. Once the piece of scrap was cut I messed around with it a little trying to figure out how to use that scrap to hold the blade. I came up with the idea to cut a kerf in the scrap that would fit the blade and sit it down at a bevel just slightly higher then the primary.

I used the jig with the scary sharp method and just finished honing all 3 of my knifes. The jig is not perfect by any means but it did the job. The only set back is there is nothing but pressure to hold the blade in the block of wood. I plan on making a 2nd jig with some threaded inserts and set screws so that I can tighten them to hold the blade firmly in the jig.

Any feedback or advice would be great. Thanks for looking.

-- Dan - "Collector of Hand Planes"