# Veritas Mark II Honing Guide worthwhile?



## rjack (Nov 5, 2007)

I have the old Veritas Honing Guide (before the II). Is the Veritas Mark II Honing Guide that much better? If so, what makes it better?

I have problems with the old Veritas Jig getting a 90 degree edge. Does the Veritas Mark II Honing Guide reliably solve this problem?

Is there a better honing guide? Is anybody using the Lie-Nielsen honing guide?

Thanks!


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## Karson (May 9, 2006)

No. It doesn't solve the chisle moving off to the side. It helps with the first allignment. It also helps with the angle for setting the chisel depth in the jig.

Look at the Pinaccle sold by Woodcraft and make by Woodpeckers for Woodcraft. Woodpeckers sell a lot of Incra tools and make some of their own also. The pinnacle had a stop that you put on each side of the chisel or plane iron to keep them from moving around.


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## mstens (Dec 18, 2007)

I have an eclipse (which is what the guide LN sells is based on). While I primarily hone freehand, I just can't pull off narrow chisels and the eclipse is far better at this IMO than the older veritas guide was because it's a side clamping guide, so it's really easy to retain squareness. Well worth the $10-$15 spent (depending on where you buy it, most woodworking stores carry one)


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## rob2 (Nov 27, 2007)

I have used the Mark II and it is easy to use , repeatable and holds the blade or chisel square. It works well with sandpaper or waterstones. Short waterstones are a bit inefficient because your stroke is so short.


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## rikkor (Oct 17, 2007)

I have been pleased with my MK II.


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## Radish (Apr 11, 2007)

The optional camber wheel looks interesting for sharpening plane irons. If my old Veritas wears out, I would get a new MKII.


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## mot (May 8, 2007)

I have the new Mk.II and the camber guide. Though the camber didn't perform as well as I hoped with my scrub plane, the guide itself works perfectly for flat irons. It registers a correct angle, holds the chisel square, is repeatable and easily does a 2 degree secondary bevel just by moving the eccentric guide wheel a half turn. It's a good purchase.


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## Dorje (Jun 17, 2007)

I would imagine the scrub has to much of a radius for the camber roller to do much good…

How does it do on putting camber on the other irons?

Overall, the Mk.II seems to be the ticket -


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## langski93 (Dec 31, 2008)

It looks like those that have the MK II are pretty pleased with it. I inspected than bought it yesterday (very well made) brought it home and started practising on a old block plane blade that was really in tough shape. I am not done with it yet, but it is really taking shape. My question to other users is what do you do about the short stroke you get? I was using 11" strips of paper but I estimate I only got to utiilize the first 6" before the jig went off the paper. Does the difference in height of the paper to the solid work surface make a difference in honing when the roller drops off the paper, but the blade is still on the paper? In addition, I was going to buy some waterstones, which are not cheap, but the Nortons are all 8" long and I will get even less surface stroke. Is that worth it? I am just starting on this, so any insight is greatly appreciated.

Langski

I used to ski, but I took up woodworking to save money.


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## Gofor (Jan 12, 2008)

I have both the older Veritas and the Mark II. The guide on the Mark II makes getting a 90 degree edge a piece of cake. The pins in the guide also make duplicating a primary/secondary angle a breeze (i write the setup on the iron with a Sharpie, so I can reference it for honing). The older Veritas works better with my chisels that have a bevelled blade, as the floating washer on the screw seems to tighten better than the plate on the Mark II.

The best thing I have found for sharpening my scrub irons is an 8" Carriage bolt. I smoothed out the top, and place a wingnut and washer both below and above the blade with the top of the bolt being my "roller". (the bolt goes through the iron slot). By setting the bolt the desired distance from the edge, and raising the iron to the desired bevel angle, I can rock it side to side, and pivot it sideways across the abrasive to get a smooth sharp radiused bevel. The radius is limited to the length of the iron (old ones with not a lot of meat left in front of the slot mean a shorter radius). The rounded top of the carriage bolt lets me pivot without any raising or lowering of the bevel.

Go


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## BobM001 (Jan 8, 2012)

I used my recently purchased Mk II for the first time today. I too used an Eclipse guide prior to this and had "issues" getting the bevels right. I purchased the DMT Duo Sharp Plus Combo coarse/fine mounted kit with the MK II. I had used a old DMT 600 grit fine 2 5/8"x 8" for sharpening prior to this. The tool I tried this on for it's first sharpening was a 1" Marples Blue Chip. It had a large "ding" on the edge. The set up for a 25 deg bevel was easy with the registration guide. The clamp held firm. I started by lapping the back. Then with the 325 grit coarse side of the stone it didn't take long before the ding was gone. You can see the fines in the water as you make passes. Then on to the 600 grit fine side of the stone. The bevel remained true and the entire face of the bevel from the original was stoned. I finished with a King 4000 grit water stone. Now that beat up edge is mirror smooth and passes the "thumbnail test". I was impressed. The amount of bevels, micro bevels, and back bevels that this can do is remarkable. IMO it was worth the expense for a "sharpening amateur" to get the results I got. The old DMT fine grit bench stone now gets used to clean/flatten the water stone. Works quite well.

Bob


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## Sirgreggins (Apr 12, 2012)

I like my MK2 but no matter what i do i get skewed micro bevel. Is this normal. I have seen many other people on the web having this problem.


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## ShipWreck (Feb 16, 2008)

The Veritas MKII is a great honing guide. *However*....... You must be very carefull when you clamp the guide onto the roller assembly. The 2 piece guide does get a little jammed up some times if you are not carefull when tightening. Just make sure that the 2 pieces are sitting in the little "V" slots evenly when you tighten the brass knob. This may seem pretty minor…....but it can lead to some frustration when you only want to hone and end up almost redoing the entire bevel because the blade does not register to the stones exactly the way you had it the last time. I think other MKII owners have run into this. It is not that big a deal…....but I would rather be making things instead of fidgeting around.

V/R….John


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## MonteCristo (May 29, 2012)

I have both and find the Veritas Mark II a lot better at setting the desired honing angle.


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