# Home Made Honing Guide?



## richardwootton

Has anyone here made a honing guide for plane irons before? I don't use a debit card due to a lack of self control and there's no where nearby where I can buy one. Any thoughts?


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## Iguana

http://www3.telus.net/BrentBeach/Sharpen/jigarch.html has pics and descriptions of a number of such devices. His entire section on sharpening is interesting reading.

The simple Eclipse-style guide should be available at your local BORG for about $10, and they are quite usable.

If you already have a grinder, you could teach yourself to hollow grind, and then hone on whatever abrasive system you have, no guide required.


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## pastahill

Try this one. It is working very well, i use it a lot. Webside is in german and english.


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## Benvolio

are you looking at getting away from free hand sharpening??

If you're new to the craft and want to try your hand at sharpening - I'd suggest you just invest the time in learning to freehand. Although it's intimidating at first, a freehand honing tends to keep its sharp for longer and is quicker to sharpen a blade.


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## lwllms

Oh good, Brent Beach's guide to faceted blunt edges, the most stellar example of why one should avoid honing guides or how insane things can get when one focuses on the bevel. If Brent Beach had learned it's not really difficult to control the wear bevel on the flat face of plane irons he could have avoided wasting so much time and actually got to quick dependable sharpening. The flat face, though, is the more difficult part of sharpening, the bevel is the easy part. You sure don't need to tinker around with a honing guide for a couple passes of the bevel over the stones. Sharpening is actually really easy, don't complicate it with a bunch of unnecessary paraphernalia and tinkering.


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## derekcohen

Larry

That is incredibly funny … but I really should not reply as it will just encourage you to post more  

(I've yet to understand the advantage of multiple secondary bevels).

Regards from Perth

Derek


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## paratrooper34

Richard, I use honing guides all the time to sharpen the blades in my shop. In fact, lots of people do. I don't have a shop made one as I didn't know about them until after I purchased one. There are several examples out there of shop made ones and some of them look to be pretty nice tools. Go for it and make your own. Then let us know how it turned out.


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## unisaw

Here is an article to FWW that I found to be the best homemade, simple setup I have seen. If you don't subscribe I will email or PM you a copy. I won't post the article as I have no rights to it.

http://www.finewoodworking.com/how-to/article/get-sharp-fast.aspx


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## waho6o9

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=888&bih=565&q=shop+made+honing+guide&oq=shop+made+honing+&gs_l=img.1.0.0i24.1880.4549.0.6198.17.11.0.6.6.0.127.902.10j1.11.0...0.0...1ac.1.5.img.yTw1L1IUHz0

Here ya go


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## OSU55

Multiple secondary bevels reduces the amount of material removal required to smooth the edge to the next grit level, reducing the number of strokes required. Really quite simple and ingenious, and creates razor sharp durable edges quickly. Brent Beach did a remarkable job of developing and proving out an effective, repeatable, and reasonable cost method for sharpening. I use the main concepts he describes with some modifications to simplify the jigs. The edges produced are sharper and longer lasting than any I could produce by free hand or the Tormek method.


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## Vincent

Woodsmith #210 (current issue) page 6 has a homemade honing guide for plane irons.


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## derekcohen

Multiple secondary bevels reduces the amount of material removal required to smooth the edge to the next grit level, reducing the number of strokes required. Really quite simple and ingenious, and creates razor sharp durable edges quickly. Brent Beach did a remarkable job of developing and proving out an effective, repeatable, and reasonable cost method for sharpening. I use the main concepts he describes with some modifications to simplify the jigs. The edges produced are sharper and longer lasting than any I could produce by free hand or the Tormek method.

It is a whole bunch easier to simply hollow grind the bevel at the desired angle, and freehand on the hollow. This is a self-jigging guide. The closer to the edge of the blade you get, the less metal to remove when sharpening. This is where a Tormek scores, as it can grind to the edge of the blade. It is not necessary to go down that path however - even a dry grinder can get you close.

Honing freehand on the hollow takes me about 30 seconds from beginning to end, and no guide to set up when you wish to* re-sharpen*. This is the most important factor in sharpening. Anyone can get a blade sharp - but how quickly can you re-sharpen the edge. Multiple secondary bevels require multiple set ups. Freehand on a hollow requires just one.

Regards from Perth

Derek


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