# lie nielsen vs veritas honing guides



## twmv86 (Nov 4, 2018)

which is best? i'll be sharpening chisels and plane irons. i have zero experience and guessing i should start with a guide. if i can learn to sharpen freehand later on thats great but i want to get off to a good start. i appreciate any suggestions for getting started . thanks


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## hokieman (Feb 14, 2008)

See this month's Fine Woodworking. It has a review of both plus many other honing guides. FWW gave the nod to the Lie-Nielsen. Can't see how either are worth $125, though. Their best value was a $15 guide that I have used for years and it is more than adequate. I actually got that one from Lie-Nielsen many years ago.


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## SMP (Aug 29, 2018)

> See this month's Fine Woodworking. It has a review of both plus many other honing guides. FWW gave the nod to the Lie-Nielsen. Can't see how either are worth $125, though. Their best value was a $15 guide that I have used for years and it is more than adequate. I actually got that one from Lie-Nielsen many years ago.
> 
> - hokieman


I have the $15 that is rebranded everywhere. It works "ok" once modified(there is actually a Lie Nielsen vid on youtube how to modify it). Once modified it works pretty good on most plane irons and the average bevel bench chisels over a certain size. For my set it works on chisels over 1/4". Doesn't work with my plough plane blades either, so having to learn to freehand anyways. I guess its a good intro to eventaully freehand honing.


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## Sludgeguy (Jan 24, 2018)

I have both the Veritas and LN. The LN holds chisels and plane blades better and doesn't allow any lateral movement. It's simple, precise, and overpriced but it sure works well.


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## twmv86 (Nov 4, 2018)

im leaning towards the LN even tho its alot of $. then i wont have to worry about my filing skills haha.
im so stinking new here i dont see how to like a post. thanks guys for your help


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## Manitario (Jul 4, 2010)

I use an unmodified $15 Eclipse-type guide for ~90% of my honing. The Veritas honing guide takes care of the rest. Thought about the LN guide but I'd be concerned that it wouldn't fit with a lot of my non-LN tools.


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## ColonelTravis (Mar 19, 2013)

Actually, FWW gave the L-N and Veritas (deluxe version) guides the same best overall rating but said the Veritas was the only guide that sharpened every single blade they tried excellently. I was a little surprised by that, I've never heard any complaints from people who've used L-N. One reason the writer put the Veritas slightly ahead was because for $125, the Veritas deluxe set will do everything. If you want the same multi-functionality as the Veritas, you will apparently need to spend more than the base $125 because the different jaws are $25 or $35 each. I say "apparently" because I don't own it and I don't know if you really need, say, mortise jaws for mortise chisels. Do you really need those extra jaws? I don't know. L-N says you also need additional jaws for chisels under 1/4". Is that true? Maybe it is. The FWW guy said he had to concentrate more to get non-skewed bevels for very narrow chisels. He didn't say how narrow. And for some reason he didn't say if he was using the narrow jaws. In the review photos you can see that the writer had multiple jaws, so maybe he was using them?

Also, with L-N (they didn't mention this as a reason why they gave Veritas the edge) you'll need to make an angle board. Veritas figures out all the angles for you, plus two microbevels (I've never bothered with two, only one.) Is making an angle board gonna kill you? No. I've made one and took 15-20 minutes.

I have the Veritas and recently added the narrow blade head. Did I need a narrow blade head? No. But it makes a big difference and I'm glad I got it, because narrow chisels would often shift. Even if you tried hard at not getting them to shift, they would shift. Freehand, I cannot consistently get secondary bevels with up to three stones by hand. I almost always use two stones, but when I'm starting a bevel over from scratch, I'll use three. Sharpening by hand is faster in general, but I don't need to shave precious minutes from sharpening. It doesn't take me that long. I'd rather have consistency over quickness.

Some people don't like the Veritas because of the potential for skewed bevels. As long as you evenly tighten the knobs, you will not get a skewed bevel. I haven't had skewed bevels since the first time I got a skewed bevel, which is when I first bought it several years ago and wasn't paying attention.

Speaking of skews, I don't think it's necessary to have a skew attachment. Those chisels don't need to be samurai sword sharp, just sharp enough to get stuff out of corners.

Some people find these guides to be a waste of money. For me, it was worth the investment. I had the cheap-o honing guide mentioned above and never liked it. With practice, it's not difficult to sharpen freehand. Again, I use my guide for consistency. Freehand can sharpen your blades the same as a guide, it cannot sharpen them better. Only faster.

Trade-offs….


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## twmv86 (Nov 4, 2018)

the lie nielsen came today. they werent lying when they said it was well machined. this things flawless. i'll break down and buy the long jaws at some point for a spokeshave or something other short iron. wasnt cheap but sure is worth it to me to not have to worry about getting it exactly the same every time. im sure the veritas is good too but i can imagine anything better than this


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