Modifying the Veritas Honing Jig

[derekcohen]

Mostly I sharpen my plane blades and chisels freehand on waterstones. I turn to the Veritas Sharpening System when establishing the bevel angle or when squaring the bevel on the blade.

The Veritas Bevel Angle Jig is basically a good design. The Honing Jig is well made but lets the side down because it is difficult to set the blade square on it and keep it that way - the screw hold down tends to twist the blade as it is tightened. In the past I have resorted to using a pair of vice grips to increase the tension of the screw, or just used an older Eclipse honing jig, which guarantees squareness (but I don’t like the narrow wheel it runs on).

I made a simple modification to the Veritas honing jig that takes the form of an attached Fence. This is a piece of aluminium that is screwed to the inside of the jig. Its squareness was achieved by trial-and-error and careful filing.

The fence has an additional advantage. It is placed on the right side of the jig since the screw hold down turn clockwise and tightening simply forces the blade against the fence.

With my fence (approx ¼” thick), the honing jig has the capacity for 2 ¼” wide blades. Narrower blades need to use an additional piece of packing to centre it (a little off centre has no detrimental effect).

I find that this simple modification makes it both easier and quicker to set up blades.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Paul O'H. Ingersoll Canad]

Derek
Looks like a great idea, I will have to modify mine.
Thanks
Paul

[Peter36]

Derek

Thats a substantial looking blade . Is that your own manufacture ?

Peter

[BigPop]

Derek,
Great idea !! but why not just butt the blade hard up aginst the side of the jig??? Naturally it would be slightly off centre but would this make that much difference?
Just my thoughts on the matter.

[derekcohen]

Peter

The blade is from one of my HNT Gordon planes. It is 1/4" thick.


Pete

It is important to get the blade square - and keep it so - in the sharpening guide otherwise you will hone a slightly skew bevel. This becomes more of an issue when you are trying to maintain a very tight mouth in a plane, less so for a chsel. But even for a chisel (and especially for a plane) repeatability of bevel angle is so important. When the blade skews in a Guide, it moves that little bit forward or back. Then you are grinding/honing a whole new bevel.

There is one more modification to come. That being a screw from the opposite site that will push and hold the blade firmly against the fence.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[BigPop]

Derek,
Pardon my ignorance - I understand that the blade needs to be square but if it were just pushed up hard against one side so it couldn't 'twist' wouldn't that 'square' it up or aren't the sides square enough to keep the blade nice n square.???

[derekcohen]

Pete

The sides are not square enough, nor long enough to securely register the side of the blade.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[BigPop]

Derek,
No worries now I understand :):):)

[Peter36]

Derek

I have only recently bought my Veritas sharpening system and had given up on using it for chisels , but with your 2 mods and some spacers it should be good . However I have been a little frustrated in grinding a flat bevel as the 800 grit stone wears quite quickly and needs to be relapped . Do you have this problem in grinding the bevel on your HNt gordon blades?

Peter

[Rocker]

Derek,

Thanks for that great idea. I just had to run out to the shed and modify my Veritas honing guide right away. I used a piece of 1/8" x 1/2" x 1 1/2" brass bar, which worked perfectly - no filing needed. I might try adding a second 1/8" brass bar (giving a 1/4" thick bar) tomorrow, in order to locate the plane iron a bit more centrally.

Rocker

[derekcohen]

the 800 grit stone wears quite quickly
Peter

As a rule, the lower the grit, the softer the substrate. Keep the stones flat by flattening them at the end of three sharpenings. I've tried several methods but each time return to using a piece of 220 grit drywall (plasterboard) mesh (from Bunnings) on a sheet of glass. Used wet, this cuts very quickly and the mesh keeps the grit cutting clean. Wash it off and re-use many times.


Do you have this problem in grinding the bevel on your HNt gordon blades?

Terry Gordon recommends that his blades are hollow ground. This reduces the amount of metal to be removed at each sharpening. You don't have to remove much - do it freehand - just a touch off the centre of the bevel, leaving the existing bevel angle (30 degrees) intact.

It is impossible to grind a flat bevel if your stones are not flat in the first place.

It is also difficult to maintain an existing bevel if you cannot reproduce the previous bevel angle. This is easier with plane blades than it is with chisels, since the latter often do not have parallel sides and it is difficult to determine whether it is set up for a square grind. Rob Lee mentioned to me that LV have a new Honing Guide coming out designed with chisels in mind.

For myself, I prefer to take the time to obtain a square bevel on my plane and chisel blades using a guide, then do all my sharpening freehand until the bevel appears to be rounding. I then re-establish the bevel with the guide... This permits quicker sharpening (no set up time) and the waterstones will wear more evenly since I can use the whole area.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Ben from Vic.]

Derek.

You mentioned in another thread somewhere that you had a ceramic stone.

What do you think of these stones?
Do they need to be flatened like a normal stone?


Ben.

[derekcohen]

Sorry Ben, it wasn't me. I have never had or even used a ceramic stone. I hear that they wear more slowly, and that they can be used dry. I have heard excellent stories about the Shapton range, but as far as I know they are not available in Australia.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Ben from Vic.]

Oh. Oops. :o