Thread: Veritas Honing guide II vs Henry Eckert honing guide

Nathan, the HE guide is a copy of the Eclipse (side clamping). I have not used the HE since they first came out, when David Eckert asked me to evaluate it. It is nicely done, but cannot be compared with the Mk ll, which is a top-clamping design. The Veritas can do so much more.

If the Veritas skews only occasionally, then it is likely to be that the blade is not flat. Either flatten it or use a side-clamping guide on these occasions. There are other choices, and one you should keep an eye out for is a new Eclipse style guide Veritas will release soon. It should be reasonably inexpensive.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Originally Posted by delbs

Hi all, Many of you have experience with using a Veritas Honing guide and how it compares to the Henry Eckert Honing guide?

Reason why im asking is ive owned the Veritas guide for years but i find occasionally it can slip or skew. The Henry eckert guide and angle setting jig is $230 approx and seems to handle all blade widths and chisel widths i would typically need to sharpen and from what i can read is more robust at holding them tightly due to dovetail style mouths on the sides of the clamped object rather than top and bottom clamping like the veritas.

Anyone have any recommendations or feedback for how the Henry Eckert handles over time to get repeatable angles to sharpen?

Cheers,
Nathan

Have you bought the narrow blade head for the Veritas honing guide? I find that pretty well invaluable for sharpening chisels which are hard to keep straight with the standard head. Cheaper than buying a whole new jig for $230 anyway, the narrow blade head is less than half that and uses a side clamping dovetail style.

Thanks for this. I had been re reading the guide of the jig to see if I'm doing something odd as it doesn't occur every time I use it just occasionally. The doco has a section on this narrow guide additional part. I'll certainly pick this up from lee valley as others are out of stock.

This should sort it nicely and yes much cheaper than a new guide.

Thanks for all the feedback

Cheers
Nathan

I use both sharpening guides, but I tend to agree more with Derek Cohen's viewpoint that the MKII surpasses the eclipse. However, I primarily use the eclipse for plane blades. The difficulty arises when adjusting chisels in the lower section of the eclipse, leading me to prefer the MKII. Although I acquired the Veritas version of the eclipse, I noticed no significant difference between the original and the contemporary version. Unfortunately, the modern version requires an allen key for securely locking in the blade, as manual tightening is not sufficient. If anyone is interested in purchasing the new eclipse, I have it listed on the marketplace at half the price of a new one, having only used it three times.

No idea about HE guide, love my MKII.

I find with the MKII, technique is key. Bit too much pressure on one side and it'll start to skew, but its easy enough to even out by adding pressure on the opposite side.

My solution... sharpen more often to keep sharpening timing shorter and reduce the liklihood of things going amiss.

Originally Posted by tonzeyd

No idea about HE guide, love my MKII.

I find with the MKII, technique is key. Bit too much pressure on one side and it'll start to skew, but its easy enough to even out by adding pressure on the opposite side.

You also have to tighten the knurled knobs equally. If you tighten more on one side, this will also skew the chisel.
To help keep your sharpening times as little as possible, either grind your blade or use 80 grit wet n dry.