20 Best Chisel Honing Guide (2022 Updated)

I’ve just tried a plane blade and the guide seem to hold tight and roll smoothly, still working at getting the angle set, but every blade is a little different. For me, a good value.

does what it’s supposed to do, takes a little bit to get it adjusted just right, but simple. I wish the stone was longer, but that can be added later.

I’m not a rich man, I’m happy to do my research and spend out on a tool that I need but I only want to buy it once. What I really don’t want to do is spend out on something only to find it doesn’t work and I have to replace it.

I was in the market for a sharpening stone and honing guide so I did my research and bought the Rider sharpening station along with Rider honing guide. Now the sharpening station is great but to be polite I didn’t get on with the honing guide.

Yes, I know what they say about workmen and their tools, but I couldn’t help but notice that all of my chisels were quickly turning into skew chisels. I was quite sure the blame laid with the honing guide so I bought this.

There’s no room for error and all of my hand tools are now square and sharp. Obviously it took a while to repair the damage I’d previously done but now I have this is very quick and easy to use. Yes, it’s expensive but I’m confident I’ll still be using this years from now.

By all means ignore my review and get a cheap honing guide or if you want to learn from my mistake get this I really don’t think you’ll regret it.

I have owned one of these from soon after they first became available with Axminster a long time ago and I have used it, as well as other honing guides countless times. This honing system is of course very good and I wouldn’t be without it, but there are a couple of drawbacks that I want to mention.

In time you may notice an annoying difference between the main bevel and the micro-bevel. This will occur so gradually it may trick you into thinking it’s somehow your fault, perhaps to do with a shift in grip when honing.

It will show itself as your micro-bevel having a very slight taper across your edge. It is also very frustrating. If this is starting to happen check the brass roller for any play on it’s cam spindle.

It seems that in time abrasive slurry can find it’s way into the tiny gap between the roller and spindle and wear away the softer brass of the roller until play becomes apparent. This may possibly occur faster if using waterstones.

The play may feel about the same right across the roller but it still shows as a tapering micro-bevel, something that I can’t quite understand! I have been able to order a replacement roller from Veritas albeit years ago so I hope they’re still available.

When I ordered this from them I mentioned the roller problem as well as another design comment. If you have been using the honing guide for a while in a cold environment, particularly with waterstones, it can be difficult to tighten the two blade holding clamp knobs really positively.

I suggested a slightly more defined knurling pattern on these knobs as well as some way to prevent abrasive slurry ingress into the roller mechanism. Rather disappointingly Veritas took my order but didn’t bother getting back about the design suggestions.

I decided to get into the scarey sharp system of sharpening and added this to the plan. So easy to set up and easily repeatable giving perfect angles each time. I also like it’s ability to click adjust to give the micro bevel angle, very nice! I have now used it from 6mm upto 50mm chisels and plane blades and each has set quickly and easily making me sharpen more oftern and keep a keener edge, Instead of just making do or pushing harder.

I recommend Axminster’s Scarey sharp system too!.

Top Quality product, surpased my expectations in regards to quality, accuracy and consistancy across the board. This item is so well thought out. This is exactly what I have been looking for in regards to a honing system for my shop.

The engineering and grade of materials used has fortified my opinion of Veritas as a company. They will be my first point of call for future shop purchases, thanks guys great to see companies like Veritas still exist.

The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.

This guide is very good for keeping the angle of the chisel to be sharpened. The part of the guide that holds the chisel, is not suited for the thicker beveled type. If you have a flat bladed chisel it will work fine.

You will get excellent results with a clean sharp edge.

The item will hold both chisels and plane blades at the appropriate angle for honing. I recommend you check Youtube for videos on how to use it.

Does a nice job sharpening chisels

Case is nice and chisels feel solid in hand while testing it on scrap pieces. Based on limited use out of the box, it seems like the factory edge holds up fairly well (compared to my cheap unbranded amazon set).

However, out of the box all of the chisels weren’t very sharp. They also all had heavy burrs and slight nicks on the cutting edge and on all of the rectangular side edges of the blade. The tooling marks are very deep and require A LOT of honing to get the back flat.

On top of that, every chisel has a hump on the back of the blade that requires a lot of surface area to be ground down to get a flat surface out at the cutting edge. Just passed the 3 hour mark of flattening the back of the largest chisel on an extra-coarse diamond stone and still have a little ways to go.

Last, the honing guide is very difficult to clamp the chisel in squarely and there is a fine balance on the tightening screw of too far where the cheap castings twist and too loose where the chisel slides around.

Haven’t used the stone provided. In hindsight, I wish I would have spent $160+ for a higher quality chisel set. The price savings of this set isn’t worth the multiple hours per chisel flattening the back.

Great set for the price. I like the through chisels and the grip. The steel is decent. When you get them remember to flatten them and put on a good edge. The stone (120/240) will eat up the steel and not allow you to get a real sharp edge.

Make sure to get a much better stone and keep the other one for garden tools. I like the 400/800 Japanse water stone they sell, then follow up with 1200 and maybe a strop and paste. The standard honing guide never really works with these chisel shapes.

Watch some you tube videos on how to modify it and. I really don’t know why anyone sells those honing guides any more.

Works very well, I bought it to sharpen a recently purchased wood plane and works a treat.

A great time saver, and accuracy help.

Alright for plane blades and firmer chisel but can not get the bevel edge chisel to sit right.

I have for years sharpened by hand trying to keep the angle correct, I wasted much time. This device is excellent: simply clamp the blade, extend the blade to get the angle you desire, tighten the blade clamp ( easy hand turn knurled head) and just roll the edge on the abrasive.

Small changes in extended blade length moves the part of the blade being abraded a small amount, so adjustment is important. I take the blade to the sharpness I want once it is clamped. The finer the grit the sharper the edge.

Don’t forget to smooth flat the back edge with very fine grit. This honing guide makes it easier than I expected, it clamps easily, it rolls smoothly and I had no problem with rocking side to side, even with thin wood chisel blades.

My hand plane and wood chisels are now razor sharp. Excellent.

Chisel hones out crooked because aluminum notches to hold chisel are too crude. I’ve seen online videos to alter the guide by using files, but if the left/right axis is off by even a little, then your chisel will sharpen/hone crooked.

Bummer, because I used it with plate glass and fine sandpaper to hone my hollow ground chisels and it makes for a good hone with great control to slowly eliminate the burr. You get what you pay for. The design and machining are worth just about $15.

Too much flex and no available adjustment to hone square and true.

It was exactly what I needed to refurbish plane irons that needed some TLC. Haven’t tried them on my chisels, yet. The wheel on the bottom was a little sticky, but some lubricant and use has pretty much fixed that problem.

All in all, good product, without spending a bunch. Cheers.

Looks like it should be just the thing for sharpening chisels. Well, it is, if you have the time and patience to fix it, first. This thing is exceptionally poorly made, even for the usual Chinese knockoffs.

There are sharp burrs all over – sharp enough to cut your fingers. The threads are so bad that they bind. The knob was pressed on crooked. The paint was glopped on so thick it was jamming the threads.

Taking it apart and cleaning off all the metal shavings was the first step. De-burring the sharp edges was next. Then some wire brush work to clean up the threads enough to turn smoothly. A quick rinse with mineral spirits to remove all the crud, and it was back in business.

Yes, it works if you take the time to clean it up first.

What boggles the mind is that so many faults can be squeezed onto one product. Sharp edges to cut your fingers whilst trying to turn an adjusting bolt that barely moves due to improperly machined threads in order to hold a blade at a laughable angle with no semblance to square with relation to the roller.

This honing tool was designed and made in hell. It even arrived coated in metal filings and paint chips. It is absolute rubbish! Beware of positive reviews lacking in detail.

There seems to be a sweet spot where blades can be used in this. A narrow 1/4″ chisel is unstable and won’t sharpen straight. However any blade wider than maybe a Jack plane won’t fit. This jig is gonna be fine for anything between those extremes.

Fit and finish is poor, but if you’re looking at reviews for a $6 sharpening jig I’m gonna assume that looks aren’t your top priority. It works fine within its limitations. If you can handle that then go ahead and order one.

Got this to go with the Kasumi 3000/8000 whetstone – I have a Mundial cook’s knife that it took a long time to get a decent edge on but decided it would be a good experiment to see if I could get a razor sharp edge on the Mundial.

(I have several Wusthof knives and would try this with them as they are easy to sharpen and keep sharp) and I have a Shun that I needed to practice for, so the Mundial was the choice. Given the angle of the edge, it took a fair bit of work to change the angle of the edge, but it was done, and it is as sharp as it has ever been and then some.

I will give it another touch up soon, but the key was having the guide rails to ensure consistency. An essential when looking to set a different angle or beginning with a whetstone, I would say.

Do not buy this particular item. It’s described as holding your knife at a set angle, but the holder has a huge gap at the back which allows the blade to wobble around in it and NOT maintain a set angle.

It also doesn’t allow for the curve of the blade to be sharpened, only the flat of it. Ignore this one and buy one of the pull throughs – Not ideal but about the only other option available for acutely angled knives.

The Mino-Sharp definitely needs a You Tube instructional video on using it with various length and width knives and various size stones. The package instructions are inadequate. I have Gerber tool steel blades with a recommended sharpening angle of 17 degrees.

The Mino-Sharp is about 10 degrees which worked well on these knives. If all my knives were carbon steel with a recommended 20 degree angle, I would not buy the Mino-Sharp for 2 reasons. 1) It is difficult to use, keeping the guide and blade in proper contact with the stone.

2) The sharpening angle is too acute and the knives will dull quickly. The opening in the large guide is too wide to firmly hold my thinner tool steel blades. It is great for knives that have a more acute sharpening angle; otherwise no.

My current project, made with 100+ year old reclaimed wood, means that my planer is going to see substantial use. Knowing that the two sets of blades that I had were less than ideal sharpness I started to look into this jig as a way to save myself some money in the long run.

My idea of “quality” is apparently at a much higher standard that most manufactured goods now days, so when I purchased the Deulen Tool 12” sharpening jig I was “hoping” for a quality piece, but “expecting” something much less.

However, I was immediately impressed with the fit and finish of this jig as well as the caliber of material it was constructed from. Eager to sharpen a set of blades I set to it. However, I was almost immediately dismayed to see that the blade on one side of the jig was sharpening mostly in the middle.

This immediately told me that the blade was bowed. Some thorough checking with a straight edge and feeler gauge confirmed my suspicions, the blade was straight, but the jig bowed it by 0. 010” when installed.

Being what it cost, I was expecting to get what I paid for. Long story short, I contacted Deulen Tools (Dan himself) and was utterly surprised to end up with a brand-new, updated design jig less than 2 days later.

Dan explained to me that they went through an outsourcing period for some of their manufacturing only to find out that they had to throw away 200+ sets of the brass guides as they were NOT up to his standards.

Apparently I got one that was sent out before the flaw was discovered. He also explained to me his improved manufacturing and quality control standards now in place. This new jig is even more impressive than the first.

Heavy for its size and truly an heirloom piece. Deulen Tools is honestly concerned with putting out a quality, long lasting product and Dan’s personal concern for customer satisfaction is second to none in my book.

I would buy from Deulen Tools again without hesitation.

But do you really need to spend almost a hundred dollars for a jig that helps hone up your knives? Probably not. I bought this to attempt to sharpen the knives in my DW735 planer. I know, they’re indexed and not designed to be sharpened.

But I couldn’t even get them set up in the jig properly. Every time I tightened the set screws, the knives would bow outward in the middle. Tried all different orders of tightening the screws, no matter what I did the act of tightening them down pushed the blade away from the bottom of the slot.

Tried putting the instructional DVD in to see if there was some remedy for what I was encountering but it didn’t work. Ended up making my own jig in about five minutes by cutting two angled grooves with a 7 1/4″ circular saw blade (for the 1/16″ kerf) in a piece of wood.

And yes, it did work for honing up my indexed knives with a water stone using nothing holding the knives in place but friction.

I have an old planer that I picked up 4 years ago. Never really pleased with its performance. Bought the jig, found the cutting angles not even close to the jig settings. I used the jig on a belt sander until the proper angle was achieved.

Then followed the directions for sharpening. Reinstalled the blades, results are amazing. Nice, smooth, flat edges, nice, defined chips. Great device for quick sharping and good results.

This is an outstanding sharpening system. Was reluctant to try something new, but this is a instant win. Made in USA. 40+ year warranty. Very high quality, and it really sharpens extremely well. Not gimmicky and cheap like many on the market.

Relatively small footprint for a robust and capable system. I’m rushing out to buy the add on pack, so I can polish the edge better. I have a very expensive military knife made with German D2 that has been tempered to a very high tensile strength, it also have serrations and multiple angles.

This system sharpened it with zero issues, and it did not remove too much material. I’m no long concerned to sharpen my late father’s and grandfathers knives. I also have some cold forged chrome-moly kitchen knives and this kit put a razer sharp edge and removed just a slight amount of steel.

This is really ideal for folks looking to put a functional razer sharp edge on their knives without wasting the blade material that electric systems tend to do. My large cleaver has never been as sharp, and it took ten passes on each side on each grit level.

Outstanding sharpener! Once you get a feel for this kit, you can sharpen a very large knife in about 3 minutes or so. As always Cabela’s/Bass Pro Shop thank you for the veteran’s discount!.

I learned how to sharpen and hone by watching my dad and brother. Dad was taught by his father; brother learned in culinary school. As best as I could manage, my results were never as good as theirs.

They might think the work sharp system is cheating, but it’s really a game changer. They would guess at the angle and maintain it through their attempts to renew the edge. The guided 17° angle does away with the guesswork and let’s me focus on the pressure and glide of the technique.

This has enabled me to restore the some edges that they wouldn’t have given they effort to. Before, our kitchen knives were merely pointy things that could cut stuff well enough so that mom could make dinner.

Now they are deadly blades of meat and vegetable slicing precision. A wave of satisfaction moves over my soul knowing that I’m sharpening cruddy and old knives and, giving them an edge that makes them worthy of being knives and makes up for the sins committed by the manufacturer (and family members who did poor jobs on sharpening).

Final word: I was considering buying a few new knives for my kitchen, but I think the Work Sharp has given a few of my knives a stay of execution (or more accurately: donation to local charity).

An interesting concept, design and application. Does a good job. I find it’s not suited for volume sharpening. Comes with one coarse and one fine sharpening plate. Would have given it four stars had it come with the extra fine sharpening plate and the leather stropping plate (included in the Guided Sharpening System Upgrade Kit).

TLDR review: If you are on the fence, get it it’ll take your blades from kinda shaving sharp to hair popping sharp. Longer review: The kit is kinda frustrating because it’s got the strop which is a huge upgrade, an extra fine plate you really don’t need and a extra course plate that I will never need, though some might want it.

The extra course plate seems useless because I wouldn’t use it for a knife – it’s too course and I already have a big ugly sharpener for bigger tools like axes. Reprofiling was fast enough with the course plate for me.

The extra fine plate doesn’t make the blade much sharper than the fine plate, probably duller than the ceramic rod does. You can easily skip right from the fine plate to the strop. The strop – works great – couple strokes and the knife is done.

I didn’t put a mirror edge on the whole edge just cleaned up the very edge. Looking with a 60x magnifier all scratches are off the edge of my blades from previous sharpening. So a great strop, 2 plates that doesn’t seem that great.

Not great value. Rather have more supplies or another angle or 2 for the strop. Steel sharpened (pretty easy for all of them) Elmax S110V 8cr13MoV 1. 4110 stainless.

I think anyone who gets the base sharpening system will immediately want the upgrade. This is serious quality, people! I first ordered the base system , Work Sharp Guided Sharpening System, and once I opened it, I immediately purchased the upgrade kit.

Take my word for this, you will too- so, just get them both together!!!.

The upgrade kit allows for a more refined edge on your knives by progressing through the extra fine stone and finishing with the leather hone. If you keep your knives maintained you really shouldn’t ever need to use the extra coarse stone.

I would prefer the kit came with a medium grit stone. Overall this is a great sharpening system for beginners.

Dremel has provided me this product in exchange for an honest review. I had no trouble using the attachment to sharpen a chain saw blade after reading the directions multiple times and watching a 3rd party YouTube video.

Anyone new to sharpening might not know what “blade pitch” is and would be totally lost using this product since using the incorrect grinding stone would be easy to do, resulting in a ruined blade. A video from Dremel showing proper use and selection of the proper grinding stone would be helpful.

Additionally, the directions for a new user are difficult to follow so they must be read several times before attempting to sharpen anything. The attachments for lawnmower blades and lawn tools worked fine though I found myself off angle several times because of the width of the attachments.

An adjustment device of some sort to keep the grinding stones firmly against the tool would be beneficial.

The Dremel A679-02 sharping kit is exactly what I needed. With one kit I have everything I need to sharpen my chain saw, clippers, and lawn mower blade. Im especially excited to be able to sharpen my chain saw.

I use my saw just enough each year to dull the chain and then make poor cuts for a couple of months before I break down and buy a new chain. Now I can quickly and easily sharpen my chain in just a short time.

I can easily see this chain lasting 3-4 years now. If I only get one extra season out of the chain by using the Dremel kit to sharpen it the kit has more than paid for itself. Dremel has provided me this product in exchange for an honest review.

The ” Dremel A679-03 Rotary Tool Sharpening Kit” is a nice small kit that I have used with my Dremel Rotary Tool. I did have a couple issues with the coupling getting a bit loose but working on that part.

I actually used this tool to sharpen my Lawn Mower Blades. I have a Honda Twin Mower and this was perfect size and power. I did not have to take the blades off this time like other sharpeners. This made it easy to sharpen on the mower and get a clean result.

Smaller enough to get right into the corners of the blades with no kickback!! Great attachment.

Sharpens quickly and well. However, I received better results by putting the sharpening cones in a cordless drill and run the drill at a slow speed. Using the drill allowed me to better maintain the appropriate honing angle.

I recommend the sharpening set especially, if like me, you don’t mortise too often.

this product does what it is supposed to do and does it well. I have a new mortiser and it came with some incredibly dull chisels. I found that, given the poor finish of my chisels, it was more eficeint to run the cones with a low speed drill for the first sharpening.

after that a quick twist was all that was needed.

I received this in the middle of cutting 160 mortises in claro walnut for a crib. After about 75 mortises the work was definitely slowing down. Using the handle and a vise I was able to hone the inside of the chisels to a good polish.

I finished the outside with a very fine diamond hone and went back to work. What a difference. the mortise chisel cut almost as well as when it was new. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who wants to maintain pace in cutting a lot of mortises.

This is one of the easiest products to use it is almost foolproof. I purchased it because I thought it would make my sharpening easier, it does for someone who has never done it before. What it does do is give that person muscle memory about how the knife should feel when held correctly.

I have been sharpening my knives for years on stones. I would recommend this to everyone.

Perfect complement to sharpen. Very good quality and adequately fulfills its function.

Very useful item,I like it. Thank you, I gave it 5 stars!

It’s a copy of the one made by Eclipse. The writing on the side telling you how far to protrude the blade to hone to the right angle is unreadable! Also, like the Ec;ipse, it is not good and holding thin chisels of 6mm width or less, for that you need the more expensive, but much better engineered, Veritas guide for thin chisels.

Looks and feels well made. Could be better for consistencey if it had some way of measureing how far the blade sticks out to acheive a given angle. Otherwise, great.

The casts are not symmetrical which makes it difficult to get the chisel in the right place its cheap cheap however it still works and the principle of it works