Acoustic Guitar Construction

If you are new to sharpening (or even a seasoned veteran) and want a consistent angle to your tools, I highly recommend the Mk.II honing guide from Lee Valley. They have a flat roller that comes with it, and for a cambered plane blade you can buy the optional roller. I've used this device on both water stones and sand paper with excellent results.

http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.a ... 43078&ap=1

plus 1 one on the veritas MKII. honing guide. I found that it has given the the most consistant edges that stay sharp for a reasonable amount of work.

ddietz wrote:If you are new to sharpening (or even a seasoned veteran) and want a consistent angle to your tools, I highly recommend the Mk.II honing guide from Lee Valley. They have a flat roller that comes with it, and for a cambered plane blade you can buy the optional roller. I've used this device on both water stones and sand paper with excellent results.

http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.a ... 43078&ap=1

It's a little cheaper here depending on shipping.

http://www.woodworkingshop.com/product/vt05091/

I have the MK-II honing guide as well and before I started using it, I thought my chisels were pretty sharp. After I used it, now I KNOW what sharp chisels feel like.
There are plenty of people who can sharpen their blades for various tools without honing guides and maybe one day, I will be one of those people. For now however, I prefer to spend my time building and not learning how to hold my blades on a consistent angle so that I can hone a perfect edge. The honing guide makes it simple. It costs a few bucks, but as the saying goes, you get what you pay for!
Between honing sessions, I do touch up my chisels freehand on some 2000 grit paper, but that is just on the tip. When I feel the blade needs a good honing and needs to be brought back to the correct angle across the whole blade, I take out the guide.

I use a Mk-II for sharpening but I use a leather strop and some honing compound to touch up the edge while I am working. I generally have it out while carving braces. If I start to feel I am working harder four or five strokes on the strop and I am golden.

By the way, I learned a lot watching Brian Burns' video. Thanks for posting the link!

'Scary sharp' makes a bunch of sense. Inexpensive, effective, understandable. My use for the system would be for the first chisels I ever bought that I use for something other than door hinges and locksets. But freehand holding of such chisels to sharpen them ain't gonna work right for me, I think. I'd love a honing guide. But sixty bucks is to me an expensive ticket to a honing guide. Can someone suggest a guide that works, while it may not be satisfactory for a woodworking nerd, well enough for chisels I intend to use on instrument braces and brace pockets? And doesn't cost more than the chisels I'll be sharpening with it?

Thanks very much.