Re: Veritas MKII sharpening questions
Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)
Barry, there are essentially two types of honing guides - the top clamping and the side clamping styles. Each has pros and cons.
The advantage of the top clamping Veritas is that it registers on the back of the blade, and this means that setting an angle is unaffected by blade thickness. The blade can also be angled. The weakness of this design is that the blade may not be held securely - this varies with examples. Mine is pretty secure. If mine does have an issue here, it is usually that the blade has a high spot on the back, and wants to pivot on this.
Using a top clamping guide has a couple of rules: firstly, tighten the clamp bar so that it provides even pressure across the blade. Tighten the two knobs evenly. One more than the other will cause the blade to cant.
Secondly, do not be tempted to use the guide as a grip. That is, you have this lump in front of you, and it is convenient to hold it rather than the blade. This actually goes for all guides. When free handing blades, fingers of one hand are placed across the front of the blade to hold it square to the stone. Do this with the guide as well.
Honing a straight edge ..
Honing a camber ...
In short, the honing guide simply holds the blade at a chosen angle. It is you driving the blade. In this way, there is no need to get Schwarzenegger about tightening the knobs!
Regards from Perth
Derek