Modifying the Veritas Honing Jig
Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)
>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 to 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 �� thick), the honing jig has the capacity for 2 �� 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
