Veritas Basic Grinding Set — and the Amazon Alternative
Veritas sells its grinding jigs direct through Lee Valley. For turning tools, the Oneway Wolverine is the system almost everyone ends up with.
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Veritas makes grinding jigs and sharpening sets and sells them through Lee Valley direct. If that is what you came for, order from leevalley.com. What follows is about the problem these jigs solve and the system most turners settle on.
Why freehand grinding degrades
Grind a gouge freehand and each session removes a bit more from the nose than the heel, or the reverse. The bevel angle creeps. After a year the tool no longer behaves the way it did when it was new, and most turners blame themselves rather than the geometry.
A jig fixes the tool’s position relative to the wheel. Same position, same grind, every time, for the life of the tool.
How the Wolverine works
Two cast bases bolt to the bench in front of the grinder, one under each wheel. Into them slide two accessories.
The V-arm takes the handle end of a gouge. Set the projection once, note it, and the same grind returns whenever you need it.
The flat platform tilts to a set angle and supports skews, scrapers, chisels and plane irons flat against the wheel.
Between them, that covers nearly everything a workshop grinds.
The purchase people miss
A standard fingernail grind comes off the V-arm. A swept-back grind — the Ellsworth profile and its relatives, which is what most bowl gouges are ground to — requires the Vari-Grind arm, a separate attachment that lets the tool roll as well as swing.
If you own a bowl gouge with swept wings, you need it. Buying the base system and discovering that later is the most common complaint about the Wolverine, and it is a documentation problem rather than a design one.
It is an installation
Both bases bolt down. They need a solid bench, at the right height, at the right distance from the wheels — the manual gives the dimension and it matters. Set up on a flimsy stand, the whole thing flexes and the repeatability you paid for disappears.
Fix the grinder first
A jig positions the tool; it cannot fix the wheel. A cheap high-speed grinder with an out-of-balance wheel will chatter and burn edges whatever jig is in front of it.
Dress the wheel true with a diamond dresser, and if you are buying a grinder, buy a slow-speed one with a friable white or blue wheel. That change improves grinding more than any jig does.
What works
- The V-arm holds a gouge at a fixed distance from the wheel, so the same grind comes back every time instead of drifting shorter and steeper
- The flat platform handles skews, scrapers and plane irons, so one system covers turning tools and bench tools
- It is the de facto standard, which means grinds, angles and tutorials from other turners map directly onto your setup
What doesn't
- Swept-back bowl gouge grinds need the Vari-Grind arm as well, and that is a separate purchase people discover late
- Both bases must be bolted to a solid bench at the right distance from the wheel — it is an installation, not an accessory
- It does nothing about the grinder itself: a wobbling wheel on a cheap high-speed grinder will produce a poor grind regardless of the jig
Worth comparing against
- Check price
Crown
Crown 242EW Ellsworth Signature Bowl Gouge, 1/2 in