Veritas Mk II Honing Guide — and the Amazon Alternative
The Mk II is the best honing guide made, and Lee Valley sells it direct. The eclipse-pattern guide is the Amazon one, and it works.
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Freehand sharpening is a skill, and like most skills it is learned faster with a jig than without one. The problem a honing guide solves is not “getting an edge” — it is getting the same edge, repeatedly.
A bevel honed at 30 degrees one week and 27 the next means every sharpening starts by removing the previous bevel. Hold the angle consistently and each honing takes a dozen strokes.
Veritas’s Mk II is the best guide available and Lee Valley sells it direct. The eclipse-pattern guide scored here is what Amazon has, and it is a competent tool at a fraction of the price.
How you set the angle
This is the main practical difference between the two.
The Mk II has a registration jig: drop the blade in, push it against a stop set to the angle you want, tighten. It takes seconds and it is exact.
The eclipse pattern has no such thing. The angle is determined by how far the blade projects from the jaws, and you set it by measuring that projection — usually against a shop-made block with lines marked for 25 and 30 degrees.
Make that block. Five minutes with a scrap of ply, and after that setting the guide takes as long as it does on a Mk II.
Watch the roller
The single roller is narrow, and if you press harder on one side than the other, the guide tips. A tipped guide rounds the corner of the edge, and you end up with a blade that is sharp in the middle and not at the corners.
Keep pressure centred, use both hands, and check the edge against a light occasionally.
What will not fit
Very short blades — a chisel worn back to a stub — do not have enough length to clamp and project correctly. Skewed blades cannot be held square. Very wide irons foul the jaws.
The Mk II has interchangeable jaws for exactly these cases, which is most of what the extra money buys. If your blades are ordinary chisels and bench plane irons, the cheap guide covers them all.
What works
- It holds a consistent bevel angle, which is the entire point — a repeatable 30 degrees beats a freehand 28-to-33 every time for edge longevity
- Side-clamping means the blade registers on its own edges, so a blade goes back in the same position next time
- Cheap enough that there is no excuse for not owning one while you are learning to sharpen
What doesn't
- You set the angle by measuring blade projection against a stop block, which is fiddly compared with the Mk II's registration jig
- The narrow roller means the guide can rock sideways if you press unevenly, which rounds the edge
- Short blades, skewed irons and wide chisels either will not fit or sit badly, where the Mk II has jaws for them
Worth comparing against
- Check price
DMT
DMT W250FCNB DuoSharp Bench Stone, Fine/Coarse, 10 in