Your thoughts on the LN honing guide?

[joemac]

We are having a Lie Nielsen event next weekend in Chicago. I have been looking at their honing guide and it looks quite well engineered and well made. It is also well priced.

Before I take the plunge, I would like feedback from fellow WoodNetters that have used the guide to see what their take is on using it for chisels and for plane blades.

Any comments would be appreciated.

[Steve Friedman]

Excellent, but my edges don't get any sharper than they do using my $10 Eclipse guide. I own the L-N guide and love it, but only because of its ability to handle blades that the Eclipse guide won't hold - especially spokeshave blades, small block plane blades, narrow chisels, and my skew blades.

Steve

[Roger A]

Looks to me like it will excell with skewed blades. Otherwise similar to other guides like LV.

Roger

[Boatman53]

It only does the L-N skew angles. If you have a vintage skew chisel or plane it most likely will not work. Never tried one but that is what I've read.
Jim

[Mike Brady]

Just like the tools that it was designed to aid in sharpening, the Lie-Nielsen honing guide is superb. The repeatability of settings is a great feature and something the original Eclipse could not do. This is because of the way it registers all blades from the non-beveled side regardless of their thickness. Making a simple gauge block is all that is required. Another great feature is the ease of maintenance: the entire jig is water immersible for cleaning.

L-N has designed jaws to accept a large percentage of the blades in their line. When using it, I feel like I have complete control of the honing because its not as bulky as some other brands. It has a drawback: it does not allow for easy cambering of blades because their is limited clearance at the bottom of the jig. I use an eclipse jig when (rarely) sharpening a radiused blade, like my scrub plane.

Changing the jaws is not a big deal. Most of my sharpening involve chisels and plane blades which use the same set of standard jaws. This week I was honing my mortise chisels every day, so I put the thick blade jaws on the jig.

I have noticed two criticisms of the L-N jig: cost, and that it doesn't hold Brand X tools. It's the Lie-Nielsen Honing Guide. They made it to their standards, for their tools. In my experience no other honing guide touches it, but others may disagree. From what I know of you, Joe, you will love it.

[EricU]

when you say that about other tools not comparing, do you include the Lee Valley? I finally gave up on my purist, no guide approach a while back and got the full setup of LV guides. It seems to me that any improvements would be pretty subtle.

[Mike Brady]

Eric said:

Quote:

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It seems to me that any improvements would be pretty subtle.

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You won't need to own both.

[rwe2156]

I would pass. You can modify a cheapie.

LN even had a video on how to do it, but I wouldn't expect it to still be up.

I encourage to learn freehand and just use a guide for correcting/changing an angle.

[Wilbur Pan]

rwe2156 said:

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I would pass. You can modify a cheapie.

LN even had a video on how to do it, but I wouldn't expect it to still be up.

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It’s still up. https://youtu.be/ojzzCXq5ook

I doubt Lie-Nielsen would be so petty as to pull a video they made that provides good information for woodworkers in the name of sales.

[captjack]

Joe,

the current issue of FWW has a short article on this honing guide.