Veritas Narrow-Blade Head for Veritas Mk.II Honing Guide System

[dog2bert]

Have you found the Veritas Narrow-Blade Head for Veritas Mk.II Honing Guide System helpful for Chisels?

I have the "regular" head and chisels never stay at a 90 degree angle.

[Handplanesandmore]

Have you found the Veritas Narrow-Blade Head for Veritas Mk.II Honing Guide System helpful for Chisels?

I have the "regular" head and chisels never stay at a 90 degree angle.

Never have had a problem with the standard head, though quite a number of users reported issues. But the narrow blade head solves all those issues. For me, I use the narrow head mostly for the 1/16" chisel.

Simon

[barryvabeach]

I have the narrow head,  and use it on all my chisels, and love that it is 90 degrees without having to fuss with it at all.  Well worth it.

[cputnam]

Top & Bottom clamping is very sensitive to equal pressure on the clamping screws. I've also discovered that the oil I use on my tools can make them slippery in the clamps. The chisel head fixes that and other issues, It is self squaring and handles almost all of my chisels. I'm pretty sure that I got my Sorby 1½" framing chisel in it as well as tiny stuff. With the mortise chisel spacer in it, the jig handles pic stickers too. I have a Narex ½" mortise chisel in it now. Highly recommended.

[Sierramtns]

Have you found the Veritas Narrow-Blade Head for Veritas Mk.II Honing Guide System helpful for Chisels?

I have the "regular" head and chisels never stay at a 90 degree angle.

I have the narrow blade head. I had the same problem with chisels shifting out of 90 deg. I have no problems when using the narrow blade holder for my chisels. It works great.

[David Charlesworth]

I have the narrow blade head. I had the same problem with chisels shifting out of 90 deg. I have no problems when using the narrow blade holder for my chisels. It works great.

The narrow blade head works much better than the original.

Best wishes,
David Charlesworth

[Derek Cohen]

Have you found the Veritas Narrow-Blade Head for Veritas Mk.II Honing Guide System helpful for Chisels?

I have the "regular" head and chisels never stay at a 90 degree angle.

I have most of the honing guides made for mankind (personkind?). That is surprising, since I freehand hone by choice. However, BU plane blades require a guide for micro secondary bevels, and Japanese chisels benefit from a honing guide when squaring up a bevel which has become slightly rounded. Similarly, guides are great when squaring up other blades, such as for plough and shoulder planes.

Of all the guides, the Veritas Mk ll is probably the best for its wide range. It can do skews as well, where most other guides can only work with straight blades. In all the years I have used this guide - and longer than anyone on this planet outside Lee Valley, itself ... I received the first production guide (the first review of this guide is here), it has been a reliable workhorse. 

Having clearly established my right to superior knowledge about this guide 
  I can write that it does what it set out to do. However, some will experience issues, such as an out-of-square secondary bevel. While there are a few rogue guides around, this result is usually due to the way the blade was set up in the guide (one side clamped more heavily than the other) or the blade has a belly, around which it can pivot. 

If the Mk ll has a criticism, it is that it is possible that the blade can pivot when this is unwanted, regardless of the fact that this rarely happens if used correctly. Further, the narrower the blade (such as a 1/4" wide chisel), the more vulnerable the guide becomes here. This is where the narrow, side clamping head comes in. 

The strength of the side clamping guides is that they clamp square. Every time. There are a bunch of excellent side clamping guides around, from the original Eclipse (and clones) to the LN and, soon-to-be-released Veritas Eclipse style guide. They all do the same job, some with less complication, and at a different price level.

The short answer about the Veritas side clamping head is that it works very well for all narrow blades. What makes this guide appealing is that the set up also uses the protractor for bevel angles. I use this with the wide, straight wheel for extra stability. The top clamping version is set up for plane blades with the camber wheel.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[AUswimKC]

Veritas eclipse?! Please tell me more!!

[Derek Cohen]

Rob Lee has mentioned it on SMC. I have it in my shop. I leave it to Rob to be the first to discuss it here.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Handplanesandmore]

Of all the guides, the Veritas Mk ll is probably the best for its wide range. It can do skews as well, where most other guides can only work with straight blades.



Regards from Perth

Derek

The skew function is unknown to many of its owners, but it does need the skew registration which is an accessory.

Based on those who I know in person and complained about the slipping with the standard head, the key reason, apart from uneven clamping, was that they used too much force in their stroking. Like sawing, you should let the stone do the cutting, and avoid bearing down the edge on the stone. As I said, I've never found any issues with the standard jig when using it. It's however not uncommon that people blame their user errors on the tool or machine.

Simon