ATLIN Honing Guide - Sharpening Jig for Chisels 1 8 to 1-7 8 Planer Blades 1-3 8 to

Was recommended to pick up a honing guide for an older stanley handplane I acquired with a couple good sized Knicks in the blade. I picked this one from other reviews, and price. I first clamped a half inch chisel into this guide and it made short work of putting a razor edge on that. I felt confident enough to try the stanley no. 4 1/2 blade after that, and 10 or so minutes running from 220 grit to 2500 grit with this guide, the blade is flat, and extremely sharp. Well worth the money, and easy to use, with instructions for putting the proper angles on different type of blades. Delivery was quick, and item was exactly as described. I've sharpened my chisels by holding the angle with my hand tons of times, but this puts one hell of an edge on chisels and planes. Read more

I have been needing a honing guide to touch up my chisels. Not wanting to spend a lot of money on one right now, I found and bought this one. I like that this one is small in size but still pretty stable while using. Setting up the right angle for your chisels takes a few minutes to get right. Holding the chisel in place, then having to tighten with a screwdriver leaves room for movement of the chisel and then you're starting over setting it up. A small knob to tighten would help with that. Once set, it's easy to use but also easy to get wrong. Keeping good even pressure gives a good result. I'm just using a basic honing stone at the moment but this can be used on other honing surfaces. One reason I got this one. After using, I can definitely tell a difference in the sharpness of the chisel so at the end, it's worth it to me. I do plan on getting a better version on down the road but for now, this one gives a good result and I'm happy with it. Read more

Keeps the angel right once set Read more

Held the plane iron tight and accurate without modification. If yours isn’t there are instructions on how to modify to fix it. Read more

This is an ok guide to learn on. It wears out within a handful of use. The screw is cheap metal - I know, shocker! - and unless your screwdriver is full width and fits snugly the gap widens to almost unusable. Also, after this forget about using pliers, they just strip the outside grooves away. As with the screw, the chisel holder wears out too. I have been testing my sharpening on a 1/2 chisel - cheap dewalt - and it barely holds it through a sharpening and is becoming more and more difficult to get it in properly and secure with the holders (and also the screwing tight). This is an ok guide to learn on, but spend a little more money on a better quality guide which is what I am searching for now. Durability: 2 star. I would say I have sharpened about a dozen chisels and only a few plane irons. Slip resistance: Good at beginning 3-4, now terrible 1 star. Accuracy: 4 star, comes with a written guide and it is correct, would be nice if it had a physical guide which is what I am going to get next time. Directions: keep them, they are pretty clear 4 star. Sharpness - it worked the first couple times, now has deteriorated to sort of possible. I would go 1, maybe 2 star if you are sharpening on a regular basis. I would go 3-4 if you are sharpening only a few times a year. Read more

Okay, first off I was worried from some negative reviews, but went ahead with this anyway. After using it, I realized there is a big factor in success: reading the simple single sheet of instructions. It clearly says how a mortise chisel (the type with the straight sides - sheesh there is even a diagram example) is secured at a different place on the jig. My Marples and my Stanley chisels are all mortise chisels, and I imagine this is the most common type used (as the directions even say, it is probably a mortise chisel if you don't know). Following the simple instructions, I was able to secure 2 different types of Stanley plane irons and 4 different chisels (size 1/2 to 1"). I had previously sharpened my plane irons free hand on my diamond plates and thought I did okay. When I used the jig - wow did I notice what a horrible job I did freehand! I am surprised anyone would recommend doing this freehand. When you think about it, it is like saying you can do a better job using a table saw without a fence or sled. Here you are doing hundreds or thousands of cuts and want consistency to have a uniform angle and edge. The human body flexes - even if you have locked your wrists the best you can. Power to those superhumans that can achieve a fine edge doing this freehand, but for me and I imagine most people out there, it was much easier to put the blades in a jig. It is a very simple device. You lock in the blade in the appropriate slot, extending it to the length you want for the desired angle (suggestion: use a quality ruler with millimeters if you want to be precise. Make a quick cheap wooden jig for depth of future sharpening or other tools). For my chisels, I found the angle while I had it in the jig and then secured it rather than using the length to determine angle. After that it was just a matter of sharpening away. I didn't have to worry that it would be consistent - just held the pressure at the tip of the blade and made sure I wasn't lifting off the back wheel and went to it. From the brand new Marples chisel I was setting up to the antique Stanley #5 plane iron (circa 1941) this did a brilliant job on diamond plates and wetstones. I followed methodology from some woodworking channels and was able to achieve a mirror edge and cut paper with all blades. I did stropping freehand because I figured I could do little damage to the angle I had created with stones, so I can't say how it works for that but I imagine the same principal - maybe the wheel would sink in the leather a bit. As far as any naysayers about the build quality, I didn't notice any issues. Maybe there was some slight cast slag here and there but nothing that made me think low quality. For less than $20 it did the job and I imagine it will be solid for many sharpening sessions. Read more

This requires a LARGE sharpening stone so be aware. The unit seems to work well enough, however I do find that the clamping action really needs to be tightened down HARD to keep the blades from coming out or shifting. I have added a little bit of rubber tubing to grip better where the blades sit (why it's not five star). Other than that it's easy to use and works as intended. Accuracy depends on your ability to visually align the blade with a flat surface while in the clamp. Can clamp blades of varying thicknesses and sizes. Just be aware of its shortcomings and you can easily use. Read more