Pinnacle Honing Guide Kit

Comments about Pinnacle Honing Guide Kit :

The Pinnacle honing guide does exactly what it is meant to do - hold the blade at an exact angle to ensure that the edge is consistent. With that said, there is room for operator error in setting up the blade in the jig. With a little experience, however, the process becomes very easy. The guide can be set up to use one of two Pinnacle brand plates and sandpaper (the shorter plate comes with the kit). The larger plate requires the purchase of longer guide bars where the jig rests and slides. The honing guide works with the plates, your stones, or on a very flat surface using sandpaper. I'd recommend some self adhesive sandpaper...or use a thin varnish of rubber cement on the back of the sand paper to keep it secure. The plates or stones are changed by loosening thumb screws. The plates have built in "v" cuts on the end that ensure they are held level within the frame. Stones sit fully up in the frame and rely on their top surface to guarantee "levelness." If your stones have any twist to the honing surface, flatten them before mounting them up. The jig holds any flat blade that I have, even the super small plane blades that are used for tiny work. It is a little fiddly with the small blades, but it does work and hold them steady. The blades are held with brass thumb screws and they do lock down very well with hand pressure and keep the blade steady. As far as functionality: if you have chipped blades it will take a while to get them even. This, however, goes without saying if you are using a person-powered honing jig. Also, if you are looking to change the sharpened angle of the blade, you'll need to use some pretty aggressive sandpaper on the plate. It still takes time even when using 100 grit...not that I have any chipped blades :) The two things that are concerning but far, far from deal breakers: it's not like the mounted blade and jig conform to the exact shape of the human hand. It is a little uncomfortable to hold the jig while it is in the rails and move it back and forth a bazillion times if you are trying to remove chips. The other problem isn't really much of a problem, it is just that I am persnickity: Woodcraft/Pinnacle needs to provide a wider range of self-stick sandpaper for the plates. They supply the super fine grits (which are too expensive for what you get), so it would be nice if they offered cheaper self adhesive paper in stock in a wide variety of grits. All that said - used as a honing guide for flat blades and NOT a reshaping/chip removal guide - this thing works wonders and does so quickly. If you have serious chips or want to change the angle of the blade, then you will want to get an electronic something or other or pay to have it done, unless you are super patient.

Comments about Pinnacle Honing Guide Kit :

Screws are hard to adjust, to much left to right play with blade adjusters, need alien wrench to change out stones or make sure something is tight. I would not recommend this unless you love finding an alien wrench every time you want to change something.