Premium Honing Guide

One of the best

I've had this guide for a few weeks now, and have used it extensively. Absolutely one of the best on the market at any price. For reference, I have and use Lie Nielsen's guide, the new Veritas side clamping guide, Veritas Mark II guide, and I do freehand sharpening. I mention this to make it clear I have a lot of experience in sharpening. The guide is well made and includes a top notch setting jig for just about any angle you would ever want to use. It most closely resembles the Lie Nielsen guide in design, which is a good thing, since the LN guide is, in my opinion, the best side clamping guide available today. The Woodriver one here is a very, very close second. I have had no problems with the guide holding both chisels and plane blades perfectly straight and getting perfect 90° cutting edges, even after taking the blade out and repositioning it for a tiny secondary bevel. That shows a very well made guide with some tight tolerances in manufacture. This Woodriver guide can handle any chisel or plane blade that will fit in the opening of the guide, regardless of how thick or thin the edges of the chisel are. This is a serious limitation of the inexpensive Eclipse style guides that sell for under 20 dollars, and can be a problem for the Veritas side clamping guide. The cheaper made guides cannot handle less expensive chisels with thicker side edges. Those chisels are Childs play for the Woodriver one due to the sides of the guide having a large single plane reference surface to grab the chisel. One slight issue is with the main screw grabbing sometimes when adjusting the guide. I believe this is due to excessive clearance between the threads of the stainless screw and the aluminum body parts of the guide. It's not a game changer, and is pretty easy to get around, but it's an area they could make improvements in future versions. Another small issue (so far) is that I had the bearing seize up on me about a week into using it. After freeing it up and applying a drop of lubricant it's free again and hasn't happened again. Highly recommended.