To create a great sharpening and honing guide for many of your carving gouges, whether curved, straight, or skewed, you can screw an eyebolt into a hardwood block. The eyebolt keeps the handle at a consistent angle as you rotate the tool and slide the block back and forth. To create a microbevel, you can simply unscrew the eyebolt a bit to raise its height, but I make separate guides for different sharpening and honing angles. By the way, a regular 1/4-20 eyebolt works fine, but a specialized one, called a “lifting eyebolt,” works even better. It’s completely closed, which allows you to cut off the top half, so you can drop the gouge into it instead of poking it through the circle and possibly nicking the tip. To make sharpening smoother and more effective, place a smooth, flat material (like MDF) under everything for the block to slide on.

—VINCE FYIE, Port Sanilac, Mich.

Illustrations by Dan Thornton
From Fine Woodworking issue #306

Fine Woodworking Recommended Products

Lie-Nielsen No. 102 Low Angle Block Plane

With smooth, precise adjustments and wonderful balance, this compact block plane is a joy to use. It doesn’t have any bells and whistles, but there’s not a better block plane available for the money.

Buy at Direct

Mist Coolant System

A mister for keeping tools cool while you hone them on your grinder. This mister has a base that can be screwed to a support near your grinding wheel or drill press. It conveniently hooks up to a small shop compressor, and by charging it with coolant, you can keep tools rust free.

Buy at Amazon

Marking knife: Hock Double-Bevel Violin Knife, 3/4 in.

This heavy, double-beveled knife stays on track in all directions, and works just fine without adding a handle.

Buy at Lee Valley