I recently purchased a Vertias Mk.II Guide. I’m pretty happy with it and the edges come out nice and sharp. But….
So far, I am unable to produce a square hone on the bevel. That is to say that the honing process produces a slightly skewed line of shiny metal. However, the cutting edge is square and I am applying even pressure across the edge.
Does anyone know if it’s normal for the jig to produce a skewed line of shiny metal on the bevel itself? If not, how should I go about fixing it?
Thanks!
Replies
No matter how close your eyeball says the cutting tool is perpedicular to the jig, a few strokes on the stone will tell the tale. If the honed blade show fat on one side and thin on the other, slightly loosen the jig and twist the tool such that the thin honed edge moves forward and the fat edge pulls back.
No square that I know of can locate the cutting edge better than the human eye after five or six honeing strokes.
Chris
Corrib,
Do you turn the little doo-hickey to do the honing? I reset the blade to 30 degree from 25. I'm not real sure which way the arrow is supposed to point when honing...and the 30 degree gives me a nice line...
Does anyone know if it's normal for the jig to produce a skewed line of shiny metal on the bevel itself? If not, how should I go about fixing it?
Hi Corrib
I was one of the original testers of this jig before it went into production and, as a result, assessed it on a very wide range of chisel and plane blades. There were some initial difficulties with tall chisels and, as a result, Veritas came up with a slight modification prior to release of the jig. By this stage it could handle very difficult blades, such as skinny ones and tall ones (e.g. Japanese mortice chisels).
There remained two causes of poor honing on the jig. These are, firstly, where the back of the blade is not flat and has a high point. This can cause the blade to twist. The solution is to flatten the back of the blade. The second problem, which is likely the source of your symptom, is when uneven pressure is exerted on the blade by the two side screw clamps. This will cause the blade to tilt to one side, thus leading to uneven honing. The solution is to make sure that the blade is centered and the screw clamps are used evenly.
As it is, a skewed line as you describe (I assume that the bevel edge is unaffected) is probably not going to alter the performance of the blade.
Regards from Perth
Derek
I too had that problem...then I looked closer at the chisel. It had come with a very poor grind from the factory. I was able to carefully regrind the chisel ( I had previously flubbed this up on an old pair of bench chisels, no big loss, they are just shorter now.) Once that was done, and I carefully made sure the same amout of tension was applied to both sides of the holding arm, the jig worked to perfection.
3rd generation, back in the shop after years in the desert (corporate world.)
Bear in the Woods
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled