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Looks interesting, the blade is stationary and the stone moves. I’m all about speed.

Looks like it might make it easier to sharpen little blades like finger planes?

https://www.deadedgedesign.com/dead-edge-honing-guide

Brad


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Pretty cool! But looks like he spent all his imagined profits on a patent and now has to charge so much for it that it would be far easier to make yourself. Sad.

Hmmm. I don't think short blades will be easier with this. The knob against which you index the blade rotates in order to set the angle, but the knob doesn't seem to be adjustable in terms of how close you can get it to the sharpening plate. So, a really short blade won't be able to reach from the knob (against which it is supposed to index) to the sharpening plate. Or, at least that's the way it looks. The builder could stand to show a bit more about how the angle setting mechanism works, and whether there is any adjustability to accommodate blades of different lengths. An ideal setup would have linear rails for both the sharpening plate and the blade, but then you would have to worry about having some sort of adjustable stop, so one doesn't run into the other. It's a worthy product, but there are lots of worthy products. In the end, all such products that rely on person power wind up being tedious to those of us impatient with sharpening.

Good point. And even if the guide was very close to the stone, there's the issue of how to hold a short blade against it. Might end up sharpening the knuckle on your thumb along with the blade...

My favorite honing guide for a long time has been a Richard Kell No. 2, which can do a 30 degree bevel on blades as short as 1-5/8". The only thing that bothers me about it is that the wheels need oiled fairly frequently or they start skidding on fine stones. A couple months ago I tried making my own guide of similar design, but with ball bearings for wheels:


It's great. I also used a coarser threaded screw so adjusting is quicker. I used 1/2"x1-5/8"x5/16" bearings because I had plenty on hand and wasn't really thinking about short blades, but perhaps I'll try swapping them out with 1/2"x3/4"x5/32". Looks like that would be able to a 30 degree bevel on 1-1/2". The larger bearings limit it to 2-1/2" or longer.

If it’s about speed, I think scary sharp with the grades of sandpaper adhered side by side to a flat plate will be faster. You don’t have to change plates to work through the grits but rather just move over on the stone. I use a Veritas guide and several grits of lapping paper adhered to a flat granite block. It takes less than a minute to restore the microbevel once the chisel is in the guide to move through all the grits and shine on a leather strop. Once a year, or so, I have to restore the main bevel. I do this in a few seconds on the belt sander. Then back to the lapping papers for the micro bevel. I’ve looked at several other sharpening systems and haven’t found any to be improvements.

For the little blades, I made a block with a 25 degree angle on one side and 30 on the other. Holding the blade to it while stroking the block on the papers does the job.

And how would you ease or round the corners of the blades, something that's often quite handy?

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

FWIW, my finger plane blades snap right into the extended jaws on my Lie-Nielsen guide, but I’d def have fun trying this new jig out!


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I don't like anything that the media, the replaceable part is proprietary. If this guy goes teats-up and they very well may at these prices when a flat surface and some sand paper can do the same thing anyone investing in this system is sol.

We wouldn't buy because of his proprietary sharpening plates. I'm all about a better mousetrap and we spend thousands on technology when it fits the bill. This doesn't for us.

And wanted to add that the beauty of Todd Stock's system that is on Youtube and uses a diamond plate is thousands of tools sharpened without having to purchase more stuff AND IIRC (if I recall correctly) he can sharpen something in maybe a minute or two so it's very fast too.

After he posted that nearly 20 years ago I went out and bought all the stuff Todd recommended and we still use it to this day in our commercial shop. Great bang for the buck and as efficient as anything I've seen.

This includes the rotating media systems that can be very prices AND have a dependency on proprietary parts again... which is BS in the commercial world and represents a single point of failure if the company tanks.

I might have misunderstood, but I thought the value prop is you bring your own sharpening stones to this jig vs buying from them.

I don’t think I’ll try this out. I’m really stuck with scary sharp and the veritas guide which works just well / fast enough that I’m not highly motivated to change it up.

That being said I’m always looking for faster. This one probably isn’t it.


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You did not misunderstand, Brad. Direct quote from their website: "Sharpening stone not included." They also have a specific section of their FAQ which talks about which separately purchased stones would be compatible with their product.

I'm not interested in the product, but my lack of interest is not related to the choice of sharpening plates/stones. I favor power methods, and when I use a hand method, what I have works fine.

I use Lie-Nielsen's angle setting jig, but Todd's method is the first I learned and the one I keep coming back to. I used to have a lot of fun experimenting, but now I just want to get it done reliably. Two minutes to sharp, including the time it takes to get the blade in the guide, is generous. 15-20 passes on the 1000, 1520 on the 8000. If I had a WorkSharp out and ready to go, I can def see that being faster, but I have no complaints.

It isn't just speed though, it's also quality of the edge. As long as you have a guide that keeps the black rock steady, I think you're good to go with stones.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7T1p3vfV-vI[/youtube]