ATLIN Honing Guide - Fits Chisels 1/8” to 1-7/8”, Fits Planer Blades 1-3/8” to 3-1/8”

Simple tool, helped me sharpen my chisel. Yeah, read the directions. But...with one wheel, your results do end up only as straight as you can hold it. I suppose two wheels would help a lot, but I never saw any with that. Maybe my case was special because I was correcting an incorrect angle from a previous poor resharpening attempt. I rated it 5 stars because it is everything I expected for the price; however, you still can end up with a poor edge if you don't keep it straight. This is a perfectly fine product for what it is, just know that if you are expecting a perfect, amazing edge, it's only as good as how well you use the tool. If you are one of those people who want perfection, keep looking. But if you just want to sharpen a chisel for simple work, this will do the trick.

Me gusto mucho la calidad de la herramienta. Buenos acabados.

This is a good sharpening aid for someone who can't afford or just doesn't want to pay the money for a premium or semi-premium honing guide.The machining and casting is better than any other imitations of the Eclipse #23 that I have used. The flexing of the jaws on the parallel guide bars is minimal. I used to own a genuine Eclipse honing guide. It was very old. By the time I had purchased it the jaws were flexing as badly as the jaws on the knock-offs. Eventually the flexing of the jaws on the Aitlin guide will get worse too. If you get ten years of service for $15.00 (2021) that is a good value IMO.If you read and follow the directions you will get good results. However, be aware of the possibility that your blade can twist in all three positions of the jaws. The center position (for bevel edged chisels) is especially prone to this when using narrow chisels of say 1/4" or less. Loosening the jaws ever so slightly will allow you to correct the twist without having to reset the tool all over again. I haven't had any of the quality control issues like some other reviewers.This guide works great on abrasive films (dry) diamond plates (wet or dry) and water stones up to 8000 grit. However, the wheel will not roll on 1 micron films that have been wetted with a water based lubricant. It drags. Likewise, the wheel drags on a black Arkansas stone that has been lubricated with mineral oil. It doesn't drag on a lubricated soft Arkansas stone.FYI-I bought this just to try it out. I typically use a Veritas Mk II honing guide. In fact I own the whole system. It is a substantial investment. The Aitlin guide delivers similar results but requires more vigilance and fiddling. I also know how to sharpen freehand. I prefer a good guide because it is easier for me to get consistent results. I've never used a Lie-Nielsen honing guide. Therefore, I cannot compare it to the Aitlin. I hope this review is helpful.

First time using a honing guide and have thus far sharpened several chisels and a blade from my block plane, to my satisfaction and far better than what I was able to achieve previously via freehand.Before you use the honing guide and to achieve quality results if your tools are in poor cutting condition is to start by getting the completely flat side of your chisel/blade honed flat to a mirror like finish as much as possible. I accomplished this by hand, without the honing guide, using a very flat piece of granite under my sandpaper and moving through progressively finer grits of wet sandpaper, applying flat and even pressure, many, many, many strokes and lots of patience. The harder your steel, the more time you must devote but the end result will be superb.Once this step is accomplished, just follow the provided honing guide blade mounting directions and move your blade through progressively finer wet sanding paper stages as you did when working the completely flat side of your blade mentioned earlier.With the honing guide, I can now more easily achieve that scalpel type cutting edge we strive for. There are numerous Utube videos for using honing guides which I'd recommend prior to using any honing guide. The directions for using the honing guide are pretty much limited to "how to mount your chisel/blade to the guide and at the angle you desire". I found these instructions and the functionality to be quite sufficient thus far. I guess time and use will tell but thus far it seems to be quite sturdy and is bringing me into a new dimension of "sharp".Thanks Atlin!PS) I think that if the roller on the bottom side of the guide was broader, perhaps as much as 1.5-2" in width, it would be even easier to use and help deliver even greater precision in keeping the tool blade really tight and flat to the sandpaper surface. I think some additional general directions on sharpening techniques coupled with how to "move the guide" and where/how to apply blade pressure would help some of the folks who are not getting positive results with this honing guide. Just a thought..

Thanks to this guide and a set of cheap diamond stones (also from Amazon), plus some polishing compound and a scrap of denim from my sewing pile, I have finally experienced the pleasure of hand planing without breaking a sweat and watching transparent curly shavings emerge from my hand plane. The planed board is so smooth, it's ready to finish!I thought I could freehand sharpen, and yes, the edges I got from freehand sharpening were OK, but with this guide, my bevels are finally straight and even. The little instruction sheet is CRITICAL to read. It has clearly been refined over a long time by watching customers misunderstand or ignore their instructions and returning the guide or reviewing them poorly and unfairly. I had questions (why one rounded side? why does my tool keep slipping off?) and the instructions answered both (because rounded side = 1 point of contact = actually more stable, and you NEED to tighten the screw with a screwdriver, not by hand - I constantly forget this). I could tell from that little sheet of paper that Atlin is a business that knows sharpening, cares about both sharpening and its customers, and wants them to succeed. Not your average Chinese copycat mass producer of crap, although their stuff is made in China.Anyway, with the screw properly tightened, I was able to push and pull the blade and guide along my stones without the blade budging. And since the blade doesn't budge, I can apply pressure on both the push and the pull stroke, and grind away metal twice as fast. Game changer for a lazy impatient person like me. I get a consistent burr in seconds. I use a fine tip Sharpie and a try square to draw a line on the back of the blade, perpendicular to the side, where the guide should sit, so I don't have to measure every time. Come to think of it, I should draw that line on the side so it's not ground away during the flattening.I had no trouble with the guide wobbling, even with just one roller. Would I prefer a wider roller, or 2 rollers? Maybe. But all I have to do is use my index fingers to apply firm pressure on both sides of the back of the bevel, just above the stone, while my thumbs rest on the back of the guide. That keeps the guide flat on its roller. And I find that pressure points matter - the grinding isn't as good if I push anywhere other than the edge, so that's the best place to apply pressure anyway.Where I do have trouble is tightening the screw. It's hard to find a way to hold the blade in the guide at the right depth and turning the screwdriver while avoiding the roller, because if I touch the roller and it turns, it knocks the blade out of place. The best position seems to be to hold it in my left hand, let the roller hang in the gap between middle and ring finger, use my left thumb to hold the blade against the guide, and use my right hand to tighten.An actual complaint: this is on me for not reading the description, but it can't fit plane irons less than 1 3/8". And I learned the hard way that my block plane iron is 1". So, not taking stars off, but you should be aware of that.