Lie Nielsen Honing Guide compatability

[ear3]

I've been getting frustrated with my Veritas MKII honing guide, as the roller has degraded such that it is skewing the bevel out of parallel.  Moderate skewing of a straight blade can be compensated for through positioning of the blade in the frog, but now that I have a bunch of skew planes, it's becoming a chore to match the angle of the plane body with the Veritas skew registration jig.

Recently I've even been reaching for a plain side-mount roller guide to sharpen my plane irons rather than the Veritas, so I'm thinking now of getting the Lie-Nielsen honing guide because of it's dedicated skew jaws.  The 30 degree jaws would come in handy especially for the Veritas skew rabbet plane -- but I'm wondering, has anyone confirmed whether these jaws will work with a rabbet plane iron, which has the T-shape of all rabbet blades?  Depending on the projection of the blade, I could imagine running into the problem of the jaws not having enough of a surface to grip on the sides if you have to position it around where the narrow part of the blade begins.

 

[Corwin]

I've experienced the same "skewing" of the bevel with my Veritas MKII, particularly with the knob turned to the 6:00 position for the micro bevel. I even purchased a new base to see if that corrected this problem -- I thought it had at first, but then last week I see that this issue has returned. So, I too will be interested to see the replies to this thread.

 

[grbmds]

I believe the Lie-Nielsen guide is made so that it works with their tools/blades. I know that is true for chisels. Maybe calling them would resolve the question. I know that the guide has improved my chisel and plane blade sharpening mainly because it holds the blade so securely it cant move. Having said that it won’t work for all of my chisels due to differences in thickness. The other good thing is that if it doesn’t work Lie Nielsen has a good return policy. I recently ordered accessory jaws for the guide. They didn’t work on my blades and they took them back no questions asked.

 

[leakyroof]

Have you contacted Lee Valley to see if they can correct the guide? PM Rob Lee and see what his thoughts are on the issue.

 

[thudchkr]

Will the 30 degree jaws work for the Veritas plane?  Just looked on their website and it shows the iron as having a 22 degree skew. 

The two angled jaw offerings for the LN honing guide match the skew angle on their skew block and skew rabbet.

 

[Alanbach]

I can’t speak to the LN issue but I have had my MKII for a long time and I sharpen with sandpaper on glass. The rollers take a beating. They will sell you a replacement roller. If you have a mic they can also help you determine if yours is out of tolerance. I had to buy a small retainer ring pliers in order to switch them out but the rest is easy peasy!

 

[ear3]

The skew rabbet is bedded at a 30 degree angle.
http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=59999&cat=1,230,41182,48945

Will the 30 degree jaws work for the Veritas plane?  Just looked on their website and it shows the iron as having a 22 degree skew. 

The two angled jaw offerings for the LN honing guide match the skew angle on their skew block and skew rabbet.

 

[ear3]

I'm probably going to order up another roller, but this will be the second time I will have had to replace a component on the MKii honing guide.

Have you contacted Lee Valley to see if they can correct the guide? PM Rob Lee and see what his thoughts are on the issue.

 

[Birdhunter]

I have just started using a Lie Nielsen honing guide. I was concerned about getting the bevel angle exactly right as I have planes with bevels from 25 to 45 degrees. I saw a angle setting jig at Highland Woodworking in Atlanta made for Lie Nielsen honing guides and similar tools. The detail plans are in their web site. The link is

https://www.highlandwoodworking.com/library/lie-nielsen/AngleSettingJig.pdf

 

[grbmds]

I have just started using a Lie Nielsen honing guide. I was concerned about getting the bevel angle exactly right as I have planes with bevels from 25 to 45 degrees. I saw a angle setting jig at Highland Woodworking in Atlanta made for Lie Nielsen honing guides and similar tools. The detail plans are in their web site. The link is

https://www.highlandwoodworking.com/library/lie-nielsen/AngleSettingJig.pdf

The exposure distances by angle for the stops on the setting guide are listed on the on the Lie-Nielsen site in the Use tab for the Honing Guide. I made a "nothing special" guide just using scraps of plywood for the base and maple for the stops. The Honing Guide works great. I use it for cutting primary bevels with coarse stones as well as for putting a micro bevel. Since using this guide my sharpening skill has improved significantly. It holds the blade so tight that there is no chance for movement. The Lee Valley Mark II works well also, but with the standard top/bottom clamp the blade has a tendency to move slightly sometimes.

 

[DobieG]

The stop block distance setting for the Lie Nielsen honing guide and the eclipse style are different per the Lie Nielsen website. Also the distance setting is for a .125 blade thickness per their documentation.
https://d3h1zj156zzd4j.cloudfront.net/pdf/sharpening_instructions_english_8-9-17.pdf