ATLIN Honing Guide - Sharpening Jig for Chisels 1/8” to 1-7/8”, Planer Blades 1-3/8” to 3-1/8”

Was recommended to pick up a honing guide for an older stanley handplane I acquired with a couple good sized Knicks in the blade. I picked this one from other reviews, and price. I first clamped a half inch chisel into this guide and it made short work of putting a razor edge on that. I felt confident enough to try the stanley no. 4 1/2 blade after that, and 10 or so minutes running from 220 grit to 2500 grit with this guide, the blade is flat, and extremely sharp. Well worth the money, and easy to use, with instructions for putting the proper angles on different type of blades. Delivery was quick, and item was exactly as described. I've sharpened my chisels by holding the angle with my hand tons of times, but this puts one hell of an edge on chisels and planes.

I have been needing a honing guide to touch up my chisels. Not wanting to spend a lot of money on one right now, I found and bought this one. I like that this one is small in size but still pretty stable while using. Setting up the right angle for your chisels takes a few minutes to get right. Holding the chisel in place, then having to tighten with a screwdriver leaves room for movement of the chisel and then you're starting over setting it up. A small knob to tighten would help with that. Once set, it's easy to use but also easy to get wrong. Keeping good even pressure gives a good result. I'm just using a basic honing stone at the moment but this can be used on other honing surfaces. One reason I got this one. After using, I can definitely tell a difference in the sharpness of the chisel so at the end, it's worth it to me. I do plan on getting a better version on down the road but for now, this one gives a good result and I'm happy with it.

I ordered the ATLIN Honing Guide to sharpen my chisels. I haven't yet given it more than a brief, cursory trial on an old, very dull chisel, but it does seem to function exactly as intended. FOLLOWING THE DIRECTIONS from the start should provide a satisfactory sharpening experience, as I had none of the problems described by some reviewers regarding getting their tools to fit into the honing guide. I just bought a new set of chisels for my shop, and am looking forward to giving the ATLIN guide a full work-out. I chose the ATLIN guide, out of all of the available options, for three reasons. First, the price was right. Second, I learned through reading reviews that the company is a small, family-owned business and, as a small business owner myself, I love sourcing from other similar small businesses whenever possible. Third, the reviews repeatedly mentioned the great customer service. The reviews were right! In fact, only one other company I have recently ordered from has surpassed ATLIN's customer service, by having a sales associate personally telephone to confirm the status of the order, thank me for my order in a human voice, and offer any additional assistance I may need without any up-selling pressure of any kind. That might be an idea for ATLIN to take their customer service to the next level. Overall, though, in light of the often-impersonal online shopping experiences with a wide range of anonymous and unknown sellers, I would say that ATLIN seems to be a trustworthy source, and I won't hesitate to buy from them again if the need arises. Good job!

This honing guide is very simple to use and the instructions are clear and well-worded. The guide will accept most chisels types and plane blades. I tested it with an old chisel and a medium oil stone. It is important to clamp the chisel in the guide using pliers or a large screwdriver; hand tight will not hold (the instructions also state this). I was able to achieve a perfect bevel on the first attempt. Would recommend and would buy again.

I purchased this honing guide as a less expensive alternative to others on the market. The design is simple, and similar to that of a well-known hand-tool company’s significantly more expensive offering. But…one gets what one pays for, I think they say? Let me first say that the instruction sheet, while helpful, is discouraging in a simple but telling way. On that sheet, one learns that there are basically two kinds of chisel: the paring chisel and the mortise chisel. Ummm…no. The current accepted classification system denotes three primary types of chisel: the paring and mortise chisels, as mentioned, and the bevel-edge chisel—which comprises by far the most common type of chisel most will encounter. While bevel-edge chisels can be used for mortising, their primary use is for cutting and clearing the last bits of things like dovetails, dados, and the like. Mortising chisels are a much beefier chisel than their bevel-edge brethren, and for good reason—chopping mortises is a high-impact, high-stress experience (from the perspective of the chisel, at any rate), whereas clearing out the waste from dovetail joinery is simply a kinder, gentler way of doing things. Paring chisels are their own thing, and rightly so. But back to the instructions and the device itself. The instructions indicate three different ways the device holds blades; the top-most portion of the jaws is intended to hold plane blades for sharpening; this works reasonably well, but with one important caveat, which will be repeated later: one side of the jaws is slightly convex, such that the side of the blade contacts the jaw on that side at only a single point. The company claims that this is all that’s necessary, and actually is better than alternatives, in that “it forces the chisel to be square against the [opposite] flat edge”. But it also reduces the security of the blade in the device. Meanwhile, if the tool was properly machined with opposing flat and parallel jaws, the blade would be held by each jaw along its entire length, creating a more secure, as well as square, hold. In this, their idea of better is simply a means of defeating “good”. The above issue also contributes to another drawback of the tool; in order to adequately secure a blade within the device, the company says that the jaws must be tightened with a screwdriver—hand-tightness alone is inadequate. What they’ve actually done is create a problem (difficulty in adequately securing a blade in the tool) and then try to solve it by force rather than design. This error is compounded by the fact that what they call “mortise chisels” are to be secured in the deepest part of the space between the jaws, with no bracing against a square edge on the superior surface to ensure that the blade remains square—again, this is supposed to be overcome by tightening with a screwdriver rather than just by fingers. At this point, my experience with the tool is perhaps best characterized by noting the distinct lack of warm and fuzzy feelings. This all said, this device can get the job done. And yes, there are websites out there that will show one how to modify one’s brand-new honing guide to make it perform better. But that sort of thing simply should not be necessary. This isn’t the worst honing guide on the market, but it’s also a far cry from what one can and should expect. So, a passing grade, but no more.

Very good tool. Well worth the money and a good price.

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