I try compensating for this by putting pressure on the other side to even it out. If you apply pressure to one side the chisels edge deviates from the angle: one corner lower than the other. Part of the problem I found is the rounding of the bezel from left to right. I faced issues with a narrow chisel recently. If you start with the plane iron and then do the larger chisels first, you already have some experience, when you turn to the smaller ones.Īpart from that, there is nothing bad about using honing guides, they only limit your possibilities, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Narrow chisels are a bit harder free-hand, because it is fairly easy to rotate them just a little, and then get the edge out of square or even round. With more experience, you can add variations to the edge that are impossible with a honing guide (though perhaps not really necessary at all). And do check your progress often, and make sure, you have a good light source, so you can see exactly, what you are doing. Simply keep the bevel as it is, until you find out, that you want another angle. If your father took good care of the blade, it should be no problem at all. If you follow Paul Seller’s method to the letter, you still cannot achieve a bevel of exactly 25° or whatever number you chose, but you can maintain an existing bevel or change it gradually. However, with some care, it does work, and I only paid 10 Euro, including an oil stone and a bottle of oil.īut I decided to give free-hand sharpening another try, because squaring blades in that guide is really time consuming – with a lot of success.

Even if you manage to get the blade absolutely square, it might move slightly over time. I have a guide without these guides and it is very difficult to get a square edge. You should look for a honing guide, that has lateral guides, possibly something similar to what Paul Sellers is using in some of his videos.

Robert larson honing guide