Plane Iron honing guide.

[BigShot]

Hi folks.
I bought a B&Q plane iron honing guide this weekend. It only cost a few quid and looks like it'd do the job on chisels and full size irons, but I need to use it on a spoke shave and block plane, and it's no good for that.
You set the angle by measuring how far the iron projects from the guide - but to get 25 or 30 degree angles the iron needs to project so far that there's nothing left to clamp into the guide.

I've seen a Stanley honing guide that comes in a kit with a stone and some oil, but since I'm going to be using this with a combination of one of the £5 sharpening kits and the "scary sharp" system, if I can save a few quid by not getting the stone and oil I will.

The main things I need to know, are:
Is the stanley honing guide suitable for sharpening spoke shave and block plane irons (maybe 45mm to 50mm long at most)?
If it is suitable, where can I get the stanley honing guide on its own for a good price?
Also - will that honing guide work for chisels too? Or is it purely for planes and spokeshaves?

 

[Fraxinus]

I am not familiar with the guide mentioned, however, I have used an Eclipse honing guide for years. Axminster tools make a copy of it for £5.72 product code 340147-26 (www.axminster.co.uk). Great for plane blades (incl. block) and chisels.

Spoke shave blades are by nature just a bit too short to work well with it and fiddly to do by hand. I made a jig/ extension handle for them, just a piece of wood slotted at one end to hold the blade two snipped off panel pins to aid alignment (due to curved end on blade) and a machine screw and wing nut to tighten grip on blade. Sharpening by hand just takes a bit of practice. Will try to take pic of jig and post tomorrow.

Note: I am a Carpenter & Joiner by trade and play with wood as a hobby, please don't tell the boss I get paid for my hobby! Thanks.

Fraxinus.

 

[BigShot]

That looks just like the one I got from B&Q.
The main difference I see is that mine came in that obnoxious B&Q orange.

It looks like a decent bit of kit for just about everything except what I need to do. Since you need to measure the distance the iron protrudes from the fixture to get the right angle you need an iron long enough to stick out that far and still have enough to clamp. Unfortunately, a spoke shave iron is just too short for that.

I've just tried the iron from my old 110 block plane (3 7/8ths inches or 98mm long at the side) and that works fine, but still need something suitable for a blade no longer than about 1 5/8ths inches along the side. (40mm ish)

 

[Fraxinus]

Have put pic of blade honing jig in gallery, hope it helps.

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/index.php/Gallery.html