Quick-set gauge for honing guide
To keep my hand planes and chisels razor-sharp, I like to use a wheeled honing guide. It works great, but I wanted a way to quickly square the blade in the guide and to set the correct blade extension for the bevel angle. The result is the acrylic angle-setting jig shown. Make the jig body from a 5x7" piece of 1⁄4 " acrylic. On the bottom of the jig, use cyanoacrylate glue to adhere the cleat shown. You press the cleat firmly against the edge of your bench during use. Next, glue the squaring fence as shown, perfectly square to the front edge of the jig body. Now, set the blade in your honing guide as you normally would. Then, hold the honing guide against the near end of the jig, lay the blade down on the angle-setting jig, and score a line in the acrylic using a utility knife.
For better visibility, I colored the line with a permanent marker, immediately wiping off the excess ink. You can score and label multiple lines on your jig for different plane irons, chisels, and the like, but these angle-setting jigs are easy enough to make that you can make one for each tool or grinding angle. Next time you need to resharpen this blade, just lay the blade against the fence, hold the beveled end on the scored line, and mount your honing guide, holding it against the jig.
—Willard Anderson, Chapel Hill, N. C.