Honing guides of a similar design have been around for decades. The Veritas version is a huge improvement and a modern interpretation of this most useful of sharpening aides. The Veritas Side-clamping honing guide is far more functional, being able to take a much wider range of blades. The unique three-point clamping jaw design ensures whatever the blade, it is held securely and squarely. Hone chisels and plane blades ranging from 3mm to 63mm at consistent bevel angles. The guide can even hold plough and shoulder plane blades. The parallel jaws feature two blade-clamping positions. Generally, the upper for long blades; the lower for shorter blades. The jaws move relative to each other, ensuring that the blade is always centered on the brass roller. The fixed jaw on the guide is canted inward by 0.37mm by design, when the guide is tightened the blade is automatically aligned. This makes up for the play in the rods so the movable jaw can actually slide freely on the rods. In use keep even pressure and occasionally check progress by looking at the bevel, if it is not quite even; simply increase the pressure on the narrower side, or decrease pressure on the thicker side. Setting the blade extension for a given bevel can be easily done by using a simple, home-made registration jig. The instructions include a template that can be cut and glued directly onto a piece of wood or other rigid material.