Axminster Professional Honing Guide & Bevel Guide Review
Axminster Tools kindly sent us their Professional Honing Guide and Bevel Guide to test in the workshop. We’ve now had the chance to put it through its paces and here’s an honest breakdown of how it performed.
For context, at the furniture school and throughout our online tutorials, we use the Veritas MKII honing guide. That’s what our students are familiar with, so any comparisons here are simply for reference.
Overview
The Axminster Professional Honing Guide and Bevel Guide are designed as a precision hand-sharpening system for chisels and plane blades. The bevel guide allows you to set angles from 20° to 40°, adjustable to within 1°, with a permanently etched scale. The honing guide features dovetailed jaws to hold blades square (including non-parallel Japanese chisels), a wide Delrin roller for stability, and robust steel construction. Together, they promise repeatable bevels and accurate, square edges.
Both components are CNC machined in Axminster’s UK facility, and the overall feel is very much “premium workshop tool” rather than entry-level accessory.
Quick Pros & Cons
Pros
- Solid all-metal build
- Very accurate bevel adjustment
- Large, stable roller (noticeably bigger than the Veritas MKII)
- Excellent for medium to large chisels and plane blades
- Quick and straightforward to set up
- Very stable in use — comfortable for push-pull honing
Cons
- Pricey (£120 vs Veritas £65, budget Axminster £12)
- Doesn’t properly support narrow chisels (<6mm)
- Large body reduces travel slightly on shorter stones
- Small projection-setting square feels a little fiddly
First Impressions & Build Quality
The Axminster guide is a beautifully made piece of kit. It feels substantial in the hand, with tight tolerances and smooth action throughout. The wide roller immediately stands out — it’s chunkier than the Veritas MKII — and that extra width translates into noticeably improved stability.
The anodised black bevel guide is clear and easy to read, and the etched markings should last a lifetime.
Accuracy & Ease of Use
Where this system really shines is in how square and stable it feels during use. Some users report that the Veritas guide can occasionally sit slightly out of square or be knocked off alignment. I’ve personally never had that issue, nor have most of our students, but it’s worth noting that the Axminster felt extremely true and planted in use.
The wide roller allows for confident back and forth strokes without any rounding. This is one area where I’d give the Axminster a real advantage. With the Veritas guide, we generally recommend honing on the pull stroke only (as we teach at the school) to minimise the risk of rounding. The Axminster’s stability makes push-pull honing feel more controlled.
Regrinding a primary bevel was also surprisingly quick with the push-pull action. On a 19mm chisel, I was able to fully re-establish the primary bevel in under two minutes. For routine maintenance rather than major restoration, this system is efficient and intuitive.
Narrow Chisels: The Main Limitation
The product description states that the jaws accommodate blades from 6mm to 66mm wide. In practice, I found this optimistic.
My 6mm Ashley Iles bevel-edge chisel (which measures 6.3mm) was technically held, but I found it difficult to get a confident lock using the straight jaw. Reversing the left-hand jaw to the curved side (intended for non-parallel chisels) did grip the 6mm securely, but that process involves fully unscrewing and flipping the threaded screw, which is a bit of a faff.
It would not hold my 3mm chisel at all.
For comparison, the Veritas MKII we use at the school will just about hold a 3mm chisel, though ideally you’d use their dedicated narrow blade clamp if you regularly work at that scale.
If your chisel set includes tools below 6mm, particularly 3mm or 4mm, then you’ll need a separate solution.
The Setting Jig
One weak point for me was the small metal setting square used to establish blade projection (based on a 25mm projection).
It works, and I was able to set angles accurately, but it feels like an afterthought compared to the Veritas reference jig. You’re balancing a thin piece of metal on the cutting edge, which feels slightly awkward in practice. It’s also exactly the sort of small workshop accessory that could easily go missing.
It’s a minor complaint, but at this price point, I expected something a little more refined and substantial.
Final Verdict
I really enjoyed using the Axminster Professional Honing Guide. It’s accurate, stable, beautifully made, and inspires confidence. For medium and wide chisels, it’s excellent. The ability to use a push-pull motion comfortably is a genuine advantage.
At the furniture school and in our online tutorials, we’ll continue using the Veritas MKII as our standard system, simply because it handles the full range of chisels we use, including narrow sizes we use regularly, and our students are already familiar with it.
However, if your work primarily involves wider chisels and plane blades, and you want a robust, highly stable, precision-made guide with excellent squareness and repeatability, the Axminster is a serious contender. It’s a premium tool, and it feels like one.
Win This Honing Guide
We’ll be giving this exact Axminster Professional Honing Guide and Bevel Guide away to one member of our online school community.
Entry is free and open to all UK members aged 18 or over — including free account holders (Create a free account) — but we want it to go to someone who genuinely wants it in their workshop…
To enter, simply head to the pinned post in the community feed here in the online school and “like” the post. That’s it. We’ll select one winner at random from everyone who has liked the post before the closing date below.
Giveaway ends March 13th at 12pm BST.
Good luck!
Upcoming Short Courses
We still have a small number of places available on several upcoming courses:
- Introduction To Furniture Making | Tool Prep & Use 5-day course starting March 9th — Just two places left!
- NEW 5-Day Mirror Making Course with Lamination and Hand Shaping — Starts May 11th
- 12-Week Long Course Starting April 20th — Now Fully Booked
- Dovetailed Box Making 10-day course starting 16th March
- 4-Week Furniture Making Course Starting 29th June — spaces available, but very limited.
- Designer Maker Course Our next 3-Term Designer Maker course starting in September is now fully booked. The 2-term course is nearly full, so do get in touch soon if you’re interested — It’s a particularly good fit for international students and may align with a 26-week study visa (subject to current visa requirements).
Short course bookings can be made online. For long course enquiries, please contact Oliver Waters at: school@watersandacland.co.uk
For full details on all courses, visit:
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