Bridgecitytools honing guide

[ali27]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0AKg0MEtxo

Looks very nice. Price 169 GBP.

What do you think guys? Anybody have it or
tried it?

Ali27

 

[jimi43]

Say what you will about Bridge City but those guys are serious design engineers.

If I had money to burn...ALL my stuff would be made by them just for the beauty of the engineering alone.

Thanks for that clip...very nice...not £169 nice but still...very nice

Jim

 

[ali27]

Say what you will about Bridge City but those guys are serious design engineers.

If I had money to burn...ALL my stuff would be made by them just for the beauty of the engineering alone.

Thanks for that clip...very nice...not £169 nice but still...very nice

Jim

To be honest, I had never heard abou them before. I was googling
''honing guide'' and saw their site.

169 GBP is definitely a lot of money. For a very good honing guide
I might pay that price. I have the Veritas MK2 guide now which is nice,
but too heavy, just not a pleasure too use.

For me a good honing guide should be almost like freehand sharpening.
I should enjoy the sharpening of tools. I just don't have that feeling
with the LV guide.

Ali27

 

[jimi43]

Tom recently posted their CT17 plane:



Simply beautiful engineering but NO WAY am I paying over 800 Americn notes to make shavings...no way!

Jim

 

[ali27]

Tom recently posted their CT17 plane:



Simply beautiful engineering but NO WAY am I paying over 800 Americn notes to make shavings...no way!

Jim

Jim,yes, I saw that plane on their site. Looks very nice, but SOOO expensive
especially for a block plane.

Ali27

 

[AndyT]

I think their stuff is aimed at the sort of person who might also spend a few thousand on an expensive watch, or drive a Mercedes. Rich people, who like to make a bit of a show, but justify it to themselves by saying they only want it because they appreciate the quality of the engineering.

So however well it might do its job, it's got little interest to those of us who enjoy our own ingenuity at making a beautiful object out of reclaimed wood from a skip, or like to rescue an old lump of rust and turn it back into a functional tool.

Each to his own, but I suspect that not many Bridge City tools ever get much practical use.

 

[jimi43]

.............but justify it to themselves by saying they only want it because they appreciate the quality of the engineering.

So however well it might do its job, it's got little interest to those of us who enjoy our own ingenuity at making a beautiful object out of reclaimed wood from a skip, or like to rescue an old lump of rust and turn it back into a functional tool.

See...that is me on both counts...

So that would kind of scotch that theory slightly... :wink:

Beutiful engineering is nothing to be sneered at...it needs to be applauded...

I'm not saying it isn't over engineering in this application but for me it is nice to look at...like fine art.

Just my 2c...it doesn't rock everyone's boat....obviously!

Jim

 

[AndyT]

Ok, when I said 'little interest' I really meant 'very unlikely to sell to'.

We might like to look, and agree that it is well done, but would never put it at the top of a shopping list - especially when you can find nice planes for a pound, and holdfasts for 50p!

 

[jimi43]

Ok, when I said 'little interest' I really meant 'very unlikely to sell to'.

We might like to look, and agree that it is well done, but would never put it at the top of a shopping list - especially when you can find nice planes for a pound, and holdfasts for 50p!

Totally agree Andy...and was not disagreeing with you regarding the functionality...but even then...if it did perform slightly better because of the engineering and I was Richard Pickle...I would buy one.

Actually I would buy two...one to put on my mantlepiece and one to use.



Jim

 

[Mike H]

The honing guide looks better value, relatively, than the plane. The karl Holtey stuff is in the same quality vein.

Engineering of this quality is good news, are we not all fed up with chinese stuff which is so badly made it makes you cringe?

By the very fact that they produce such stuff, I will encourage others to produce better products.

I am not going to buy these but I would like to have them. Nice tools, I think, do make a difference to one's approach to the work.

Mike

8)

 

[ByronBlack]

It makes a nice experiment in engineering, but I really fail to see what the point is. There are perfectly usable guides that cost a fraction of this.

When it comes to a point where people are buying tools for status, we know there is something wrong.

The one thing I like from Bridge City however, and probably the only thing that I would ever in the slightest consider buying (if it were half price) is their joint maker manual table-saw system, that is a brilliant original piece of work, but all these over engineered tools they are coming out with smack to me as nothing more than a shiny status symbol.

Even if I could afford these tools, I'd never buy them, as for me personally, they are way beyond the point of diminishing returns in regards to performance to cost.

 

[Chris Knight]

When it comes to a point where people are buying tools for status, we know there is something wrong.

People buy clothes "for status" - why not tools? It's simply human nature and the market speaking.

 

[ByronBlack]

When it comes to a point where people are buying tools for status, we know there is something wrong.

People buy clothes "for status" - why not tools? It's simply human nature and the market speaking.

You are of course correct, but I still think its a little sad to see tools becoming status symbols.

 

[jimi43]

People buy a Rolls Royce because it is a status symbol...a Lada will get you from A to B if that's what you want to do.

BUT...whenever I see a Roller...as I did yesterday...I stand an look at the design and engineering in awe!

If I could afford one comfortably I would buy one because I simply love them but do I need one...NAH!

Same applies to the Bridge City tools...I would get one of everything just to sit and watch "Road Wars" with the dog and fiddle with all the gadgets...nowhere NEAR wood!



Great design and engineering mixed together are some of the greatest things which humans have achieved.

Jim

 

[TrimTheKing]

Have another look at the video, the one where it mentions micro bevels. That micro bevel is a good 30-40% wider at the furthest part of the blade than it is at the side closest to the camera.

If i'm paying £169 for something then it better bloody work properly!!!

Don't get me wrong, their stuff looks fantastic, is obviously ridiculously well engineered, and if I had the cash to burn I would buy it all, because I like good stuff that works and looks good. But this is a massive oversight in their advertising of this product if you ask me.

Anyway, stop talking about this NOW or you'll have that bloody woodbloke over here banging on about there only being one guide that works properly blah blah blah.

 

[Eric The Viking]

On the actual honing guide: I can't see it lasting long round here. You'd quickly mess up the roller doing scary sharp (peppered with tiny filings), and any sort of lube would get into the mechanism, again jamming it over time with crud. Do I prefer rust in it, or oily filings? Dunno.

Then there's the dreaded camber issue: I like being able to bend the support arm on the Dakota slightly (if I want to). I'm used to it and get a controlled, slight camber, that suits me. For SS, the honing guides basically support at the centre, so more pressure left/right gives a camber too.

As an 'engineering' solution to holding a blade square and at a determined angle, it's neat, but it doesn't look very practical (nor terribly robust).

Don't get me wrong: Bridge City do make some neat things, for example their 'kerfmaker' is nifty and simple (although stupidly expensive for three blocks of aluminium and two screws), but over-engineering isn't the same as elegant engineering.

I like Rollers too, and Aston Martins, but I love to look - I genuinely wouldn't want to actually own one.

 

[Mike H]

I am sure it works perfectly, their stuff usually does.

I notice also the video on the drilling jig, I am sure that it sells for a mint, but I think it would be a fantastic tool to use, really useful! Most drilling jigs I have seen are completely useless for accurate positioning.

Don't worry about posting about honing jigs, there are loads, and most of them work! It is down to personal habits and preferences.

cheers

Mike

8)

 

[bugbear]

Then there's the dreaded camber issue: I like being able to bend the support arm on the Dakota slightly (if I want to). I'm used to it and get a controlled, slight camber, that suits me.

Pardon my ignorance. I've searched the Rutlands site, and can't see a Dakota honing jig that might have a support arm. Can you expand/post a link/photo?

BugBear

 

[Eric The Viking]

Then there's the dreaded camber issue: I like being able to bend the support arm on the Dakota slightly (if I want to). I'm used to it and get a controlled, slight camber, that suits me.

Pardon my ignorance. I've searched the Rutlands site, and can't see a Dakota honing jig that might have a support arm. Can you expand/post a link/photo?

BugBear

I mean the one on their 'Tormekkalike' grinder. Like a normal Tormek one, "F" shaped

 

[yetloh]

This honing guide appears to have the same problem as the Veritas Mark 1; the blade is clamped fro above into the centre. If it is not to twist and lose alignment, it will need to be made very tight. If a standard thickness plane blade is used it will flex across its width resulting in more material being removed from the centre than the edges which is the last thing you want unless you are trying to achieve a scalloped surface.

Jim