KAKURI Woodworking Japanese Honing Guide

I spent a lot of money in a lot of time trying to dial in my chisel and planning iron sharpening system. I purchased several cheap honing guides and suffered. I was very pleased with this honing guide when sharpening cleaning irons specifically having to do with the rollers shape and the grip and finger leverage which lets you ever so slightly bevel the iron at the corners, (something I’ve always found very tricky to accomplish correctly). The only drawback is the difficulty in squaring the iron or chisel to the honing guide. I found that a sharpening guide from another honing set did the trick nicely. I wasn’t thrilled about the way it sharpened chisels especially thin ones under a half inch. Because Chisels are limited in width compared to planning to planing irons the challenge of keeping them square to the honing guide is especially challenging but can be accomplished with patience. The other problem I came across is on a thin chisel there isn’t enough surface area to grip and hold the tool firmly when applying pressure from the top alone. Other honing guides that grip from the sides in my experience work better for this use case. Despite these couple of negatives, imo, this is still one of my favorite honing guides and I recommend giving it a try.

This is an expensive and well made piece of sharpening gear, but works best with large kanna and hand plane blades. It falls short on sharpening smaller chisels because there is no way to determine if the chisel is in a true 90-degree position on the guide. It's beautifully made with lots of heft and curvy edges; the handles are great for applying pressure if that's your thing. It could use one or two reference lines at a minimum. I use my standard roller type chisel sharpeners for 1" and smaller chisels.

This is a great product. But i did need to get a full size whet stone. I had a small one the size of my finger, ir won't work with this.

I love this thing, I was skeptical when I saw only 1 point of contact on the tension screw but I was quickly blown away with it. It holds firm and is so ergonomically well made im mad I didnt make this purchase sooner.

Good solid product and is well made, making it worth the extra cost. It works as advertised but its a bit difficult to set the chisel to desired angle. Once set, it stays tight in position helping to hone accurately.

I have used several sharpening jigs over the years. This is one of the better ones in its ease of use and the comfortable position. It’s better than every jig I have used prior, except for my Veritas jig. The Veritas is more sturdy and more precise. However, the Kakuri is more comfortable to use and easier to setup. If I was doing the initial sharpening on a blade, where it is so time-consuming to get that cutting surface flat, I’d pick the Kakuri. A little chisel touch up or trying to achieve that “perfect” edge on a fussy blade? I will probably go to the Veritas for that. You can do it with the Kakuri, especially with wider chisels and plane blades, but it is more challenging to square up the blade in the jig, and the Kakuri can’t handle smaller chisels.

Although it appears well made and I generally really like products from Kakuri, this guide leaves a bit to be desired. My only real issue is that it doesn’t hold chisels securely and any shifting while honing can ruin a bevel.

Sharpener has a short learning curve after you watch the video. It doesn’t have a straight edge marker or guide, but you don’t need one. All you have to do is eye the level of the guide roller to the edge of the blade to set the squareness (hold blade-in-sharpener, blade up, at eye level), and eye the flat of the blade to the stone to set angle (hold both stone and blade-in-sharpener at eye level). If you push down too hard, the sharpener will tilt forward on the blade edge, so relax and let the stone do the work. Roller lost its shine after first use which is expected, and retained its straightness after many tools sharpened. Sharpener needed a drop of 3-in-one oil in the roller and clamp pad which is normal maintenance for this type of sharpener. Item exceeded expectations, far exceeding the standard roller sharpener that has an extended, adjustable arm in the rear. Sharpener arrived on time, in a sturdy packaged box with bubble wrap, is designed and built well using a durable metal and wood for handles. Yup, I’d buy this again!

Great quality tool.

カンナを購入して使いだしたので、刃のメンテナンスのため刃の研ぎ器を買いました。 カンナをセットするには、真っ直ぐなサシガネのようなものが必要です。 刃とローラーとをサシガネに真っすぐにあてがい、刃の角度を正確に出します。 いざ研ぎ始めると、微妙に角度が左右どちらかにずれているのは、刃の研ぎ加減で目視できますので そこでロックを若干緩めて微調整します。この辺が微妙なので最初戸惑うかもしれません。 完全に位置が決まったらしっかりロックしてハンドルを握り、研ぐだけです。研ぎ具合は自分の目で 判断することになります。 慣れてくるとローラーがクルクル回り、刃もちゃんと研げてきますので楽しい感じがします。 カンナやノミに対応していますので、ご自分で刃を研ごうというかたにはお勧めできるかと思います。 追記. 心配していることが起きました。 この製品は、金属部はほとんどが普通の鉄で出来ています。何回も使用していたら、ネジの部分から 錆が発生してきました。最初購入する時点から、こういうことは懸念していましたが・・。 せめてこれだけの値段がするのでしたら、金属部はステンレスにして欲しかったです。 錆が出た箇所は今のところ錆転換剤を塗って対応しています。

Excellent quality, typical Japanese tool, always excellent, works really well with chisels, have used it , very happy with it.

Très bon pour les ciseaux japonais. Par contre, le réglage est assez ardu, mais on y arrive.

The structure is very good, the handles strong, however set up is not easy resulting in the honing guide creating low spots in corners. Not good with large slick chisels, which created out of square chisels. The cap that holds the chisel fell off. It's held on bu a crimped washer. Disappointing for Kakuri.