IRWINMarples Irwin 10507932 Honing Guide Stone and Oil Set (3 Pieces)

This was one of those products where one component lets everything down. The stone included with this set is much shorter than most stones (about 6" whereas most are about 8"). It's not a big difference but with it means a lot more strokes will be used to sharpen a tool than if a longer stone was included. That effect that is exacerbated if you use the honing guide which, as is the case with all such guides, means that you can not use the full length of the stone. More seriously than that though is the fact that the edges of the stone were damaged. What would be the point of sharpening a chisel on a damaged stone? it might sharpen it but inconsistently and unevenly at best. The damage to the edges may have been bad luck in my example but the length certainly was not.The honing guide itself is OK. It's not the cheapest (they have nasty plastic fittings) its not the best (they have wider rollers, brass fittings and gauges) but for this price it is good. Nonetheless it doesn't matter how good that guide is without a usable stone the kit is not usable.

Oil and guid are good. The stone is terrible, intact but is cupped and twisted badly and is unusable. Very let down and surprise by the poor product from Irwin.

This gets one star as the stone is 35mm shorter than stated so therefore does not fit in the box I have for it.Shorter stone also means more sharpening strokes.Not impressed,if Marples Irwin think this is 18.5cm long then I will not be purchasing any of their tape measures!!!

Not the quality I would expect from Irwin. It's a generic item of average quality which doesn't easily accept the chisels when offered up to the guide. The chisel blades are too thick and have the potential to not sit parallel to the stone. Pretty much useless IMO. Don't purchase the combo set. The chisels are great. The guide...not so good. If you are looking for a guide, look at your chisels first.

I thought I had one of these, but just couldn’t find it! Chose the Irwin Marples one simply because it was the same brand (Marples) as my Dad’s old Sheffield Steel chisels that I was planning to sharpen.The guide worked just fine. A little messing about with each chisel trying to match the existing bevel with the guide’s angle (but it looked like my old chisels hadn’t been sharpened with a guide), but once set up it was just a case of patience and elbow grease.Handy to have two sides to the sharpening block, as I was doing rough grinding at first to get the uneven blades square, then used the finer side to get the final finish.Packaging wasn’t great: typically you will keep all items together (with the instruction card) but I had to pretty much destroy the plastic wrapper to get at the tools.