My sharpening setup consists of a set of Naniwa superstones (800, 2000 and 8000 grit) plus a DMT Dia-flat lapping plate to flatten them.
I am quite happy with this setup, despite the mess with water all around… the next thing I’m going to add is a coarser grit waterstone or diamondstone for the heavy duty work when lapping the backs of new (to me, used or new) tools.

I currently have two honing guides, a veritas mkII and an eclipse side clamping clone.
I first got the Veritas mkII but soon realized that it has some downsides. Don’t get me wrong it’s a very solid piece of equipment but a few things could be improved.
The top-bottom clamping solution gives be difficulty holding chisels and plane irons rock solid. Even though I tighten the fastening screws as much as I dare things shift on me and the iron is out of square.
I have also hade issues with the metal stop on the registration guide. The problem being that it is made out of metal… even if I am careful when inserting and clamping I have damaged the edge of the iron on the metal stop. Annoying to say the least.
Recently I realized that the wheel on my guide is less than perfect – the micro bevel adjustment seems to put the wheel in a skew. In normal mode the wheel is straight but when set to create the micro bevel the wheel is of by 0.2mm on one side. This results in a skewed micro bevel… not what I wanted.

So I got the cheap eclipse guide and so far it is a better help. It needs a little fine tuning but will not suffer from the above issues.

All this fiddling with the honing guides have really created a sincere desire to acquire the skill of freehand sharpening.
Hopefully Paul will go thru this in the masterclass series and I can put my honing guides to rest in a box 🙂

A question for the masses: what method do you use to determine when you have achived the perfect edge? I currently try to shave some hair of my arm, and if that works I deem it sharp enough. I have seen tests using end grain cuts on softwoods and some use paper slicing as an evaluation form.