A sharpening jig is often used when sharpening

Sharpening

Sharpening is the process of creating or refining a sharp edge of appropriate shape on a tool or implement designed for cutting. Sharpening is done by grinding away material on the implement with an abrasive substance harder than the material of the implement, followed sometimes by processes to...

 woodworking

Woodworking

Woodworking is the process of building, making or carving something using wood.-History:Along with stone, mud, and animal parts, wood was one of the first materials worked by early humans. Microwear analysis of the Mousterian stone tools used by the Neanderthals show that many were used to work wood...

 tools. Many of the tools used in woodworking have steel blades which are sharpened to a fine edge. A cutting edge is created on the blade at the point at which two surfaces of the blade meet. To create this cutting edge a bevel is formed on the blade, usually by grinding. This bevel is subsequently refined by honing

Honing

Honing may refer to:* Honing , machining a surface by scrubbing an abrasive stone against it* Sharpening edged tools with a manual hone* Henkjan Honing , Dutch musician* Honing, Norfolk, English village* Playing Heroes of Newerth...

 until a satisfactorily sharp edge is created.

The purpose of the sharpening jig is to hold the blade or tool at the desired angle while grinding or honing the bevel. In some cases, the angle of the bevel is critical to the performance of the cutting edge—a jig allows for repeatability of this angle over a number of sharpening sessions.

There are many styles of jig available commercially. Fundamentally, all jigs are similar in that they allow the user to clamp the blade or tool in some way. The jig then has some means of referencing the clamped blade to the grinding or honing apparatus so that the bevel angle is maintained. One of the more common approaches is to have the jig ride on a roller. These types of jigs are usually used with a sharpening stone

Sharpening stone

Sharpening stones, water stones or whetstones are used to grind and hone the edges of steel tools and implements. Examples of items that may be sharpened with a sharpening stone include scissors, scythes, knives, razors and tools such as chisels, hand scrapers and plane blades...

 or plate, such as a waterstone, oilstone or diamond plate

Diamond plate

Diamond plate, also known as checker plate, tread plate and Durbar floor plate, is a type of lightweight metal stock with a regular pattern of raised diamonds or lines on one side, with the reverse side being featureless. Diamond plate is usually steel, stainless steel or aluminum...

. Other types of jigs are used to present the blade to the wheel of a grinder

Grinding machine

A grinding machine, often shortened to grinder, is a machine tool used for grinding, which is a type of machining using an abrasive wheel as the cutting tool...

. There are generally two types of hand sharpening jigs, push jigs and side to side jigs. Push jigs run perpendicular to the length of the stone and a side to side jig runs with the blade parallel to the length of the stone.

Many woodworkers endeavor to learn a technique for sharpening by hand. These methods do not require any jigs but do require a lot of practice to achieve satisfactory results, especially in situations where the bevel angle is critical. A sharpening jig allows a novice to achieve control over the bevel angle with little practice.