Official Luthiers Forum!

The disadvantage with that jig is obvious (apart from the size), you have to keep moving the media to stop grooving and uneven wear. Might not be such a problem with harder stones like Oil/Arkansas.
Which is why the best jig in the world is still yet another new design away.

I use a veritas mk2 for establishing the initial bevel on shapton glasstones. Most of the time I hone by hand. It seems that I can get plenty sharp by working the micro bevel by hand. When ever I feel that I cannot get the desired sharpness by hand honing, I re establish the bevel with a guide. M one compliant against most honing guides is they don't seem to hold a Japanese style chisel very well

Richard Kell's honing guide holds a Japanese chisel nicely. Otoh the guide itself is a bit awkward to hold, but one does get the hang of it eventually.

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member of the guild of professional dilettantes

That's exactly what I do. I learned to do it by hand and never touched a guide for some years. After getting the guide my sharpening improved because I could start with a solid base line. It's pretty easy to set up but not so easy that I'd want to use it every time I need to freshen an edge up.

I use an Eclipse 36 (like the L-N), Veritas Mk II (with cambered roller and skew guide) and the Kell. Bit of a collection, yes, but each has its own uses and I've built them up over time as I needed them. (Diamond stones from very coarse to DMT's finest then welsh slate at about 8000)
Use these respectively for straight, square edged plane and chisel blades / cambered plane blades and skew blades / Japanese chisels, small block, miniature plane blades and spoke-shave blades.
Anything that fits goes in the Eclipse (because it's the fastest to use of course) and set up on the little jig like James Orr - I use a similar jig for the Kell, with dowels of different lengths to set blade projection.
Use these to establish any fresh regrind/hone, and touch up by hand as I go. (Hard leather strop and Autosol may be my next thing to try)

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

P.S. Is it obvious I'm on a sharpening campaign at the moment!?

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.