axe sharpening tutorial "old school"

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shooter_250

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Aug 26, 2007
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as i'm relatively new here, been around a couple or three years, most of you old timers probably have this axe info provided by the US DOT...i know...the DOT...but here it is...everything you want to know about types of axes and how to sharpen one,,,

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/Fspubs/99232823/toc.htm

i hope this helps someone...if this has been published recently and i missed it...sorry

God Bless

Lee
 
It's been posted but not recently. Very good resource.

On an aside, does anyone know why he says to sharpen in a fan shape?
 
haven't read everything on that site yet...fan shape?...perhaps he means "circular"?...things that make you go hhhmmmmmmm...

Shot,,,thanks for letting me know it had been posted before..

God Bless

Lee
 
shooter_250 said:
haven't read everything on that site yet...fan shape?...perhaps he means "circular"?...things that make you go hhhmmmmmmm...

Shot,,,thanks for letting me know it had been posted before..

God Bless

Lee
Click to expand...

No he says to create a bevel in the shape of a fan. He has a diagram in the sharpening section. Always wondered about that one.
 
Shot..sorry to be so late getting back to you,,us old men need naps...

the only explanation i can come up with...is a theory...let me run it by you ...when you finish laughing,,,tell me what you think...

i'm looking at two different old axe heads as i write this and this is the only logical reason for the bevel i can come up with, the bevel itself has nothing to do with the actual edge of the axe, that i can see...according to the drawing the bevel will create a slight concave from top to bottom and up the center 3 inches from the edge...the concave will act as a bloodgroove in a knife blade will,,,helping to keep the axe from sticking in juicy green wood,,,

i hope i have explained my thoughts clearly, Shot,,,

I don't know if my theory is correct, but having cut and split hundreds of cords of wood when i was younger,,,seems reasonable to me..

God Bless

Lee
 
You could argue, that it thins out the middle of the edge while leaving the toe and the heel of the bit stout, ie beefier.

I am not really sure though. Another possibility is that the axe has a kind of bulge in the middle to strengthen the blade and aid in splitting. If that was the case, tha fan shape would be the result of a neat sharpening job.

Like I said, I am interested in axes, but I also don't know what to make of this piece of advice. The book itself is great, though. I was one of those who have linked to it (or rather the .pdf files thereof) earlier.


Ookami
 
Let me run my theory by you.:D

I'm thinking that the thicker edges make the head pop out of wood when you rock it back and forth making it easier to pull out when it does wedge. Dunno. It's interesting that I've never seen an axe with this kind of bevel from the factory.
 
Shot...i believe we are saying the same thing...the object is to easily remove the axe head after the chop...whew...let's agree we've solved the puzzle,,,whether we have or not...LOL...till one of us can find an old timer who can set us straight...

i've never seen such a bevel from the factory either...i'm going to email the foresty people ad ask them...perhaps,,,just perhaps,,,someone there will be able to enlighten us....i think our theory is sound theory and i'm stickin' to it for the time being...

Sir, thank you for spending your time with me on this subject,,,it has, if you will, intrigued me...it has been my pleasure ...

Lee

God Bless
 
The fan shape they refer to is how you stone the the axe head from heel to toe (picture in your mind old time chineese hand fan)it maintains a constant thickness across the edge as metel is worn away from repeted sharpenings and axe head starts to get thicker, picture is shown in link. the little edge guage is also shown it is easly made from a peice of scrap it helps to check profile, eveness & thickness across entire edge


P.S.See Fig #66 & #67 in Sharpening section






http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/Fspubs/99232823/toc.htm
 
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I like this approach to ax sharpening and it's definitely a handy skill to have just because one should know how to create and maintain a convex edge using flat sharpening mediums like files and stones. However, I find that I prefer to use sandpaper on top of material with some "give" like a mousepad. It makes sharpening a lot easier, makes it more difficult to accidentally round over your edge, and gives you a more consistent convex edge rather than a series of mini-bevels. Lastly, and probably most important to me is that it doesn't prematurely concave my waterstones. Sharpening already tends to concave stones just because you generally have to use the middle section most, but the large amount of metal being removed on an axe combined with the more circular passes needed for that convex edge REALLY speeds up the concaving.
 
killa_concept said:
I like this approach to ax sharpening and it's definitely a handy skill to have just because one should know how to create and maintain a convex edge using flat sharpening mediums like files and stones. However, I find that I prefer to use sandpaper on top of material with some "give" like a mousepad. It makes sharpening a lot easier, makes it more difficult to accidentally round over your edge, and gives you a more consistent convex edge rather than a series of mini-bevels. Lastly, and probably most important to me is that it doesn't prematurely concave my waterstones. Sharpening already tends to concave stones just because you generally have to use the middle section most, but the large amount of metal being removed on an axe combined with the more circular passes needed for that convex edge REALLY speeds up the concaving.
Click to expand...

They make a stone called an axe puck specifically for doing axes, so it wont ruin your good water stones. a good sharp axe is a pleasure to use .all a working axe needs is a Bastard file to get rid of stone nicks and a puck to touch upthe edge. like every thing else there are many ways of doing things
this is one way I was tought (BSA)
http://www.knivesplus.com/LK-LPUCK-Lansky-Puck.html
 
MIKE MACINTOSH said:
They make a stone called an axe puck specifically for doing axes, so it wont ruin your good water stones. a good sharp axe is a pleasure to use .all a working axe needs is a Bastard file to get rid of stone nicks and a puck to touch upthe edge. like every thing else there are many ways of doing things
this is one way I was tought (BSA)
http://www.knivesplus.com/LK-LPUCK-Lansky-Puck.html
Click to expand...

Oh, I certainly agree that keeping an axe sharp is vital: I sharpen mine up to 1000 grit on sandpaper then do a few quick forward passes on a 6000grit waterstone before finishing off on a strop loaded with .3 micron chrom oxide powder. Not only can it shave, but it'll whittle hair as well :D Unnecessary I know, but I find sharpening to be quite therapeutic...

That said, I'm aware of the pucks, but I still prefer the sandpaper+mousepad method for all the other reasons I stated. It's also more portable and works on all convex edges, large or small whereas a puck is pretty much only good for axes. To each his own I guess....
 
I've looked over that linked manual a couple of times and I believe I've approached my hawks with those methods in mind but I am still not satisfied with the sharpness of my hawks. I first file, then use sandpaper 200 and 400. Now this gets my hawks sharp enough to do the job on wood but I've yet to approach shaving sharpness. Anyone have any tips, or a simpler breakdown of sharpening methods? I feel like I'm missing something obvious here.
 
pullrich said:
I've looked over that linked manual a couple of times and I believe I've approached my hawks with those methods in mind but I am still not satisfied with the sharpness of my hawks. I first file, then use sandpaper 200 and 400. Now this gets my hawks sharp enough to do the job on wood but I've yet to approach shaving sharpness. Anyone have any tips, or a simpler breakdown of sharpening methods? I feel like I'm missing something obvious here.
Click to expand...

Are you stropping after you're done on 400 grit? Even with stropping, an edge only honed to 400grit will noticeably tug as you shave hair - if you're not stropping at all, then it's pretty unlikely that you'll obtain a shaving edge at that coarse a grit.

As for your technique, I'll assume that the filing you're doing is to entirely re-profile the factory edge. Here's my main question: are you sure that a sufficient and noticeable bur is being raised before you finish filing? This essentially shows that both angles are meeting perfectly and there aren't any blunt portions or very steep microbevels left over. Generally when I completely re-profile an edge with a file, I just create a fairly acute V-edge with a very noticeable bur. I'll then knock this bur off by slicing at a block of hardwood and then move onto the sandpaper+mousepad (which is what gives me my convex edge). I generally start at 100grit and stay at that grit until I achieve the level of convexity that I want. I then knock the bur off on the block and start moving up in grits: 220, 400, 800 then finishing on 1000. At this point, a few passes on a leather belt should give you an edge that shaves without a very apparent tug.

Hope that helps and let me know how it goes! :thumbup:
 
Excellent, thats just the sort of break-down I was hoping for. :thumbup:

I was trying to convex with file, and I wasnt noticing a bur developnig. I'll give your tips a try.
 
There's a video version of the "axe to grind" , too.
Great stuff!
[youtube]ekyJ8pMbTcE&feature=channel[/youtube]
[youtube]p-wXYgwjcqw[/youtube]

Iz:thumbup:
 
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