'Hawk sharpening w/ a puck?

FSCJedi

FSCJedi

Joined
Oct 19, 2002
Messages
711
Ok, here's my question: is sharpening a tomahawk or other axe easier or better if you're using a puck style sharpening stone as opposed to a standard straight rectangle stone? Do you use them differently? Even when using my straight stones, I still sharpen my hawks with a circular motion. Should I get a puck to make this easier?

Comments?
 
It really all depends what your comfortable with. I used a square stone for years, but a puck fits the hand better and I find it faster plus they are made for axe bits.... Get yourself a strip of tooling leather load it with buffing compound and strop AWAY from the edge .. then watch it cut....
 
I have a big puck style stone with a big groove around the middle to hang onto it with . I,ll have to try your circular technique . How do you do it . What is the advantage ?
 
Circular sharpening tends to be easier for some to keep the required angle. The downsides are it runs scratches parallel to the edge which weaken it, there is also an increase in friction but that is usually not significant. It can also make it harder to remove burrs. However most axes are made out of very soft and easy to grind steels and thus respond well to buffing compounds hence the popular use of loaded leather.

-Cliff
 
It also seems to me that you would sometimes be partially undoing some of the work you have just done .

Its funny I would think it would be harder to maintain angle with the circular motion . I guess it might depend on blade type and profile .

I,ll still give it a try for the experience . I don,t use the puck much anyway .
 
Cliff Stamp said:
Circular sharpening tends to be easier for some to keep the required angle. The downsides are it runs scratches parallel to the edge which weaken it, there is also an increase in friction but that is usually not significant. It can also make it harder to remove burrs. However most axes are made out of very soft and easy to grind steels and thus respond well to buffing compounds hence the popular use of loaded leather.

-Cliff
Click to expand...
Do you think that historically water-wheel sharpeners were used more than pucks? Hmm... this might be a good question for the Tomahawk Q&A Thread...

Also, where can one find buffing compound and a nice piece of leather to make a good strop? My fine arkansas stone came with a nice leather case that I often use to strop edges after using the fine stone. I am able to get a hair-popping edge on most blades 98% of the time as long as it's a good steel.
 
Locally, two generations ago, there was one guy who owned a large water wheel where a lot of axes were sharpened. If you properly care for your axe and avoid dirty wood you can cut a massive amount of wood before having to sharpen. Often times sharpening is to remove a nick or damage rather than just tuning a lightly worn edge. I don't recall ever seeing a round stone, normally the regular benchstones were used, you would not buy a special stone for an axe. Rough use axes for splitting were just filed.

-Cliff
 
I had a buddy grinder sharpen an axe with a nick in the blade . He mostly left the nick in stating that it was better to use the axe as is . He said he would be removing metal for nothing and that the nick would come out eventually with repeated sharpening .
 
Yes, generally this depends on frequency of damage and tolerance of the user. A basic carpenter for example who does construction and such tends to sustain a lot more damage on his chisels than a finish carpenter who rarely has any nick in the tools because it effects the finish on the wood. An experienced axeman with a very tuned and high performance felling axe will rarely damage the edge and won't tend to use it heavily nicked as there is too much damage of overstressing that area.

-Cliff
 
A puck can be tossed in a pocket or small pack and took to the field easier than a sharp cornered stone.
 
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