Well it's true guys, my axes are not very sharp at all and never have been. I have a Lansky Dual Grit Oil Stone that is 120 grit and 600 grit. If the axe is quite blunt after a lot of use I'll take the coarse side of the stone to the bit first, otherwise I just work the 600 on it. After that I use a block of wood and make a few passes over it to strop it/remove the burr and that is it.
The end result is not very satisfying, I want to get them very very sharp.
Do I need to purchase a finer stone to then move onto or do I need to get a leather strop and some compounds? Or do I need both??!
Your wisdom and experience is greatly appreciated here so that I can buy the right tools from the beginning an not learn the hard way.
In regards to a strop would you suggest a paddle strop or a stropping block?
In NZ most of the strops available for purchase are designed for knifes and are very thin but there are a few that are much wider which I could imagine would suit an axe edge better. So what width would you suggest is best for stropping an axe?
These wide strops are crazy expensive for some reason, for example the 'Brommeland Gunleather 8" Double-Sided Leather Strop' is $75USD for me in an NZ store but the same product on Amazon from a US dealer is $45USD. That leads me to my next question, I have seen a bunch of videos and such of guys just using a piece of leather clamped to a bench. I couldn't tell if compound was used or not though. Is that really sufficient? Even if so, Iv'e had a hard time finding leather believe it or not, only from upholstery stores and that stuff is so thin.
Sharpening stone direction: I always thought that you pushed the stone into the cutting edge; I also did this with my knifes but now am rather confused as I watched a couple of Knife sharpening videos and they exclusively did it the opposite way..?
For example this 'Sharpening Master' holds the edge of a knife away from himself and using the push pull technique only applies pressure as he pulls the knife back towards himself.
I have been doing the opposite on both knifes and axes. Is my method wrong?
Finally, what about the circular motion with the stone, is that effective? I usually start with that and then finish by only pushing the stone into the axe cutting edge. Am I a rubbish sharpener or am I lacking in the right tools to get a razor sharp axe?
The end result is not very satisfying, I want to get them very very sharp.
Do I need to purchase a finer stone to then move onto or do I need to get a leather strop and some compounds? Or do I need both??!
Your wisdom and experience is greatly appreciated here so that I can buy the right tools from the beginning an not learn the hard way.
In regards to a strop would you suggest a paddle strop or a stropping block?
In NZ most of the strops available for purchase are designed for knifes and are very thin but there are a few that are much wider which I could imagine would suit an axe edge better. So what width would you suggest is best for stropping an axe?
These wide strops are crazy expensive for some reason, for example the 'Brommeland Gunleather 8" Double-Sided Leather Strop' is $75USD for me in an NZ store but the same product on Amazon from a US dealer is $45USD. That leads me to my next question, I have seen a bunch of videos and such of guys just using a piece of leather clamped to a bench. I couldn't tell if compound was used or not though. Is that really sufficient? Even if so, Iv'e had a hard time finding leather believe it or not, only from upholstery stores and that stuff is so thin.
Sharpening stone direction: I always thought that you pushed the stone into the cutting edge; I also did this with my knifes but now am rather confused as I watched a couple of Knife sharpening videos and they exclusively did it the opposite way..?
For example this 'Sharpening Master' holds the edge of a knife away from himself and using the push pull technique only applies pressure as he pulls the knife back towards himself.
I have been doing the opposite on both knifes and axes. Is my method wrong?
Finally, what about the circular motion with the stone, is that effective? I usually start with that and then finish by only pushing the stone into the axe cutting edge. Am I a rubbish sharpener or am I lacking in the right tools to get a razor sharp axe?