How an axe is really supposed to be sharpened!

When doing more than just a quick power-grinding I like to keep a spray bottle of water handy and have it set to a fine mist. It gives more uniform coverage and works faster at drawing out the heat. Platen grinding is generally worse in terms of heat buildup than contact wheel grinding or slack belt grinding since the stationary platen is continuously experiencing friction. A ceramic platen can help with that vs. a steel one. Something like a flap wheel would probably do pretty well in terms of keeping the heat down, while the solid backing of a flap disk tends to necessitate a lighter touch and fresher abrasive to work properly without causing rapid overheating.
 
OOOOHHHHHHHH! WOWWWWWWWW! You guys have more than some toys. You are actually in a man's tool heaven. Wish I had all of these wonderful tools BUT I would never even be able to guess how much money is involved in the purchase price of this amazing equipment.

CONGRATULATIONS!

ripshin
 
People used to eat with a knife instead of a fork. Ask Mike Split Tongue. :eek:

Commercial outfits have more experience than normal and less time than normal.
 
Ripshin Lumberjack said:
OOOOHHHHHHHH! WOWWWWWWWW! You guys have more than some toys. You are actually in a man's tool heaven. Wish I had all of these wonderful tools BUT I would never even be able to guess how much money is involved in the purchase price of this amazing equipment.

CONGRATULATIONS!

ripshin
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You see baby doll you said the sink was clogged and to fix. Well I took the widget apart and the dang capascinators in the disposal are shot. Plumb flickered. Now a new unit is sound $400 but I can fix ours with about $40 of nichelson files and this $100 spinning capasinator stone wheel on Amazon.
 
I'm with Ripshin. I will use a narrow belt grinder or even a bench grinder to carefully remove bulk material. But the edge shape I want needs to be done with care at the speed of a file.
 
Whiskey_Jim said:
You see baby doll you said the sink was clogged and to fix. Well I took the widget apart and the dang capascinators in the disposal are shot. Plumb flickered. Now a new unit is sound $400 but I can fix ours with about $40 of nichelson files and this $100 spinning capasinator stone wheel on Amazon.
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Now you're talkin'! :D
 
Something odd is going on here. In this forum, I often see posts about how belt grinders will heat up and ruin the temper on your axe. However, in the Bladesmith "Shop Talk" section, it's perfectly normal to use your KMG to do a final sharpening. Yes, if you're not used to it, you might want to slow the belt way down, run in reverse, spray with water, watch the temp., etc. But how many of you guys who are terrified of belts/heat have actually used a good belt grinder? On my Burr King, which runs super fast (8000SFPM -- KMG's are only 5000) with no water/coolant, metal gets barely warm to the touch if you pause a few seconds in between brief passes (even the very edge/contact point of the metal). When in doubt, defer to the professionals...

Anyways, I've spent a lot of hours with files, file jigs, etc. on axes, and even now I find it awfully hard to get a beautiful grind profile with (flat) files and sandpaper, regardless of how pretty the final product appears to the naked eye. A nice tight slack belt grinder takes care of this beautifully.

Obviously, it goes without saying that one can also ruin an axe faster with power tools than one can with a file. But one also expects that if you're on these forums, you won't be 'that guy'.
 
Yup. Grinding just makes the work faster, not easier, and there's a learning curve involved, but once you know what you're doing you can do the job properly. One is bound to end up experiencing a burnt edge or two as you learn so it's important to start off practicing on cheap stuff. Old junky kitchen knives from the thrift store are often a good training tool to work on. Heavily worn, "tired" axes are also good to practice on because even at their best they're nearly used up, and it allows you to practice reshaping the bit and then all the heavier grinding required to get an edge back on it and the geometry thinned back out. You'll learn a lot about heat management in the process thanks to all that thermal mass.
 
I bought an $8 dollar hatchet from HF and no matter how much I ground it on coarse stones (diamond, synthetic, water) or filed it, hardly any metal would come off.

So I took it to a bench grinder and I ground and ground and ground, dunking in water every so often, until I had acceptable relief.

Then I put on secondary/primary edge with the Work Sharp Ken Onion. It takes all hair off in one swipe and slices through magazines, etc.

Would I do this to an axe I like, or any blade? Never. But if I want to put a razor edge on a work horse that I'm converting to hollow grind for extreme sharpness, and aesthetics are no problem, to the bench grinder I go.

Took a ridiculously cheap chinese cleaver to it, and a worthless walmart 5" santoku. They are ugly as hell now, but boy are they sharp.
 
What little bit of ax & hatchet sharpening I do is mostly with hand sharpening tools. I've got some round, puck type sharpening stones I got from a company called "Sticks & Stones" and I believe they are out of Texas if I remember correctly. I've also got a couple of round stones from NORTON too.

Now I also have a slow wet grinding unit called the TORMEK that many of you are probably aware of. I've had the TORMEK unit for quite a while now and I've had excellent luck using it on machetes, bowie knives and woodworking tools. I've only used it on an ax or hatchet a couple of times but it seems to do a decent job.

So my question to all you ax experts is>> "am I going down the wrong road? For sharpening axes that is?
 
No you're not.

I also have an array of powered grinders at my disposal but still do most of my axe work with file and stone. It doesn't take long and I get exactly the result I want.
 
Nice! I've got a couple of those old railroad grinders. They're fun and work pretty damn good, especially if you have a buddy to crank it.

Grinder1.jpg
 
That's just down right funny!! My dad had one of those hand crank type grinders when I was a kid and he swore by it. He later got an electric grinder but he gave that old hand crank grinder to a friend of his. You almost needed a guy to crank it while you were trying to sharpen something. Me and my Brother used to use it for sharpening lawnmower blades of all things when we were just young kids.

I'm wondering when the concept of those wet grinders came about? Because I didn't know anything about the TORMEK until about 2001 or thereabout. It wasn't until 04 when I broke down and bought one. I'm sure there are probably better wet grinders on the market now but I'll probably just keep my TORMEK because I have pretty good results with it. It is super good for sharpening machetes and my Cold Steel Gurkha Kukri blades. But I'm going to try to put some convex edges on axes with it when I learn more about the methods.
 
The hand cranks are by no means outdated just super impractical when you employ it for axe work. Get rid of those attached tool rests and construct a sturdy one of wood you can clamp to the bench top at adjustable angles and you have got yourself a great way to sharpen chisel and plane blades.

Still, the water-cooled, low rpm, free standing, hands-free models have won me over to their side.
p1160267.jpg
 
Square_peg said:
Nice! I've got a couple of those old railroad grinders. They're fun and work pretty damn good, especially if you have a buddy to crank it.

Grinder1.jpg
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i like to use mine for plane/spokeshave irons and chisels. like you guys said it's not very well suited for large jobs

Ernest DuBois said:
The hand cranks are by no means outdated just super impractical when you employ it for axe work. Get rid of those attached tool rests and construct a sturdy one of wood you can clamp to the bench top at adjustable angles and you have got yourself a great way to sharpen chisel and plane blades.

Still, the water-cooled, low rpm, free standing, hands-free models have won me over to their side.
p1160267.jpg
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i have one with a 1,000 grit wheel, i need to work on the axle a little bit but it has served me well
 
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