First I need to confess my wrong doings to the axe community. Those with weak stomachs or faint of heart disregard this section. My dad had an old two bit axe and smaller hatchet he had been given to him from his father who got it from his father. Back when I did a lot of the yard work around the house I used both of these tools often. However when they became dull I asked my dad how do I go about sharpening them. He pointed me and showed me how to sharpen them on a....wait for it.....high speed bench grinder. The horror, I know. Being young and naive and having known nothing about knives or axes I went along with it. So please forgive me for using such harsh sharping instruments on those old tools.
Now that I am older and have some time on my hands I want to do those two tools some justice by restoring them and bringing them back to their old glory. Here are my two major concerns, first I have no idea if I might of threw off the hardness of the steel by heating it up with the bench grinder. I don't ever remember the blades getting really hot, but it was also 12 years ago. My other concern is that the "edges", to use that term loosely, on both tools look like it was sharped with a coarse grinding wheel on a high speed bench grinder, because it was. I'll try to get some pictures next time I'm home, but those two points lead me to this question. Should I try to embark on restoring the edges on these tools or should I consult a bonafide axe maker to do the job for me? I'd much rather do it myself but I don't have any tools other than steel files, hand saws, and sand paper and I worry those might not be enough to bring back the edges on those two blades. So I'd like to get ya'lls thoughts and advice on this project before I get my self in trouble, again.
Now that I am older and have some time on my hands I want to do those two tools some justice by restoring them and bringing them back to their old glory. Here are my two major concerns, first I have no idea if I might of threw off the hardness of the steel by heating it up with the bench grinder. I don't ever remember the blades getting really hot, but it was also 12 years ago. My other concern is that the "edges", to use that term loosely, on both tools look like it was sharped with a coarse grinding wheel on a high speed bench grinder, because it was. I'll try to get some pictures next time I'm home, but those two points lead me to this question. Should I try to embark on restoring the edges on these tools or should I consult a bonafide axe maker to do the job for me? I'd much rather do it myself but I don't have any tools other than steel files, hand saws, and sand paper and I worry those might not be enough to bring back the edges on those two blades. So I'd like to get ya'lls thoughts and advice on this project before I get my self in trouble, again.
