Puget Sound Axe

[Esq1997]

I'm not sure that this question has been asked before. I've acquired a vintage puget sound axe that needs sharpening. I've found a local shop that purports to sharpen axes. It's there a type of grind that I should request? I'd like to use the axe and would like to keep it as true to form as possible.

Thanks.

 

[Ernest DuBois]

Please consider the prospect of gaining the ability to, as they say it all the time, "sharpen your own axe". A case can be made when the whole thing is new to you for establishing an objective standard right off the bat which can stand as a reference point from which you begin developing your own skill... OK, and in that case any competent sharpening service can provide the basics without instruction. But it is hardly realistic to think you can effectively be an axe user and remain ignorant of axe sharpening.

 

[Esq1997]

I agree. Just looking to get started. Any suggestions as to the sharpening tools I should acquire to start out?

 

[Ernest DuBois]

I agree. Just looking to get started. Any suggestions as to the sharpening tools I should acquire to start out?

Corse, medium and fine stones. I like bench stones personally but the work you do will dictate forms. I'm also using almost exclusively water stones, another individual preference. You'd have to give more context for specific detail & suggestions. Probably someone will pipe in with something about files which is fine, a kind of convention here in this particular internet space, just showing a diversity in approaches and conditions rather than anything that could be called universal.

 

[Square_peg]

I'm not sure that this question has been asked before. I've acquired a vintage puget sound axe that needs sharpening. I've found a local shop that purports to sharpen axes. It's there a type of grind that I should request? I'd like to use the axe and would like to keep it as true to form as possible.

Thanks.

Where are you at?

 

[stevewest]

I like to use a Mill Bastard file to clean up the edge and establish the bevel. I finish by draw filing. I then go to sandpaper used in conjunction with a sheetrock sanding pad, progressing from 220/400/600/1000 grit. I find that the hard rubber backing on the sanding pad imparts a slight convex edge.

 

[Brent Halverson]

It depends upon if you bought the axe to look at or use. If you want to use it then just grab a hand-file and touch up whatever edge was there before and start chopping. If you bought the axe as a collector's item to look at and use as jewelry for your ego then you can follow the advice of others because that I don't participate in.

 

[Sidehill Gouger]

I own three or four Pugets but I can't really think of a reason to use them for modern tree falling or chopping. They were made for work on the BIG yellow firs before chainsaws. Outside of National Parks and the Forest Service, those old growth trees are gone now.

 

[Ernest DuBois]

Sidehill, don't you think essentially the same could be said for any and all axes, that they are relics and irrelevant? I think this is a good rational for exactly the opposite of what you suggest. Rather than hanging them up we should be putting archaic tools as much as possible to good use so those uses are not lost outside of the bookshelf. (By the way I wouldn't want to be construed as advocating anyone go chopping down old-growth protected trees for no good reason).

Even more, it would contribute, in a substantial way to see someone (competently, maybe) putting one of these Puget Sounders to use as a entry on this forum. In fact it begs the question of why we have not already seen this.