Sharpening a broad /hewing hatchet

I've seen Jacob from Neemantools sharpened his Goosewing with a round sharpening stone,in a circular motion.
 
One of the most important parts of making a side hatchet or hewing axe truly keen is lapping the flat side. It is frequently over looked. If you have some damage to file down, I've found that a file is a very unpleasant method on a flat ground chisel edge. If your bevel is rounded, it's not so bad. The easiest way to remove steel to get past damage is on a belt grinder, especially on the flat beveled pieces. Here is an excerpt from The Complete Guide to Sharpening by Leonard Lee, a fantastic book. Hopefully this excerpt will be seen as an incentive to buy the book rather than a rip-off, because there is another couple hundred pages to the book packed full of useful info.

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Lee, Leonard. The Complete Guide to Sharpening. Newtown, CT: The Taunton Press, 1995. Print. Pages 169-171.

Take care,

Matt
 
What Matt said.
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The back side of the blade will actually have the most wood contact and needs to be well finished.

Here are images of a broad axe I sharpened a couple months back. I did most of the work with files. Then I used wet-dry sandpaper to 600 grit and finished it up on the buffer. It shaves.

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Awesome, Pegs. I was thinking about going back to this and linking to your post about that broad axe. Did you ever finish that oak handle??????
 
M3mphis said:
I was thinking about going back to this and linking to your post about that broad axe. Did you ever finish that oak handle??????
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Still in my 'to finish' pile. Soon. I'll update the old thread when I finish it.
 
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