Square_peg: I can see where the impact of the axe would cause more damage than the sharpening steel could conquer. As I sit here pondering the tree felling of my much younger days I can recall a dozen or so big, old, rotten and hollowed out box elder trees on the property line between dad's house and the little old lady's house to the north and these trees paralleled the wide driveway. After a storm went through and brought one of these monsters down dad and Agnes decided they should all come down. The box elders were not alone in their demise as there were three Chinese elm trees along the south property line that were suffering from dutch elm disease that were to be downed, too. Dad had inherited an old 1/2 man crosscut saw that had a saw handle on one end and a detachable handle on the other. We never had more than one tree on the ground at a time and I learned a lot that summer as my days were spent cutting up the trees into manageable pieces to be hauled to my great uncle Benjamin's house where they were not only used to heat their home, but cook with as well. As a side note Benjamin never had a tractor on his 140 acre farm, just Dolly and Daisy his trusty old Belgian horses that were full sisters and two years apart in age. As I recall the double bit axe that I used that whole summer was not very sharp as the edges were quite rounded and you are so right, as I think back, there is no way the sharpening steel would be able to clean those edges up. Dad must have had a stone hidden somewhere from us boys that he didn't want damaged by inexperienced hands.
Yankee Josh: Interesting ... I, too have an uncle Norm??? I can remember when the deer were getting cut up there were several knives on the table that dad would take the sharpening steel to before and during the processing. I would stand back quite a ways as the speed and what I then thought was recklessness and later decided was a guy that had done it so much over the years he could do it very quickly without danger to himself or others with his eyes closed using muscle memory alone. Being a retired barber, hence the screen name, all students at the barber school were all instructed in sharpening a razor and stropping on leather coated in jewelers rouge to really makes a sharp edge. I must confess, I see some of the highly polished knife edges here on the forum and they look so good that are truly pieces of art in their own way that I would hate to dull them.
JJ_Colt45: I, too, have been using files and a puck over the years and have been satisfied with the results. While I have heard of the ceramic rods I have not ever used one or seen them demonstrated. I have read here on the forum of guys sharpening knives of the bottom of ceramic coffee cups at the restaurant during breakfast that caused me to chuckle a bit in amusement as many things can be used for purposes other than what they were designed for.
Ernest DuBois: I have thee different steels currently. One is my father's that I saw growing up. It is somewhat long and quite smooth. I have one that came with a Chicago Cutlery knife set I acquired back in the late 1970s or very early 1980s that is not smooth that I guess I would call shallow grooved. And then there is one I bought for $1.00 at an estate sale about six weeks ago in town. It appears to be stainless steel and about 8 inches long with what I consider rather deep grooves running longitudinally and is marked "Made in China". I have used all three and I do not have any complaints with any of them ... so far. The one I use most often is from Chicago Cutlery. Dad's old steel only gets brought out for ceremonial duty at family gatherings when a turkey or ham might test their resolve against the edge of a knife. It will soon get passed down to my nephew who already has dad's old case hawkbilled knife circa. 1930 that must have had the hook on the end break off at some point in time as the blade once looked like a sheepsfoot design and now looks more like a spey blade.
Presuming presumptions, eh? Well the ribbed or grooved variety is what I was speaking of.
