Shaving Sharp?

[Enzo’s Woodshop]

I put shaving-sharp edges on all my axes except for my splitting maul. That gets sharpened but just with a coarse file.

The edges on all my axes last for a good long while, except for my Fiskars hatchet which dulls fairly quick. My main axe, a woodcarving hatchet in S7, keeps a shaving edge for a long while.

 

[garry3]

My chopping axes are shaving sharp, only touch wood, and only need a fine honing and strop at the end of the day. My splitting mauls encounter a lot of grit and therefore don't need a razor's edge.

Do you polish the bevels? I know the racing axe guys do, and I kind of do it too around the shop, because I will remove the burr on my hatchets with a loaded strop. I just don't know how much of a difference it makes.

 

[garry3]

"Shaving sharp" kind of covers a lot of ground. If I strop off the burr an axe sharpened with a file will shave arm hair, so is that shaving sharp?

Somewhere on this form is some old footage from a logging camp that shows a couple of guys sharpening axes on a hand crank grindstone. One cranking the handle and the other one sharpening the axes with some force while he oscillates the heads up and down to accommodate a convex edge. He was good at it and I think it's safe to assume that he probably did that before work every day for the whole crew, maybe even twice a day.
Now them stones are much finer than many would suppose, but it's a long ways from being a refined edge or one that you could shave with.

 

[trailtime]

"Shaving sharp" kind of covers a lot of ground. If I strop off the burr an axe sharpened with a file will shave arm hair, so is that shaving sharp?

Somewhere on this form is some old footage from a logging camp that shows a couple of guys sharpening axes on a hand crank grindstone. One cranking the handle and the other one sharpening the axes with some force while he oscillates the heads up and down to accommodate a convex edge. He was good at it and I think it's safe to assume that he probably did that before work every day for the whole crew, maybe even twice a day.
Now them stones are much finer than many would suppose, but it's a long ways from being a refined edge or one that you could shave with.

Once I have my axe profiled, I run the grits from 100-2000 in a "draw file" setup using a 5-gallon HD paint stick with a small piece of sandpaper attached with double-stick tape. I find this works easier and more precisley than the Rooster method. This goes surprisingly fast and establishes a clean wire edge. The last few swings create a microbevel, though by bending the paint stick I also create a slight convexity that makes a stronger shoulder. I keep the backside of that paint stick changed with green compound for a final strop. I get a mirror finish with a very sharp edge.

Of course I don't split wood with this axe and only use it for limbing, bucking, and under bucking. At day's end it only takes a few swipes to return it to razor sharpness.

 

[garry3]

Thanks for sharing that Trailtime, it's very innovative. I have all of the materials needed to give that a try this spring.

There is a certain type of vintage Norton razor hone that is rumored to be prized by some of the Australian racing axe guys. I don't know for sure that it is true, but there has been some high prices paid for them, and those hone's do not seem to be prized in the straight razor community.

 

[scdub]

I thinned the edge of my Council Tools boys axe when I got it and it held up to everything except rocks.

If you look closely at this picture from yesterday you can see chips in the heel and toe.


So today I filed them out and thinned the edge a little more. It’s nice and sticky sharp now.

 

[Square_peg]

I want them at least close to shaving sharp. They will be that sharp after a fresh full sharpening but I won’t maintain necessarily at full shaving sharp. After use and a touch up it’ll probably still cut a few hairs.

Full axes glance!