Simple Sharpening--Oil? Water? ... and which honing stones?

thunderstick said:
I suppose if you use a fine file lightly you may not remove more material than a stone. However I don't like the file serrations on a working edge because they tend to grab more sap and wood and eventually compromise the bite to a degree--so I would stone after filing which means I would end up removing more material. After initial filing of the geometry I seldom use a file again--I would only use it if I needed to reset the geometry. A fine file can work well for a scythe to *grab" types of vegetation which might tend to slide off a polished edge.
In my opinion a honed edge vs. a filed edge is a bit less apt to chip in harder wood because it is more polished and has less friction. It is less apt to build with sap because there are no fine serrations.

My comments on filing are not intended to imply that a filed edge is a structurally weaker edge but rather that is more prone to chipping because it has more friction on the bite and release which places more stress on the edge.
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I think if you are having "file marks" on the edge you are either A) Using it wrong B)Using the wrong type of file

The file used Should be a New (Sharp) "single cut" file

The file should be run along the edge with the file serrations at a right angle to the cutting edge and used "softly" so as not to create a rolled edge.

Using a technique called "draw filing" can make a very fine sharp edge.

Do Remember that an axe as intended to be an impact tool is not in the hardness range
of any useful knife, nor would it be of any use (more than for a few strikes) if it were as hard as a knife

It would be more likely to scatter fragments like a grenade!
 
Draw filing is an inefficient way to sharpen an axe. It puts most of the file out of use. It removes material slowly. And it makes it more difficult to form the gently rolled edge you want on an axe.

A single cut file is useful for cleaning up the marks left by coarser files. I will shape the edge with a second cut double cut file. Then I remove the marks left by that file with a single cut file.
 
Square_peg said:
Draw filing is an inefficient way to sharpen an axe. It puts most of the file out of use. It removes material slowly. And it makes it more difficult to form the gently rolled edge you want on an axe.

A single cut file is useful for cleaning up the marks left by coarser files. I will shape the edge with a second cut double cut file. Then I remove the marks left by that file with a single cut file.
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This is similar to what I do.
 
I contact cement a 1 x 30 ceramic sanding belt to a 1 x 30 board ,80 - 100 grit on one side ,400 - 600 grit on the other side. Its easy to maintain the correct angle with something that long. Then I use a fine Arkansas stone with rubbing alcohol instead of oil . Then strop .
 
Sounds like your taking the ax to the sanding surface or stone. Seems to me this topic is inquiring toward in the field, simple sharpening. DM
 
I use a puck mostly, once I'm out and about. I keep a sharp chainsaw raker file along as well, and if theres a little heavier damage it makes short enough work of it for no extra weight. Both just fit in a shirt or pants pocket. I use the stone with water. Or spit.

As far as technique, I take the stone to the axe, and file into the bit. It's pretty easy to get a decent finish with just the file, if you ease up toward the end. But I also think like others here, that a fine side stone finish sticks a little less.
 
I pack a diamond in the field but this is my usual progression for restoring axes and sharpening them in the shop. Knocking the burr off with a loaded paddle strop a few times and you will be looking back at your self in the reflection, especially with the flat sided hewing axes. File, puck, Washita and loaded strop.
 
Probably 1% or less of the people on this forum would ever use any axe or hatchet they own enough to have to sharpen it more than once ever few years, maybe even five or ten years. Get a big bastard file and shape it up, then get a nice fine smooth file and make it look pretty, and then put a stone on it if you want to make it look prettier still. If I was touching an axe up that I wanted to use quickly then any reasonable file close at hand would do it fast and quick and simple. Most of the knives, axes and hand-saws you find laying around that are sharpened down to nothing got that way because whoever owned them did not wear them down working with them, they wore them down because they were bored idiots with no idea what they were doing and nothing better to do than ruin tools.
 
^I own 4 axes, 2 hatchets and a splitting maul. I sharpen all of them more than once a year. That puts me off your charts, and I'm not a pro wood cutter. I'm just a cord wood cutter, trying to keep our house warm for the winter. DM
 
I think most of the worn tools I've seen, do not show signs of bored collectors sharpening them away.

They more often show signs of careless maintenance and abuse, caused by folks who were working them hard without much thought for the tools future.

"Wear that one out and buy another"

I put belt grinder, file and stone to mine fairly often from use.
It will eventually wear an axe out, but it doesnt leave big dents and hammer Mark's, caved in or blown up eyes, and bench grinder tracks!
 
Splitting does not require a really sharp axe or maul like felling or limbing does. I would rather use a saw for most felling, as would most anyone, it is easier, also cutting up firewood is best done with a nice bucking saw. I mostly use an axe for cutting limbs off felled trees, which is very easy on them, and when I split with a maul and it goes through into the dirt it never seemed to hurt the maul, but I have soft clay earth here, and also it is smart to split on a low stump or other surface that will not destroy the edge. I split thousands of logs with one maul over a number of years and never had to sharpen it, and never noticed any decline in it's splitting performance.
 
I'll go even more minimalist, with the provision that I don't frame my work with axes as "field work", if anything it would be the "work site", just for the sake of clarity. Spit, yes, strop with the palm of my hand or better yet, since sweat is acidic and not good on edges in the long run, belt. Especially since my puck disappeared that one day I was out working with the dog. Oh well, it'll turn up one time or the other. Also keeping a honing stone at hand, yes and in a real pinch a chip off my used up grindstone shaped to fit the hand.
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Ernest DuBois said:
I'll go even more minimalist, with the provision that I don't frame my work with axes as "field work", if anything it would be the "work site", just for the sake of clarity. Spit, yes, strop with the palm of my hand or better yet, since sweat is acidic and not good on edges in the long run, belt. Especially since my puck disappeared that one day I was out working with the dog. Oh well, it'll turn up one time or the other. Also keeping a honing stone at hand, yes and in a real pinch a chip off my used up grindstone shaped to fit the hand.
p6021132.jpg
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Nice one! Don't suppose you found an easy way to shape that rock?
 
garry3 said:
Nice one! Don't suppose you found an easy way to shape that rock?
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Thank you garry. It's been a while so I have to rely on a generalization by way of how I maintain stones over-all for an answer rather than the particular instance. It involves relative little grief in fact, first taking a hammer to the spent stone off my grinder - such grindstones around these parts are ubiquitous anyway and still being produced. Better make use rather than just let them gather moss - choosing a piece of the shattered stone that fits well in my hand and then refining the shape by rubbing it on a simple cast concrete paver with coarse carborundum grit and a few drops of water. This turns the rough facets of the piece into a slurry fast, which is the nature of an effective natural sharpening stone, that is to say, that it is friable.
 
gben said:
Probably 1% or less of the people on this forum would ever use any axe or hatchet they own enough to have to sharpen it more than once ever few years, maybe even five or ten years. Get a big bastard file and shape it up, then get a nice fine smooth file and make it look pretty, and then put a stone on it if you want to make it look prettier still. If I was touching an axe up that I wanted to use quickly then any reasonable file close at hand would do it fast and quick and simple. Most of the knives, axes and hand-saws you find laying around that are sharpened down to nothing got that way because whoever owned them did not wear them down working with them, they wore them down because they were bored idiots with no idea what they were doing and nothing better to do than ruin tools.
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For some of my tools this would be correct, but for my favorites they get sharpened multiple times a year and sometimes in the middle of the work since I burn wood as a primary heat source. A lot of it depends on where I'm cutting wood as to whether I put a stone in with my gear.
 
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