Well I grew up in a small rural, village in Southern Leyte, Philippines and didn't move here until I was 9 or so. It was a mountainous, tropical area near the sea. A lot of people were farmers (including my grandfather), so I grew up around bolos, axes and other traditional tools. The farmers/villagers used simple, cheap (probably imported from china) double-sided stones (rough/fine [110/220 grit?]) to sharpen up their tools. No one ever justified putting a great edge on their tools since they were used for several hours a day and would most likely chip/roll from hitting rocks and such anyways. Socioeconomically, Nepal probably isn't much different - they're not exactly cut off from the world, and I would imagine that they import the same crummy sort of stones and people buy them as they're cheap, get the job done and are more effective that what you used to be able to get natively (at least for the price)
While I was up in Canada for the winter visiting my father, he brought up a bolo from the basement that my late Tatay (grandfather) had put together for him... the blade wasn't made by my grandfather, but the handle and scabbard were. Simple hardwoods with nicely braided fishing line to hold stuff tightly together. The blade was quite chipped/rolled/dented up from hard use, so I sharpened it back up to a razor edge keeping the original bevel type (but with a polish up to 1200grit). The normal method of sharpening is actually quite interesting and I remember my Tatay teaching it to me: essentially, the bevel was a chisel grind (but convex due to freehanding). You'd sharpen the angled side with the "coarse" side until a bur was formed... then you'd simply get rid of this using the "fine" side of the stone on the flat side of the bolo. The rest of the bur was just knocked off with use, leaving a sharp yet toothy edge. I have to say that the method was quick, simple and did the trick (even with low grit stones)
