Axe sharpening

[johnnytheboy]

I have two axes a roungh one i use for splitting around the garden i just sharpen at work with the roloc grinder but i bought a new gransfors and its getting a bit blunt, coming up for pay day so i thought i'd better get some proper sharpening equipment, what would everyone recomend i see granfors sell three tools but which one is best???

[Dave Budd]

none of them.

get yourself a bit of mouse mat or roll mat and a selection of wet'n'dry paper. Much easier to get a good edge and a darn sight safer than those stupid puck things!

just my opinion though (mind you, I do sharpen things professionally and I have all of my fingers ;) )

[johnnytheboy]

what grade should i start at and work down to??

I work in an accident repair centre so we have every grade of wet and dry from 240 to 2000 then foam pads to 4000, what do i do when i have this wet and dry and a mouse mat???

[British Red]

What the debn buy sed.

Grab a cheapo diamond hone a mill b@stard file for serious dinks and its a "prapper job"

Red

[British Red]

I did a turtorial on "how to sharpen an axe" somewhere jtb - should show you all you need to know

Red

[johnnytheboy]

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22814&highlight=sharpen+axe

found it, perfect, don't think i need the filing bit quite yet but could do soon the way this is going

[Uncle Alvah]

get yourself a bit of mouse mat or roll mat )

I guess I don't know what that is???????

[Dave Budd]

First is the foam stuff you run your mouse on next to your keyboard. The second is the foam stuff that you sleep on if you are too tight to buy a thermarest ;)

I would use different grades depending on what the axe is for. If it's a carving axe then 1000grit and a strop is good enough. if it's a felling axe or general purpose hatchet then i stop at 500 and a strop, though to be honest a lot of the time you could stop art 240grit.

I've often used just a second cut file to sharpen axes. It's quick and if you know what you are doing then you can get an edge that actually shaves, certainly for a rough use axe that is good enough!