feeling a bit dull

[shaggystu]

a couple of days ago i was digging some post holes for a fence and i happened to find an old axe head that had obviously been there for some considerable length of time, it was mainly rust and mud with a million lumps of steel hammered into what remained of the shaft. anyway, being the tight fisted git that i am and having a lot of spare time on my hands at the moment i decided that i'd try and revive it. to cut a long story short i spent about 10 hours in total working on it with an old metal file to get some kind of shape back to the edge and then spent another couple of hours putting a pretty keen edge on it with a couple of grades of stone (i'm in the proccess of making a handle at the moment but that's an entirely different story). the only problem i'm having is that it just doesn't keep an edge at all, my best guess so far is that the steel has lost its temper, or maybe it just wasn't very well tempered in the first place, either way i'm after a little bit of advice. would any of you knife making types out there be able to help me out? i know i could trawl the net and probably find what i'm looking for but it's getting late and i'm feeling lazy!! anyway, any advice would be welcome.
thanks in advance.

stuart

[Schwert]

Some axes have a hardened billet of steel added to the softer edge when they are made. Lots of sharpening can remove all the hard steel leaving just the mild supporting steel. Maybe that is what you have found. Or maybe one of its helves was burned out and it lost its temper.

You should be able to discern hardened steel from soft with the file. Test the poll and the edge if they are both about the same then you probably do not have an ax that can be saved.

[dtalbot]

Pop over and ask our mates at www.britishblades.com no doubt someone will talk you through heat treating it if that is what it needs
Cheers
David