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Written by British Red
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Page 2 of 5
Pictured is a sharpening system that can easily be assembled in a hardware store for less than the price of one of the Gransfors Bruks tools. Not as compact as the Gransfors tools but no less efficient. It consists of
A coarse crosscut file
A fine metal file
A set of diamond hones (these are an alternative to the fine metal file)
A sanding block
A block of buffing compound |
In addition to these tools, a variety of grades of “Wet and Dry” abrasive paper and some scrap leather will be needed. |
The Stages of Sharpening
There are four stages to the sharpening process. If you axe is blunt, you can omit stage 1, if just a little dull stages 1 & 2 can be omitted etc. The stages are as follows:
Step 1 - Cutting Back
This stage removes a lot of metal from the axe. It is used to “cut back” the bit away from a damaged area or “ding” where a dent in the cutting area has occurred. It is not necessary to remove every tiny nick from your axe blade. Indeed doing so will wear your axe down prematurely. However, periodically damage becomes so pronounced or an individual ding is so severe that cutting back becomes necessary.
The other occasion where I find it necessary to cut back is often when purchasing a new axe.
On the photograph above, you can see that the heel of the blade (A) is blunt and rounded compared to the toe (C). There are flat areas on the bevel (B) and the ramp (D). These flat areas will detract from cutting efficiency and trap dirt and sap promoting rust. A little cutting back will correct these problems and improve the utility of the axe.
So, how do we cut back. Well the tool we use is the axe file in the Gransfors Bruks system or the crosscut file in the assembled system.
What we need to do is file backwards, from the bit of the axe towards the poll. If we file forwards, we'll "push" metal towards the cutting edge forming a wire that will block cutting efficiency. Sadly this means we are pushing towards the cutting edge. GLOVES.
When we file, because we are using a coarse file, we'll leave grooves in the metal. These are tricky to get rid of later so we'll file bit to poll but on an angle (toe to heel). At the next stage we'll reverse the angle and this will get rid of the file marks. |
Some things are hard to photograph so I’ll need to draw diagrams. I’ll use an overlay of an axe that looks like this to illustrate the required actions |
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This is the desired motion - imagine the green bar as the file.
However if that’s all you do, you will file the bit flat, and that’s not what we want, so lift your hand holding the file as you push and roll the file around the convex bevel.
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If this is the bevel |
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We all love to take photographs and keep a record of what we've done and where we have been. Michelle Jones has written this article is for those starting out into photography so that you can get the most from your camera and what you are trying to capture.
I used Hazel wood. Choose the
thin long shoots of wood which i would think are a couple of years old.
If you don't catch anything at first don't worry. It may just be a case of
changing a few things.
Most bushcrafters know that Birch bark is fantastic for fire lighting
because of all the oil concealed within it. This tutorial guides you
through the process of extracting that tar from the bark.
Now we could bung a label on (which should always say they type of wine and when it was bottled). I suggest you cross-reference to a book of recipes and notes so that when you get a cracking wine you can recreate it. We are going to add a little something to the presentation of the wine by putting a foil cap over the neck. First we drop a foil cap (available for a couple of pence from a wine shop) over the bottle neck.
Right, we now have clean, fined and filtered wine. We pour it into clean (yes and sterilised) bottles with a funnel. We need to cork it. Its possible to put corks in with a mallet. I use a corking gun and waxed corks that do not need to be soaked (plain corks do)
Well, the finings have worked – the wine is beautifully clear.
As soon as I'd finished my Paracord Bracelet, I'd decided to write a tutorial on making one. A good thing considering the majority of the responses since I posted it were asking me how to do it! Here goes.. You will need approximately 3 metres of paracord with the ends already sealed/melted, and something to make a temporary knot - a twist tie or piece of string should suffice.
I have been asked a number of times recently to provide some advice of guidance on the best way to sharpen an axe. Whilst I am always happy to provide input, I thought that it might be worthwhile to put together a tutorial on the basic techniques. The techniques used in here are intended to provide not only a sharp axe but also a safe and efficient axe.
There was a period in my life where I lived out of a pack for months at a time and this was one of my staples.
I like to coil it like a rope on a stick and bake it over hot coals...
There are many different ways you can make a berry picker but this is just a design i came up with which uses a packet of kebab skiewers and some discs of wood.
The whole kit took less than three hours to finally pull together — though that really overlooks by far the most time-consuming aspect, the preparation of materials. In fact, preparation has two components, actually. The first is the selection of materials. The second is the actual preparation.