Axe sharpening

Question for the tree fellas...
I had to buy a hand axe yesterday and was dismayed to find that when I got it home it was blunt... very blunt..
I have spent about three hours with my diamond files and stones putting an edge on it.
Q1.. Do they have to be sold blunt?
Q2..What is the best sharpening angle for general purpose use?
robert

 

Don't know if they have to sell em blunt...my present axes I have had for over 40 years...Plumb heads (that's the make and they were handed down to me). I have replaced hafts of course.

Normally sharpen mine with a circular disc on my electric drill....angle, I haven't a clue, maybe 30 degrees...but hey, who knows....they are still sharp after all these years. I find that loads of places sell cheap axe heads and hafts.:thumb:

 

My axe is second hand..... a beutifull old tool around 75 years old and from the initials burnt into the handle once belonged to glos councill.

I sharpen mine to around 25 degrees using a carbarundum axe stone, 400 grit wet and dry paper and a leather strop..... always razor sharp:

 

Pro Gard
Knew you would come up with the goods.
Thanks. Looks like I need to do some work on my little hand axe
robert

 

Progress so far.
It wont cut paper yet. But it will !
Watch this space

 

This type of sharpening is for a splitter, a felling axe should be sharpened without a shoulder. The whole of the blade needs a smooth contour from the edge to the socket, without any sharp changes of angle.

You need a "palmstone" for sharpening a felling axe (one about 4ins in dia. and about an inch thick. Fast sharpening is very likely to "burn" the edge and remove temper and hardness.

 

"Fast sharpening is very likely to "burn" the edge and remove temper and hardness. "

Indeed.

 

Hi Ivory, I used to visit Germany in the 1980's mainly the Hunsrueck and Schwartzwald.

Of course, the best thing for grinding down sharp edged tools is a water cooled stone running slowly, but that is an expensive item (for the professional's). You can thin the blade down with a fast stone provided you keep it away from the edge, and finish it off with a "palmstone" or other type of flat stone.

 

Theres a palm stone pictured in my lowest picture. Agree regards fast sharpening, its suprisingly quick with a palm stone anyway.

To clarify mine is sharpened to a taper as you can see but the taper angle from tip is about 25 %. For a hatchet id say using a slightly different angle to the blade taper will be alright after all it will probably be used for equal amounts of spliting ( kindling) and general dee branching and chopping.

The crucial thing imo is to get the sharpness and maintain it.

 

I start by folding a rag to the right thickness and placing it over the axe head´s blunt end, resting the tip of a file on the rag and sliding the file handle in an arc, filing along the edge of the blade. On my carving axes, I progressively move the rag up and forwards, to create a curved edge, but if you are splitting, then a flat chamfer is best, and not too thin or it´ll stick rather than split. Follow with emery and a leather strop and polishing paste -- I strop half a dozen times before using the emery again.