Axe/knife sharpening kit - can you advise?

[mrstorey]

Hi all,

I'm ordering a Vaughan mini-axe from Axminster Tools, so thought I might as well order all the kit I need for sharpening my knife and axe while I'm there. (My current knife is a 4-inch Mora, but am in the process of building a knife from a Brisa kit.)

Can you advise on a complete kit which will allow me to sharpen and polish all my sharps in one fell swoop? (Obviously I'd love a Sharpmaker or similar, but money is an object right now.)

Current shopping list is:
WS Flex Wet & Dry Waterproof Silicon Carbide 180 Grit, 320 Grit, 600 Grit
Japanese Combination Waterstones 1000/6000G
Japanese Nagura Stone
Steel Wool - Grade 0000 - 250grm

I'd like something which will allow me to sharpen and polish properly at home, but also allow me to sharpen up an edge in the field if necessary.

Sorry to ask - I did do a search but it wouldn't let me search for axe, so the results were a bit limited!

Many thanks,

Michael.

 

[sxmolloy]

There is a Gransfors Axe Stone for use with an axe (obviously) and I have heard you are able to sharpen a knife with it, although I have never tried.

I use a Fallkniven DC3 for field sharpening my knife, and the axe stone for field sharpening my axe.

Hope that helps...Regards...Stu

 

[gregorach]

If you really want sharp, I'd add a strop to that list, and maybe some stropping paste. I find that all it takes to put that hair-popping edge back on my GB wildlife hatchet is a little stropping after use.

 

[Shing]

Axminster sell their own brand diamond hones. I would suggest getting a 150x62mm hone in medium and fine and a strop with stroping paste. You can take them with you as they are light and unbreakable and use water as the lubricant or buy a set of the mini diamond stones for field touch ups.

Diamond cuts much faster than ordinary oil stones and last a long time.

 

[Longstrider]

Very much like Shing says, I would recomend a DMT Double-sided Diafold, a piece of leather to strop on and either a tube of Autosol to use as stropping paste or go with the neater option (less messy and easier to carry without risk of leakage) of a small stick of stropping compound also available from Starkiesharp who sell the Diafolds. For general use I would go with the red and blue Diafold, ( coarse and fine ) as the extra coarse is only really useful for doing a complete re-grind, taking big nicks out of a blade or sharpening "rough" tools like slashers and the extra fine is not really needed for "in the field" type work. An edge will strop to shaving sharp in very little time after using the fine sharpener. Take a look at http://www.starkiesharp.com/dmt_diafold_whetstones_page15.html for prices etc. If you buy the leather case/sheath for the Diafold you could even use that as your strop.

(No affiliation to Starkiesharp on my part, I'm just a satisfied customer of theirs)

 

[Andy]

for a budget sharpening kit I'd go for wet&dry and a mouse pad for the axe. Look in the 5pound sharpening thread for ideas

 

[mrstorey]

Wow. Thank you everyone for all the suggestions - there are loads of options there.

I definitely like the sound of the diamond hones - the double-sided Diafold ones sound/look much better than the Axminster ones, but I'm tempted to go for the Axminster hones just because I'm already ordering from there.

Longstrider - do you think the Starkiesharp ones are significantly better? They certainly look nicer in their folding case, but a) they are a lot more expensive and b) I'll have to pay postage from Starkiesharp, whereas I'm placing an order with Axminster anyway, so there's no extra postage to add their hones to my order. I'd really value any pointers.

Also, can I just double check that I would be OK sharpening an axe with these? I'm also planning to order a GB Small Forest Axe, so would a diamond hone and strop also keep that in tip-top condition, or would I need a circular stone for that?

Sorry to ask stoopid questions... although I've been going off camping at weekends for the best part of my life, actually owning and maintaining decent quality sharp stuff is uncharted territory for me - it's always been Swiss Army knives and borrowed (blunt) hatchets in the past

M.

 

[Andy]

you can sharpen an axe on them. I prefer to keep axes with a convex profile so use wet&dry

no problem with the Starkie but I don't think it's much better either, you can buy it from Axminster (at least you could when there was a big thing about them )

 

[Longstrider]

I don't know about the diamond hones that Axminster sell as I have never had one, but I do know that I have bought cheaper hones than the DMT ones in the past and have always regretted it. With some of the really cheap jobs out there you can actually wear them out sharpening (or trying to sharpen) one knife, literally rubbing the diamond dust off the thing. The grit size also seems to be far less regular on some cheaper diamond hones too. You can get a relatively fine hone with just one or two larger, or more prominent, pieces of diamond that leave lovely scratches on the edge of your blade. As with most things in life, I find you tend to get what you pay for.

I sharpen my GB SFA with my DMT hones AND maintain the convex edge. All it takes is care to follow the curve of the convex and you can do it well. I sharpen it down to either fine or extra fine DMT, then strop the edge with leather loaded with some cutting paste and it will shave the hairs off my arm no problem.
Lets face it, the GB axe stone is flat, as is their own diamond hone, so why not use a flat sharpener for a convexed axe edge?

If you are going to the Moot, look me up there if you like and I'll show you my set of hones and how I use them.