Axe sharpening

[scouser4life]

I know there are tutorials here about this but none of the give an estimated number of strokes should be made. I bought my axe from a shop so its edge is just standard. I have been trying to sharpen it on water stones but its proving differcult to get a sharp edge.

Could someone let me know?

Thanks John

 

[penvisser]

When the bevel is all bad I think you have to use power tools.

For sharpening my axe, a GB small forest type, i use a large diamond
"stone" which has rubber a the bottom so it won't slip from the bench.

What kind of axe have you bought?

Penvisser.

 

[scouser4life]

Its just a cheap 12" fiberglass handled on from the local DIY store - taskers. I have read in Mears' book about how to do it but didn't mention power tools.

 

[sam_acw]

I'm playing with a tomahawk head using a fine metal file. It seems be working but it is slow.

 

[Longstrider]

The big problem with most of the cheaper DIY shop type axes is that the edge profile is either ground flat or even, in some cases, hollow ground. To get a decent, proper, convex edge on the thing you are likely to need to remove quite a bit of steel. A good quality file (like a Nicholson) will do this far quicker and easier than waterstones ever could. A good quality "2nd Cut" file followed by a session with some wet-n-dry THEN the waterstones would be the way I'd recommend you to go.