My SFA has arrived !!

[sargey]

if you're looking into reprofiling the head you'd be better served by investing in a pack of mixed grits of wet'n'dry (also from halfords) and using them instead of the cornflake box. when you've worked upto 1200 grit, move onto the polish. i still wouldn't want to attempt shaving with the axe for a razor, but you will be able to use the final bevel as a mirror

ok, i just re-read the last question.

i usually use the mousemat hard side up under the strop for for knives, or just use the back of an A4 pad. if you have a scandi ground knife it'll give it a gentle convex. and if you already havea convex edge it'll work fine. if you have a knife with a large secondary bevel you'll probably want to "knock the shoulders off" with a bit of wet'n'dry first. that is to blend in the angle between the top of the bevel and the side of the knife.

cheers, and.

 

[Raz]

Thankyou for that!
I'll make a trip to halfords ASAP. Sharpening has never been a strong point of mine; I’m not so great with angles. So anything that makes it easier is gold dust!

I gave my SFA a proper working today. A tree had fallen into the river in my field. It was obscuring a good fishing spot, so it had to go!
It would normally be a job for a chainsaw, but given that I had to balance on the trunk in the river, I could only do it one handed. The axe did its job fantastically. Enough weight to get through the 8” diameter limbs with relative ease. The handle was quite slippery, so I made a lanyard, which helped, but I might look into checkering the handle in the future. Thinking about it, I do, do a lot of concreting which makes ones hands very smooth, so it could just be me?