Tool Sharpening Basics

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First off, file around the edge or carefully hold the ax edge itself straight into the wheel, perpendicular, and run that edge tip to tip to wear out any nicks. Then grind or file all along one side (Fig. 11), holding the ax so that 3/a inch or a hair more of the side is getting worn. (Tip: If your wheel has a front guard plate, you can tilt it to the correct angle and rest your ax on that improvised guide.) You don't want to grind too far back, or you'll make the tip too thin. An ax blade needs to be a bit thick—more so than a hoe or spade, for instance—so that it won't get stuck in the wood you're chopping. Raise a burr all along the edge, flip the ax over, and grind or file away until you raise a burr on the other side. That's it for the rough work. To really finish the job, you'll need a good honing stone—Carborundum, Arkansas, Washite, whatever (I'll talk more about them soon). You can hold the ax and rub it with the stone like the old-time woodsmen do, but that's a tough trick, because you're trying to keep a precise angle while working freehand with both objects. It's much easier to vise or clamp either the stone or ax in place. Then draw one object across the other so that the stone cuts into the blade. The key here is to keep the entire edge at the same angle, and on both sides. It's not easy. Fortunately, an ax is a hard, rough-work tool, so as long as you're going to chop wood instead of whiskers, you can get away with some beginner's wobbling.

It'll be good practice for knife sharpening and, more important, you'll be smoothing out those ground sides and closing up pores where rust could work in. (For the same reason, using a stone to finish any of the tools we've sharpened so far is probably a good idea.)

The Art of Sharpening a Knife

OK, let's put the file and outdoor tools away and come inside to learn some refined sharpening skills—most especially, putting a good edge on a knife. I'm afraid that job won't be as easy to describe as the others; as professional knifemaker Robert Parrish puts it, "There's lots of controversy over knife sharpening, lots of ways to do it." Roy Underhill concurs, noting that "many people are into the sharper-than-thou thing, saying everything

has to be done the right way—theirs." (Parrish doesn't think much of disputes over techniques: "Basically, they all work.")

For an example of these hones of contention, consider: Should you oil or water a sharpening stone? Underhill feels it helps the stones stay soft and keeps them from getting "glazed"—gummed up with metal shavings.

(He even quotes the Trevisa, a thirteenth-century medieval encyclopedia that recommends ". . . diverse maner of whetsones, and some neden water and some neden oyl for to whette.") Parrish doesn't lubricate his stones, though. Neither does John Juranitch. John What? Who's he? He's the guy who wrote the best book we know on this topic, The Razor Edge Book of Sharpening . He holds the world record for rapidly sharpening a dull ax and shaving his beard with it. He's made a business of helping thousands of butchers and packing houses improve their cutting edges.

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