How to Sharpen Garden Tools : Sharpening an Axe

[ESAPOWER]

@jcoll83 Amen, brother.

Most city-folk can't even wash 'emselves properly, tie their shoelaces, and a good sum of them just generally look scruffy, act scruffy, and have a scruffy attitude. I don't se many of them looking after themselves OR their gear properly. Tut tut tut! Give me rolling hills and green fields any day!

My knives are sharp, my boots are always polished, I'm clean, shaven, and generally know how to take care of myself and my property! I enjoy the craftsmanship in my property!

[TiM9FG]

sharpening a axe on a bench grinder no thanks, but nice video.



[johnny19az19]

o man before i seen this video which is now, i tried sharpening my axe i got it to a good angle with the grinder but when i used the hand rock grinder whatever its called it dulled it again

[morningbenders]

this lukes dengereuse. sacre bleu!

[CanItAlready]

@jcoll83

Living in the city hardly equals pampered. It's a different way of life, not an easier one. if it were easier, more people would do it.

[Twisted86]

If only these videos came with a free grinding wheel :P

[ggallinstinydick]

he dipped it in water so he could hold it shitdicks so it wouldn't have got hot enough to boil the water yet

[lobo9er]

good vid!

[iian539]

loves when he sais choppin'' trees daawn XD

[Hipojak]

I prefer the time consuming but more controlled method of files and whet stones myself. Grinders are for shaping, not sharpening in my opinion.

[LeonRFpoa]

he's sharpening it ok, I seen way worse from Ray mears and supposed "experts" rubbing their shit with a circular motion with no idea how to form a micro-serrated edge. Sharpening is a learned skill that almost has to be self-taught. I can get knives and blades way sharper by hand than I can with any mechanized tool.

[dogcatcherist]

@LeonRFpoa i agree ive never used grinders in my life i only use files and stones

[aunsell]

To all the people leaving comments about temper. A temper on any material, is created by heating and cooling a metal. Wether it be by water, oil, salt.......etc.

Tool steel (High Speed Steel) is designed and "tempered" in such a way that it can take the rigors of daily use. When you begin to reheat and cool the steel you begin to change the temper, resulting in a tool that is uneven and won't perform like intended.

[aunsell]

Slow speed grinders (1500rpm) are always preferred to high speed grinders (3000 + RPM) because the risk of overheating the steel is minimized.

The reason this man is using a 3000+ grinder is because of time, time is mony and a slow speed grinder takes more time, and in the video this isn't even a stone grinder its a chop saw with a Rebar cutting blade. Also because he is free handing this the bevel wil be different on either side resulting in a tool that won't cut as good.

[aunsell]

Finally you will notice that he was aware of overheating but I would never dunk them in water. If steel is overheated it needs to be alloud to cool slowly. A good rule is if it gets to hot to hold on to just let it sit. On hardened steel like that dunking can acually put micro fractures in the blade making it more prone to chip and brake.

I do all my sharpening on a water stone, and while it is much slower it guarantees my temper has remained the same and has the best edge possible.

[townsville69]

Lol good call xtheshame.

[jimbobway31]

its so hard to find handles for that style of axe head now adays

[marshall0792]

thats pretty much the way i expected, but damn, i dont have a grinder

[corybaughman]

@marshall0792 ha ha i got one and im 14 i got it when i was 13

[Thunderchild2008]

Thank you!

[timw421]

I agree with all that say it should be a file, stone and oil.

If there is alot of metal that needs removed then you can always use a ruff file like a cross vut basterd file and then move to a finer file after that use a sharpening stone and dont forget the oil or it will eat up your stones XD

Only gave them a 1 for rating and I hope no one will do this to there axes no matter how cheap they may be this can and sooner or later will hurt you badly

[jzmtl]

Is it me or expert village should be renamed dufus village? First you got a guy calling Gerber a Leatherman, then you got a guy sharpening axe on a chop saw and sharpening along the edge instead of against.

[buzizzy]

@jzmtl OMG!!! You are right! I never expected to see a guy do this to an axe... I sure would not do it to mine. Get a fine file and a stone and some oil and do it right for Pete's sake!!

[goldatra3]

Usefull informations

[roflrofl16]

your abunch of haters now arent you

[radiogorillaz]

i don't see this as a good way to keep the angle on the axe very well.

[juiceboxcannon]

sure is allot of people bitchen about safty, but I bet this guy has a sharp ax when he's done!

[equinoxranch]

This method is SO wrong. Not one thing right here. Wutta fucking stooge..........

[ciminocimino]

Fuck you lockster81

[lasersight70]

Why must you improperly sharpen the axe with a grinder and then not even use the wet stone right? when you use the grider, u cant give it the properly curved edge, and using the wet stone like that makes it even worse

[bodbag]

just saying, its whet stone, not wet

[lasersight70]

it can be spelled either way. but thats not the point. when you use a grinder you get rid of the convex edge that makes a good axe, but if you use that stone right, it would fix that edge

[bodbag]

no, its whet; to sharpen. But I totally agree on what you're saying about this video and technique

[cowsayingmoo102]

or it's wet because you get the stone wet before sharpening

[ciminocimino]

If he had done any safety courses on GRINDING wheels he would know that he should NEVER use that style of wheel that way, when you grind on the side of that style of wheel it is considered as UNSAFE , there are grinding wheels out there that you can buy which allows you to safely use them on the side without compromising SAFTY.

30 years of experience or 1 year, SAFTY FIRST.

[lockster81]

Yeah, SAFTY FIRST. Well spelt.

[syrano2005]

if he had only a single year of experience he would be all wrapped up with safety equipments and gloves and all that shit, nothing's wrong with that, but from my machinery experience I am noticing that the more experienced the guy is the more he under-estimate the machine he is using, until one day he learns he shouldn't have ! lol

[timw421]

seen this happen alot more with younger adults.

[MacCairnie]

@syrano2005 Yeah, at the very least I'd cover up the skin on my arms. I've gone without gloves before, and I ended up getting little metal slivers all over the place. Plus, he's asking for some nasty burns from sparks.

[hamickboy]

eery has good evedens that there way is best to sharpen a axe but a file can do as good or better but take much longer .

altough the grinder he use's is very persisces but will deff eat up your axe in know time

but still both methods are very effictive!

[stealthbeast]

Well.. I know it's an AXE.. so you don't need as much precision grinding as your fillet knife..

But I know I'm not alone in saying that this is a very rushed method that will not leave the best edge..

Sure, this is fine if you're restoring hundreds of axes a day, but for your at-home or out-of-doors personal knife, it pays to get dirty with a file, and take the time to do it by hand the right way.

[lasersight70]

actually, it best for an axe if it truly is as shar as your fillet knife. but are right, you would be better to use a file. and properly use the wet stone

[xtheshame]

This guy has 30 years experience sharpening tools.  I'll take his advice over you nubs any day.

[huyhuyhuytae]

@xtheshame agreed

[pate357]

Nothing better than a guy spending two minutes on the edge, then shaving the hair off his arm and thinking he's accomplished something.

[lefthandhuck]

this video makes me want to take my axes and run into the woods and hide from people like this. filing is is to only way to properly sharpen an ax. nothings worse than receiving an ax from ebay that has no temper b/c of people like this.

[Roger1379]

You have to get the temperature much past 200degrees celcius to ruin the temper, and if it was that hot, there would be steam when he dipped the axe in water, and it would be too hot for him to hold.

There are many ways to sharpen an axe, I prefer to use a belt grinder to sharpen an axe, and it is kept cool, you just have to dip it into a bucket of water often.

[301001082]

@Roger1379 the yellow sparks are at over 1000 degrees Celsius, they reach that temperature before leaving the axe, you are a fool!

[Roger1379]

@301001082 Where are your sharpening videos? Have you ever used a belt sander? I've had millions of sparks fly into my hand non stop from grinding steel, they are not 1000 degree Celsius or I'd be getting deep 3rd degree burns all over my hands.I can hold the blade as well, it barely even goes past 50 degree Celsius unless I've been grinding it for a long time.

Maybe you should lecture the hundreds of professional knife sharpeners that use belt sanders since you know soo much about it.

[301001082]

@Roger1379 i've never met anyone on here, or any one, as stupid as you, no offense

the blades edge is definitely over 1000 degrees C, it's shown in the vid, and those sparks are too, without a doubt!

wtf has a belt sander to do with it, any material harder than the blade will work

and i watch vids not make them, plebians please me..

[Roger1379]

@301001082 So you can tell temperature through a video? Unless you have done this, you know nothing about this, I sharpen knives, axes and blades like this everyday, if the blade is over 1000degrees celsius, then like I said, it would have burned me, when it reaches 1000 degrees the blade will be bright orange and I would not be able to touch it, stop being an arm chair warrior, you have not done this, you have absolutely no experience in this.

[301001082]

@Roger1379 you are an idiot, sorry for having to say, but twice... it's simple; the edge of the blade is at over 1000 degrees Celsius.. go and learn ffs.. you havn't a clue! in this scenario visual inspection is the primary method of addressing the temperature, so yes i can tell by the vid, you fool !!!!... by observing its colour; almost white, the blades edge is over 1000 degrees C

!!!! at this temperature a blade's hardness will reduce !!!! definitely wont be asking you to sharpen anything

[Roger1379]

@301001082 Steel does not go white at 1000 degrees, it goes bright orange and loses it's magnetism, I have heated steel to that temperature before, it takes a propane torch and a super oxygen rich environment to heat it to that temperature.

So here's the question, have you ever sharpened dozens of knives and axes every week with a power tool? If it is 1000 degrees, when I dip the blade into the water, the water should sizzle and I would see water vapour.

[301001082]

@Roger1379 , orange=900, yellow =1000, white=1100

the filings at the instance of leaving the axe were nearly white, of course; equal in temperature to the blades extreme outer edge

well over 200, and this will soften the feature of the axe most needed; hard

the stone at the end would eventually rid the soft steel, maybe a few more strokes are needed

on another note; it's highly doubtful this blade, shaved a single hair

sharpening is simple, hardening is a hundred times more complex, but simple

[aunsell]

@301001082 Thank you for actually knowing what you are talking about!

The spark color is also an indicator of the grade of steel. At 1500rpm High Speed Steel will produce a Dark red spark, Cheep low grade steel will produce a Bright White spark

[xxmtgxx]

@301001082 This conversation is so funny because your so friggin wrong. Many custom knife/axe makers use belt sanders and grinding wheels that produce tons of sparks yet there blades/heads are still tested at the same hardness they originally HT'd them at. Some use water grinding wheels, but thats only for a low grit/high speed wheel. Which is not what is used here.

[301001082]

@xxmtgxx what was the argument? anyway, it's not my opinion, it's a fact; the blades edge, in this video, is in excess of 1000 degrees C. therefore all hardening, at the very edge, has been annealed, hence a waste... this now soft edge will deform sooner as applied energy is increased. this is the most fundamental principle of hardening, it is also very simple to understand, i'm sure, as you had the intelligence to communicate; you can conceive this principle in time

[bill01234]

@301001082 Let's say you're right, and this guy has been sharpening tools wrong for 30 years.

Just how has he stayed in business this long if he's ruining axes, like you say he is?

[HedgehogChopper]

if anyone used that thing on my axes id kick their butt into next weeki have around 100 axes & do some competative wood cutting, all are sharpened by hand held tools, a millsaw file for heavy work & dimond stones for the rest, finaly i use a polishing stone on the racing axes.

gransfor bruks do a good hand held stone for running repairs etc and Tuatahi do a axe jig for precision stuff

[spitgalore]

Is that stone man-made? If so, what is it made of? Thanks.

[ripshot2222]

I have always been told that sharpening a tool in this way will ruin it.

[2008woodman2008]

you should never use a high speed wheel with good quality blades, b15448 is right. you will weaken the blade. Much better to sharpen regularly with a good stone.

[B15448]

If you can't touch it, due the heat, you ruined the temper

[piratewhiz]

awsome! just what i needed!