Ax at rescuemeright.com
A dull ax is almost as worthless as a dull knife. Here are some tips to keep your ax sharp and useful.
Keep your ax sharp with a mill bastard file 8 or 10 inches long. The lines across the face of the file are the teeth. They angle away from the point, or tang. A drab grey color shows that your file is sharp. A silvery shine means a file has broken teeth that it won’t sharpen very well.
Wear leather gloves to protect your handswhenever you sharpen with a file. Also, make a knuckle guard from a 3-inch square of leather, plywood, or an old inner tube. Cut a small hole in the center of the guard. Slip it over the file tank and hold it in place with a file handle. You can buy a handle at a hardware store or make one from a piece of wood or a corn cob.
Brace the ax head on the ground between a small log and two wooden pegs or tent stakes. Another Person can help hold the ax handle steady. Or place the ax head into a vice on a workbench to hold it steady. Place the file on the edge of the blade and push it into the bit. Use enough pressure so that you feel the file cutting the ax metal.
Lift the file as you draw it back for another stroke. A file sharpens only when you push it away from the tang. Dragging the file across the blade on the return will break off the teeth and ruin the file.
Sharpen with firm, even strokes. After you have filed one side of the bit from heel to toe, turn the ax around and do the other side. Under bright light a dull edge reflects light. Continue to file until the edge seems to disappear.
Filing can leave a tiny curl of metal called a burr on the edge of the bit. Remove the burr by honing the bit with a whetstone just as you would the blade of a pocketknife.
Thanks to the boy scout handbook for the information in this article.
