The Tools to Reprofile an Axe Edge

Description

Tags: Axe,How to Reprofile an Axe Edge,Axe Edge,Tools,Bushcraft,Camping,Hiking,Backpacking,Nature,Outdoor Skills,Skills

Video Transcription

what is up Turtles Creek here with blackout outdoors and what I want to do today is show you the tools I use to sharpen my axes so if you watched a recent video of ours I showed a condor axe that I used and I talked about reprofiling the edge and sharpening it so I thought I'd take the time to actually devote a whole video to the tools I use to accomplish that in that video on this axe I talked about me wanting to thin the bit right where my finger is tracing because there was a really pronounced shoulder or hump in this convex grind and I wanted to take that down to make this a better slicer and I've achieved that then I kept the convex nature of this grind let me show you the tools I used to get a really sharp and shaving sharp edge on this X so here we have to bastard files and these on these are Nicholson excuse me I've had these for years and I've yet to put a handle on them and I know I should but there's a little bit of rust forming in these so what do you guys think any guys and gals think should I just get new ones I'm not sure they're inexpensive but you can see them next to each other rights we have a course my fingers on this side or tracing this file and then we have a smooth one here that has more rust showing use these files first to remove a lot of material and let me show you how I sort of had the ax in my vise so I clamped my axe and the vise with the edge pointing up just like this so I could stand above it and work the files like so and like I said I started with the coarse one worked on both sides evenly try to keep it even as I could and then I switched it so I've you know so I'm holding the file like this just cutting on the push and then making sure I'm following the contour of the convex edge but not just holding the file in one angle the entire time that I'm rotating it to contour the curve once I finished the firework I'll show you what I moved onto this is a Lansky knife sharpening system that I bought some years ago when I really wasn't confident sharpening all my knives and torch freehand I never really end up liking this but there are some very useful tools still in here that we can use so here's the whole system this is for holding a knife this is for the angles with the stones but what I used is this oil on the stone so that when I'm sharpening and grinding them steel away this will pick up the shavings if you will and create a slurry that's really important so here's the courses stone I have and what makes this really nice for sharpening the axe how it worked really well and this was the first time I use these for sharpening my axe is that there's enough room you can sort of pinch your fingers and there's still plenty of clearance between this edge of the stone your and the cutting edge and your finger so it's a pretty safe way to sharpen the axe let me grab it real quick and show you so I moved on to the stones I use the circular motion again working at the edge with the angle of the stone and then as I worked back on the edge on the axe you know the angle of the stone changes let's try to keep that consistent on both sides and amount of expert in any way but the results worked or my method work and produce the results I was going for so this will probably be my go-to method considering the tools I have I'm not sure if it's picking up the grits on there so blue is a 600 grit that's are calling a fine stone and then this thousand ultra fine it was just a yellow which is ceramic it looks like to me and I use it use a ceramic as well once I was finished with the stones I moved on to my leather strop so let me grab that for you real quick this is a paddle strop I bought and you have one piece of leather on it right

just a rubber band on one end just to make it easier or maybe I'm lazy but the the leather strop with compounds the last thing I did and to use that and I'll actually show you because I can today I put the leather down and go a weight from the cutting edge and what's nice with using this leather is that there's give so it's going to conform to the convex edge so I have to be so worried about ruining that convex as I'm stopping we still want to kind of work the whole edge just to make it consistent for posterity sake you flip that over do the same thing on this side you know I'm no expert with sharpening or tools use in general but like I said what I think is important is that you use the tools that you have at your disposal there are dedicated tools like a puck Lansky makes a puck to sharpen your axe and I don't have one of those but I have the stones for the knife sharpening system so they worked just as well because everything is elemental working with wood with leather sharpening a tools understanding grind it's all elemental once you understand the core and basics that can be applied intuitively or with some ingenuity to accomplish what you want I'd really like to do a video showing stuff I do at home in my little workspace but it really just isn't filming friendly and it's kind of or actually is very frustrating to myself and I know it is to my brother as well because we want to film the videos where I repro file this X it would make a great video but just our filming space isn't that great so we're excited that as the channel grows and in our lives in general we can move into a space that will allow us to film projects like reprofiling and X as always thank you for your continued support thanks to our patrons if you're not one patreon supporting us it's ten dollars a month basically to be entered into a gear giveaway and so far we've been giving away brand-new gear so if any questions about that or any question about the tools I use or sharpening anything in general few of any questions in general leave a comment so the next video is this quick will black out piece out Turtles