How To Sharpen an Axe by Wranglerstar

King Solomon said it best if the axe is dull and its edge is unsharpened it's going to require more strength to use and that is very true and not only is it going to require more strength to use but it's also going to be more dangerous and it's going to be less effective today I'm going to show you guys how to put a proper edge on a hatchet axe splitting maul I'll demonstrate the techniques I'll show you the tools that you'll need to do it and I'll explain a little bit of the differences between the three and as far as metal makeup design and those things the next few sir the next videos the videos I'm going to be doing in the future are going to be focusing on the off-grid homestead I'll be mixing in with that what I'll call essential tool videos or essential skill videos like we have today and I'll be focusing on a tour this towards the guys who don't have a lot of background or maybe are trying to put together their arsenal of tools to prepare to prepare for tough times or just to be more self-reliant that these will apply if you live in the city or if you live in the country it makes no difference and I won't be focusing on the latest greatest compound miter saw or the latest cordless battery technology I'll be focusing on the tried and true tools proven tools hand tools tools quality tools and tools that are a good value things that you'll be able to do a lot of different work with whether you have power or not that's kind of the criteria if it's got a cord I'm probably not going to be sharing it with you those tools are nice to use now while we have the ability while we do have power but what where we're going with this is going to be getting back to the old way so let's go over the tools that you'll need and get started all right there's three essential tools you're going to need there's going to cover most of your shark scharping needs whether it be a lawnmower blade an ax or a hatchet shovel garden hoe anything like that and the first thing you're going to use is going to be a good what they call a bastard file and bastard files are going to come in typically three lengths they're good you're going to have an 8 inch a 10 or 12 I like to buy the longest one I can get this is a 12 inch and the reason why they're called bastard files is they're not a course file and they're not a fine file they're basically somewhere in the middle hence the name bastard because the name bastard not only applies to a child born out of wedlock but it also applies to something that's different and that's why they got the name it's different it's in between but it's a very good universal file if you're only going to have one this is what I would recommend but what I would recommend you do is this is a good brand it's a made by Nicholson they're american-made files you can pay a lot more for files than these these are going to be a but you don't need to these files are going to be available at I know Home Depot has them most ace hardware stores are going to have them and you can buy something like this with a handle for about twelve dollars and what I would recommend is you get to 12 inch get the plastic handle over the wood the plastic is definitely more durable get yourself a fine a bastard mill file and a coarse and that will pretty much take care of all of your needs and their stay away from the from anything that's made overseas China Pakistan they're not worth the money to buy these are good American files and they're not expensive an important tool that you need to get with a file is called a file card this is a wire brush as you file you're going to build up material on the teeth and it's not going to cut very effectively and you look you can actually see probably not on the photo on the camera here but you can see all of the material from passing over the mall so after it starts to fill up you'll feel that it's just kind of drags you'll take this file card and you'll just clean out the seats both sides keep your file clean and it just cleans out those grooves and you can buy something like this from Nicholson also good american-made file card for about five dollars essential tools these are things you need to have you can get by with filing an edge with just a file you don't really don't need any more than this but if you would like to have a really keen edge really make it sharp then you need to go with a stone there are a lot of different stones out there traditionally they've always been square and I found this a while back it's made by Lansky and what I like about it is its compact and I could put it in my hand it's very easy to take a hatchet and to use it in my hand the file and it's small and compact enough I can throw it in a backpack and actually carry it around traditionally sharpening stones were shaped like this which these will work fine and actually the preferred if you're going to have it on the bench to sharpen knives with but using them with large tool or hatchets they're just very unhandy they're difficult kind of difficult to hold and you have to bring the tool to the stone what I like about the Lansky is you can bring the stone to the tool let's chalk up in the vise and I'll show you how to do it a good bench vise is also probably one of the most important things you can own even if you don't have a place to put it get one get a good american-made one and have it ready and what is going to work for most guys is a vise this is a smaller vise it's a six-inch vise and you can Sears makes good ones Wilton just make sure you buy one this american-made stay away from the ones the vise is at Harbor Freight they look very appealing they're nice and shiny and but they're terrible they're there my father has bought one I have some friends have bought them and if you beat on them pound on them the whole vise will just break off even the large ones so stay away from those they're they're not any good this is a this is a five and a half inch not a six inch I would not go any smaller than a five and a half inch if you're working with tools or soft finishes I recommend you use what they call soft jaws these are a high polyethylene rubber or whatever high density rubber that you can just that magnets on that you can put in here and what it does is just keeps you from marring soft finishes and when I get my axes all finished I don't want to have the indentations of the steel pipe jaws in there so these will as you can see will hold nice and securely and will not Mar the finish all right there are different edges for different types of axes this is a splitting axe therefore it has a broader point on it for a falling axe or an axe where I want to do a lot of cutting will have a much finer point on it as you can see this hatchet edge you can see this is designed to penetrate and to remove wood to be able to really sink into it this is very broad but what is design is to do is to split and to wedge wood apart so the edges are going to be a little bit different you don't need to get overly scientific but a splitting or a blunt type of tool like this a splitting maul or splitting axe you are going to have a fatter edge more of an angle where if you have you when you have a cutting tool you're going to be a sharper angle like that so you can pretty much follow the contours of the shape of the tool to get a rough idea of what you're going to have if you get that too pointed with this type of tool your edges are going to be brittle and they're going to break off so just keep that in mind what you're looking for is running your finger along here and you're looking and you're feeling for any kind of a nick or dents in the blade and if you do have those in there which most people do because they haven't properly taken care of their axes they put them in the dirt you're going to need to file those out and it will be a good lesson for you after you spend an hour filing all of those dents out you're not likely to put the axe in the ground again and repeat that nor are you very likely to loan it to anyone who doesn't know how to use it so if you do have those you will when you're filing you'll set and you'll start cutting in the file cuts forward do not go back and forth like this that doesn't do anything the file cuts forward and actually does harm to the file so put your palm on here and start carefully and start working that edge and working that angle and keep track of how many times you file on this side you don't want to spend more time on one side than the other or you're going to your your edge is going to be asymmetrical find your angle and you can see if you're not sure the angles or see where you're cutting you can look here and you can see where the file is cutting if you see that it's only touching on the very tip you are too far this way if you are marking and you're cutting down here you're too far this way so it'll take a little bit of practice but you'll work this on both sides until you get all of those nicks out this could take a long time so pull up a chair and stick with it but you'll get it a good file like this a new file will cut faster than you think once you have the NICs removed a stone like this lansky stone is nice because it has a rut has a course the dark gray and it has a fine and so starting with the course I will come find my angle and I'll start working and I'll keep count I'll keep counting how many times I pass over this edge what I like to do is to come once twice three times and then I'll repeat on the other side once I do my passes I'll come over to the other side find my angle I'll do that approximately three to four times and then I'll switch over to the fine what I like to pale I'd like to pay a little more attention when I'm doing the fine side and when I can look at the eye watch the edge and when I can see that I am just lightly scraping this is a slightest little bit of dust off the stone that tells me that I am right on the edge I'll rotate it in until I see that edge on that axe just scraping a tiny tiny bit of dust fragments off the stone and the closer I get to be in it to the to finishing it the lighter my press is going to be and I just can't tell tell you how beneficial how much easier it is to have a small stone like this you can hold easily in your hand and bringing the stone to the tool then bringing the tool to the stone once I make my passes to finish up I'll go one side through one pass here and I'll do one pass on this side and now we have a sharp axe now keep in mind that this is not a precision woodworking tool this is a splitting axe and in just a few passes like that I was able to put an edge on it for the file in the stone you know and I you're going to repeat the process whether it be on a you're splitting maul or your little hatchets or your lawnmower blades that's it there really isn't any more to share with you guys you've got to make an investment of about twenty five thirty dollars your file good file follow car olanski stone and they'll last you a long time if you take care of them and keep them clean don't abuse them you know these tools will last you a long time as long as you need them and something like this in a double URL situation an off-grid situation is invaluable you'll never be able to replicate it you'll never be able to duplicate it

Channel: Wranglerstar

Views: 1,632,359

Rating: 4.7294493 out of 5

Keywords: how, to, sharpen, and, axe, mall, wood, splitting, carving, handle, head, firemans, grunfors, bruks, timber, buck, board, file, bastard, wet, stone, wranglerbarn, painting, diet, dental, joke, dart gun, paintball, valve, unboxing, weightlifting, instructions, repair, humor, instructional video, analysis, wrestling, tutorial, fishing, automobile, workout, fitness, video review, guns, dnb, physical exercise, electronics, rifle shooting, exercise, wildlife, howto, health diet, extreme driving, animation short, bodybuilding, computers

Id: JIZBwT-VDBY

Length: 14min 41sec (881 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 13 2010