contrary to popular belief there isn't any dark mysteries that need to be unraveled when it comes to putting a good edge on your ax or hatchet many people would have you believe that it's witchcraft but it's not it's actually quite simple and you don't need to buy anything specially special tools once you get the profile on there I'm going to show you how to put a good edge on your ax or hatchet with the tools that you're most likely going to have we'll go over several different options and before long you'll be shaving sharp so let's say let's take a look at a few of the different options and maybe some of the ones that I prefer so this is the box that I keep my sharpening stones and I love this box I got it from my granddad years ago it's kind of there we go nice way to keep everything in one place so the question usually comes up you know what's the best what's the best stone for sharpening these axes what's the easiest so I don't can't say that I have the best way I don't know I mean I have my favorite way but it would be arrogant for me to say that that's the best way because there is no best way it all depends on what you kind of what you like but I think we'll start with the pear the basic stuff I think that something that most of you are going to have you probably have it around maybe from your dad or from your grandfather is just an old whetstone this is my granddad's old whetstone here that he used to I remember him used to sharpen his pocketknife on it and a lot of these old ones here have a fine and of course flip them over you can see there and some of them like this one that has a groove in it that would have been designed for sharpening fish hooks different things like that that's pretty common with those and these old stones are really good actually Jeff from cutlery lever does he put up a video he found an old vintage stone somewhere and that was that's a really good option to some of those old stones the density of the of the stone especially the Arkansas's are of a high quality that you can't get any more today so if you have an old family stone a black Arkansas stone you ever see one man snatch it up usually they'll be in a really nice box but you'll note when you see it and if it's a little bit worn and needs resurfacing you know don't sweat that at all I'm also you know the Forest Service they don't get too carried away with sharpening their tools are are putting superfine edges on them they usually just go with a file for wildland firefighters or trail crews one of the pieces of equipment that they have to have on them is a good mil bastard file like this and you can put a wonderful edge on the tool with a file there's no reason why you can't it's not going to be super refined and super polished but it will get the job done but we're we're not going to be content with that we want a good edge on it also smaller stones are going to come in all different sizes I had several stones here for my granddad here's another one granddaddy used to take care of things when the boxes came apart he'd tape him up there's his old stone look at the wear on that this is a kind of a cool one broken off there look at that you see years and years of years and years of use in those things so also many of you have these I've recommended these for years and I think that this the lansky stone it's called a Lansky puck super affordable I've got these in my amazon store at Wranglers Wrangler Mart calm this is a great option because what it does is it is a really a durable stone because of the way that it's got the these champers cut in there and you don't if you're going to if you're a bush crafter or you like to take this with you out in the field it's really durable you can throw that in a pack and they just wears like iron and you've got a chorus on one side and you've got to find on the other and it fits really well on the hand and it's a great stone for sharpening it's a good all-around grand first books has something similar to this that they sell on their site but that's nothing wrong with that either you can you could put a fine edge on an X with this here also I mean there's some guys I don't know I've seen too much of this I mean there's of course there's the Japanese water stones which I have in these boxes here I'm not going to take them all out I don't know that I would that's a little bit too hard it's you know where a knife you take a knife knife to the stone take a knife to the stone and sharpen it but an ax or hatchet is bigger and it's kind of inconvenient it's hard it is for me anyway it's hard mean to take that accent hold to maintain that bevel it's it seems most I think most people will agree it's better to bring a stone to the boot to the blade right so now I can hold this nice and steady on my leg or thigh or on a stump and I can really control this angle that I can sharpen this way it's a it's a better way to go there a better way to go and this is great for a shop and field but my all-time favorite what I go to to sharpen my blades is I use these small stones here and I only have two of them and it's just fine and these are stones that I got from edge Pro Edge Pro sells these it's a knife sharpening outfit but these are Norton I'll see if I can find these I'll try to put these in the store as well they're not expensive I've got a medium grit and I've got a superfine and I like these the best because I've used them a lot you can see how much and I bought these well I don't know how long have I had these three years or so these are wonderful stones this one here is a little bit thinner this it's a little bit delicate but I'm careful with it and this is my favorite I like it because of the shape of it because I'm usually filing my or sharpening my axes and hatchets in a clamp like we're going to do here in a minute and I like the way I can control it I can sharpen like this here I can sharpen here can really see what I'm doing is easy to control and I love it it's it's my absolute favorite way to sharpen but whatever you have I've also I can do it with a file to whatever you have don't worry about it as long as you've got a stone and you can even use a square stone here I've done this did this for years here if you have an old old stone like this right there like that that's not too bad that's really not that much different the one I'm talking about with the these smaller stones right here big misnomer oil stones put that you want to put oil on a stone to cut it now that's true for some of the old Arkansas stones but it's not any oil this is specific oil and I'm not an expert on that but don't tip you don't want to use oil what does oil do it lubricates it prevents metal from wearing it prevents metal from wearing metal right so what are you trying to do what are you trying to accomplish when you're sharp when you're sharpening your ax you're trying to remove metal you don't want that lubricant in there that's slipping and sliding and preventing you from sharpening so the best thing to do to use is kerosene or diesel kerosene or diesel is really good and water works good too or spit on it if you're in the field that's all you have spit on it because what you need is you need something to carry away all of those particles that are going to fill up and clog your stone perfect example you can see right here this one here hasn't been clean since the last time I use it you see all that metal all the shavings and all those are all that's all metal from axe heads is not going to perform very well and you can feel it when you're sharpening if I sharpen right here you'll feel it really glazing and very smoothly but you'll feel that it's not cutting but here right there if you move it over you'll feel that Sam think that abrasiveness and also sandpaper if you have nothing more than sandpaper put sandpaper on a small block of wood a piece of fur a piece of pine you can get a fine edge with sandpaper - absolutely so I'm going to be using these today and let's go over and I'll show you how to check your angles and then we'll get started and then we'll take a look at the finished product and see how much better it was than when we started now it's been my experience with with decent quality axes stone Neely's ground force brooks council tools zest wing most of your major manufactures they're going to have a pretty good the profile on there is going to be pretty good what I mean by profile is that angle an angle what most people are going to agree on and and I mean the debate rages on has and always will is between 25 and 20 degrees that angle on there that's hard to determine how do you do that well you can go to the Forest Service as a sight under I think it's if you type in an ax to grind they have a really good video tutorial and they have a template that you can print out and cut it out with paper or you can make your own this is one here that I've made from a you know focus there we go made from a piece of hickory and I've got stamped on there 20 and a 25 well typically I like to a little bit narrower the edge at 20 degrees is going to be a little bit more brittle if you're cutting in really cold climate may not be the ideal or you have really hard naughty wood you might step that up to 20 to 23 even 25 splitting malls I'm going to use 25 usually but this is it as a nice tool to have and it just gives you a quick reference you can put that on there and check your profile and make sure that you conform to that not such a big issue when you get your your new axes that have have a decent grind on them but those of you guys that are restoring old ones or granddad's axe where someone has maybe abused it or or hasn't hasn't taken care of it properly or improperly filed it you can by using a tool like this you can get it back get it back going again so I've got a video I'll put on the end card of how to make this a detailed video so if you want to make one of these for yourself it's a nice gift and and it works good for your tools so once we've established the profile or the the angle which we have on here it's just what I like it we can go ahead and start working on the edge so if you didn't catch the first part of this video we covered how to look after your handle how to get the varnish off how to get all of that all sorted out talked a little bit about clamps a clamp like this several you pointed out I've got a clamp in a clamp and a clamp a triple clamp there I thought now let's it's interesting I'd like to have it up here close where I can work on it I like to work up here close you know right about chest height right here that's when I'm the best with my hands and it's easiest for me and and this getting these clamps raised up here like this works really good for me for that this is a very enjoyable process I I think axes restoring axes is a great hobby because it you don't have to have a lot of tools you can if you live in an apartment you can put something together enough to do the stuff at home or garage in it's not an expensive hobby and it's a very satisfying hobby and you're doing a good service you're restoring these old tools that otherwise they just go away and never be we'd just be lost to us forever so I keep a little kerosene kerosene or diesel whatever and there it's the best and I keep it handy here so I can keep keep wetting my stone and I'm going to just let me start working this edge now I know that my profile is pretty good because I've already checked it so what I'm looking for here is was I'm looking for the Polish and I'm watching right down to that fine inch make sure you have it get a lamp or get get good light on there so you can see everything really good and just moderate pressure and I'm going to kind of just I'm not going to worry about it too much but kind of keep track of how much time I spend on this edge and I want to spend about you know similar time on on the other end and this angle is going to be changing because I want to polish back aways I don't want to just work build up do a micro bevel on there a micro edge I want the whole thing to be polished so as it bites and cuts into the wood the smoother this this deal is the the easier it's going to go in the further it's going to bite and cut and the less likely you're going to have SAP and hitch and tan and affecting the blade and it's just going to be a finer to be a finally home honed precise tool that will cut good so I'll I'll work that back but I'm watching that polish and I'll roll down until I start to see I'm fecking that edge I'm just going to go back and forth oh I'll go down like this and as I work back I'll roll that angle up in them I'm rolling it this is if these stones or this medium stones not going to take a lot of material this is not like a file so if your angle is not perfect you know you're not going to do damage to your ax you're just going to continue to polish it and this being a factory edge of course we're going to have to work on it we're going to spend a lot of time up front on it because once we get this polish in it and we don't have to do that anymore providing we keep our ax out of the dirt and out of the rocks we'll just then we'll just be working on the wire edge and and we won't have to do this but it's coming along nice so this is this particular axis is a little prandial 'alien made ax this is the one that I'm sorry David this is taken so long my life has been Oh hectic and crazy with our traveling that I just haven't get gotten to this and I don't want to send it until it's absolutely perfect so I hope you don't mind if I just keep it a little bit longer and when you get it it'll be done right see all that you can see there how there's quite a bit of build-up there on the on the stone that's we're going to keep that diesel there but I keep it keep it in there keep sloshing it around it comes right off look how much how much it cleans off there really works good as soon as you get it off this is it this is really hold taking a nice edge I can see the wire on there now stones cutting really good because the diesel we're getting a nice polish on it and don't again don't try to kill yourself with trying to get a mere finish on it the first time it'll come it'll come when you continue to sharpen it over the years and decades and you before long you can I mean I I'll do it I have the time but if I don't but I know get to it the next few sharpening now that's looking really good they're clean that diesel off you can see we've got a starting to get a nice polish this is a medium this isn't our superfine but a really good I can just feel a little wire coming off that backside so now we'll flip it over I spend about five minutes or so on that we'll do the same on the other side you know what actually might be a better way of keeping track is I set set your timer so I okay well I'm going to work on this for five minutes or ten minutes whatever need be and then when that timer goes off flip it over and do the same thing on the other side just be consistent I think it's pretty easy to do and that way you get a get a nice even edge on there it's kind of funny when it's growing up I spent a lot of time with my grandfather we used to go he taught me Anaheim please to go hunting together and sharpening knives and a lot of the lot of the things that I share with you guys I learn from my dad and from my grand dad but he always sharpened everything with wets just an old-fashioned whetstone and you're the that I guess the thing it's so funny is I was always trying to find a better way I was kind of you know whether the latest greatest I remember getting a had to have this diamond diamond knife sharpener and I'd show grant my granddad you know because I wanted him to always wanted him to get his approval on everything because I looked up to him so much and he would be very patient and smile and never said he bad word but I noticed that he didn't adopt it he'd just go back to the way he'd always done things and using his old whetstone and I used to get frustrated with that thinking you know man he just you can't teach an old dog new tricks and all that but as I've gotten older and wiser I guess I think it's funny is that I've abandoned all almost all of those things and went back to the way he'd pick for the way he did things and I can see now you know why it's just for me it's just a better way it's the better way so happy Sabbath to everyone man today I look forward to more than anything a day of rest a date of time spent with family and it is nice for free if you know an interesting story if you ever been to the Grand Canyon if some of you who have been there have noticed to remember that they've got those little donkeys those little burros that will take guided tours down those steep trails to the to the bottom well years and years ago they used to run those donkey seven days a week because there was such a demand and they found that the donkeys weren't doing very well they weren't very healthy their lifes they didn't live very long and and it was really hard on them so they started giving them one day of rest work six days and one day off and everything changed dramatically they were happier healthier and just and more and they lived longer just it was the way that we were intended to live not only the animals but but for us as well so whether it is you keep the Sabbath or you take a day off on Sunday mark one day off get your family together and and resolve that we're not going to do any work that day we're going to have a day for family time a day for rest and relaxation and you know that it's good for the family it's good for the soul and something that you'll look forward to it's been a real blessing for our family I know that so there be additional parts to this and what else was there Oh wood stove we got some really exciting wood stuff going up we met the most fantastic guy in Portland who has a wood stove museum his name is buck I think I've spoke about this before but we're going to be doing some some videos with him he has got some fascinating things and really photos so look look forward to those coming so we'll see you guys on the next video you