and now what you've all been waiting for after significant abuse the time has come for the x10 Fiskars axe to be sharpened because it's really dull at the moment it's really really dull should probably clean from these wood first yeah lots of lots of cutting and splitting and even practicing on a log we'll do that eventually to any acts so how do you sharpen an axe I had to move the camera a bit because I didn't have enough space for that for the handle I was hitting the tripod what you do is like the knives you get the stones you start from the 500 grit stone like the most coarse stone and you hold the axe as near to the head as possible with one hand with the other you can hold it from the head and then you place it flat on the stone you tilt it a bit until you find the angle of its bevel and then you slide it in a way that in one motion until it goes off the stone it is sharpened all the length of the blade so you start with this on the stone this corner not exactly at the edge it's better if it's a bit inside so that it gets sharpened a bit more and then use you with some pressure you slide it now of course an axe is much harder to sharpen than a knife that it's very doable there's some wood coming off you have to remove it it's better if you remove it keep watering it so it's always wet three strokes already for five to make five also from the other side five now you can clean it a bit because may have like small pieces of wood and stuff water is a bit more and repeat it's an axe so it should need a fair bit of repetition quite a bit of repeating might be required to get it sharp again if it becomes dull because you just need to remove so much metal in an axis more metal than in a knife it doesn't matter if you goes too low as long as you go steady state is important and you know keeping the surface constantly attached to the stone speed doesn't really matter if you if you want to get a perfect edge you need to make a perfect sharpening or at least near perfect it's not going to be totally perfect ever I'm going to put it in the water again a bit because I want to wash off some small particles and they're the rubber the difficulty level for sharpening an axe I would say it's about double when compared to sharpening a survival knife and triple when compared to sharpening a kitchen knife that that would be how I would categorize it especially if you have many bears and many a lot of damage on the blade it gets harder and harder but we're going to do it if there is a point where you know the damage is more you should focus a bit more than that like with me like with most axes probably most more damage goes to the to the top side of the blade than to the bottom side that's natural because you know you tend to strike like this and not so much like this so it gets more damaged so you need to focus a little more on the top in order to get it straight and even again so the more I keep sharpening the more I see it becomes smooth and shining flat again so that's a very good sign of course and the other good thing with the access despite it being heavy and you know cumbersome and difficult to sharpen something that actually does help is that the bevel is very obvious and very very big and very clear you know so you cannot really miss the angle easily just need to keep a lot of pressure on it so that it doesn't jump up and down because it's very heavy and and for that reason it's actually we have to handle like this final stroke there you go now a basic sharpness has been achieved it's an axe and it still cuts the paper quite well hmm just when I said it no see I mean it's pretty good at the point at the moment but surely it's much better than it was when I started because it wasn't sharp at all at that point it really made it dull now it's sharp I can feel it on my on my finger but of course we're going to make it as sharp as possible if possible razor sharp so we tend to the thousand grit stone it's some water or niche and start sharpening it goes much more smoothly on the surface it's much more pleasant to sharpen here but you have to go through the rough surface first you have to first go through the rough stone and then continue with the more fine stone an important thing believe it or not in sharpening is imagination you need to imagine what you want to do in order to do it right you need to imagine the the angle you need to imagine the move the movement you need to imagine the result based first of all you know don't think so much in terms of this particular move and this particular path just think of the results and the moves will follow the moves will come naturally if you want to follow the bevel of the blade and you know you want to make a smooth move and all that you will do it just by thinking that you of the result so remember Mousasi Miyamoto's secret of success it wasn't that that he had you know read more stuff than others or that he had researched more in books it was that he was his main advice was always think to cut how to cut the enemy always think that I want to cut the enemy in every chance in every moment that was his Sakura success he was imagining it so hard that when the opportunity was coming he would take it or he would create the opportunity because that was constantly in his mind so yeah now the Navi ax is getting a knife like blade a knife like sharpness I can see it already the way it reflects the light it's becoming really smooth and really really sharp after a while we move to the 3000 grit sharpening stone and guess what proceed with sharpening again now this is way way more smooth at this point it's free to sharp it's pretty damn sharp straight on a longer piece of paper yeah it is very very sharp at this point and I mean it's an axe and it's this sharp it's a sharp as a knife but of course we will try to do it to make it a sharp as possible what we need is that there are color side of the sharpening stone and then sharpen it again you barely hear any friction here I'm trying to find a nice perfect angle and then here too the thing is you don't need too many strokes but you need good stroke you need them to be very well aligned with the blade and then this will make it have a razor-sharp edge and I believe our ox is ready so at this point it slides through the paper like it's nothing with no effort so this was sharpening an axe and specifically the Fiskars extend I hope you enjoyed have a good day