>>1955451>>1955407I'll usually use a belt for stropping axes in my shed, but its essentially the same concept in the field. I take the pocket strop I've made (I only carry the strop loaded with green compound as part of a field kit, the emery compound is mainly used on knives) and push it towards and off the edge of the axe, working my way from heel to toe. Ill usually set an arbitrary number like 100, count the strokes ensuring Im using even pressure all the way down and up the edge, and flip it over to repeat the process on the other side once I reach that number.
That being said, a strop isn't necessary for axes in my opinion, and you can get away with just a file a lot of the time. I like to carve with hatchets though (and I enjoy the process of sharpening axes as a whole) so, outside of splitting axes, I always get them shaving sharp if I'm sitting down and putting a stone to them.
