>>180039Never use an electric high–speed dry bench grinder to sharpen your ax. That type of
a grinder will almost certainly draw the temper from the ax and ruin it. Very few people
have enough skill to use a high–speed grinder without drawing the temper from the
steel, leaving the steel too soft to hold an edge.
The only grindstone that I recommend is one of the old–style pedal grindstones that
stay wet with a constant application of water to the stone. If you draw the temper from
your ax with a high–speed grinder, you may have ruined the ax for good.
At the minimum, you've drawn the temper for at least 3/16 of an inch back from the edge.
You can always tell when the temper is drawn because the color of the steel at the edge
turns blue. If this happens to your ax, you've got to remove a lot of steel to reshape the
edge back to where it still is tempered. If you use a pedal grindstone, keep it wet, and
always rotate the grindstone toward you and into the ax, not away from it.
If you don't have a pedal grindstone, your options are limited to a file and whetstone.
This is how most quality ax sharpening is done today. Few stores carry pedal grindstones.
Wear leather gloves (Figure 63) throughout the sharpening process, as the ax will become
razor–sharp.
Figure 63 –Tools for sharpening (clockwise from top left) include leather gloves;
ax–bit width gauges; 8–inch, 10–inch, and 12–inch mill bastard files; Carborundum
scythe stone; Carbor–undum ax stone; file card; and grooved Carborundum sharpening
stone. Natural Arkansas sharpening stones also work.
