If you ask how to sharpen an axe or how sharp an axe should be on the internet, you're going to get a lot of varied replies or information. I'm going to add to the confusion, as well state a few things that will make a collector cringe.
You can sharpen a wall hanger any way you like. Make it hairsplitting sharp and use it to shave.
You should not make a user
axe or hatchet shaving sharp! Yes, I just said that! The sharper and
thinner the edge of an axe is, the easier and more prone it will be to
chipping or possibly rolling. An axe should be sharp enough to cut paper, and that's all
that's needed. It merely needs to be able to chop and cut through wood
fibers. It does not need to help with manscaping.
Some
people like to reshape the axe head. There's nothing wrong with that,
but a user axe should be sort of wide at and behind the cheek. The
theory to thinning the cheek is for felling and making the edge
slice/cut into the wood better. To make chopping easier. But a thin axe
head isn't always the best for splitting. A wider cheek and butt make it
much easier to split wood. A wider cheek will cause the wood to septate
(split) easier. Look at a splitting maul and you'll see exactly what I
mean. So it's sort of a catch 22? No. Not really. I'll explain:
When
we head off into the woods to camp, the odds of felling a tree are
slim. Very slim. In fact, most states do not allow us to fell even dead
standing trees on public land. So in reality, felling can be removed from the
equation. This leaves us with possibly needing to buck and split laying
and downed trees. Bucking is more or less the same as felling. You want
to chop the log into reasonable size lengths to be able to split. But
now you open a new conundrum- it's difficult to split small pieces of
wood that do not have flat ends. The best way to fix this is to use a
saw to buck and an axe for felling and splitting. But, we're not talking
about saws here, are we?...
So what's the best options?
Loaded question. No right or wrong answer, but I will suggest using
something with a sort of thin bit, while the cheek widens a bit to force
easier splitting. Something like a convex angle to the cheek with a fair amount of depth to the cheek area. Sharpened enough to cut a sheet of
paper. This will offer a decent edge for both bucking and splitting.
Just my personal point of view from almost 5 decades of camping and using axes. Feel free to join the discussion over on the Firepit Outdoors Forum.
