"-MIKE-" wrote in message
...
So? Do you keep an axe scary sharp like a knife or not, because there's
too much force applied to the blade?
I'm talking about an axe, not a splitting wedge.


Well.... I generally sharpen my axe, hatchet and machete "shaving sharp..."
I want them to cut and stick, not whack and bounce. A dull one of any of
them can be down right dangerous. As needed, I do a relief grind on a slow
speed grinder or water grinder. The machete is finished with a buffing wheel
and the others on Arkansas stones. My intent is to keep these tools out of
the dirt. On that note though, I've encountered embedded dirt, rocks, barded
wire, bullets, and other things in trees.

If I'm chopping roots I use a sharpened Cutter Mattock (e.g.,
http://www.easydigging.com/Garden_To...k_mattock.html. This is sharpened
on the grinder only... it's cutting in dirt after all!

The right tool and a sharp tool make the job easier and safer!

John

BTW, I sharpen my shovels, post hole digger, and other gardening/digging
tools on a grinder also... I don't personally know of anyone else that does
that today but do recall back in the 1960s an elderly man whom had
apprenticed as a blacksmith as a child in Poland who did so. He came to the
US after WWII and had acres of hand turned, and maintained vegetable
gardens. I recall watching him cutting fields with a scythe! He had a stone
in his pocket to keep that sharp too.