Estwing Hatchet Help

Use it as an excuse to buy a grinder.

Seriously, everyone needs a grinder.

I would contact Estwing & see about having them take care of it. I do agree about the grinder tho. Everyone needs one ( or 2)!

Or a good belt sander! Or a couple of good grinders AND a belt sander!

Check the phone book for saw blade sharpeners for starters.

Check the phone book for saw blade sharpeners for starters.

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This!!

And you don't want a grinder unless you want your new hatchet to look like somebody took a grinder to it!!!.

You want a belt sander.

It will do a course grind with a course belt.
And a shaving edge with a very fine belt.

And still look like new when you get done.

On the other hand, ax's & hatchets have been sharpened for century's by hand with a fine cut file & stones.

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment...lications/fs_publications/99232823/page15.cfm

rc

Belt sander then a set of stones.

I have the same carpenter's hatchet. I found it in my backyard where it looked like someone used it as a shovel instead of as a hatchet. The edge was actually rounded. I don't have a belt sander or grinder so I put it in a vise and sharpened it with a file and it works fine for its intended purpose. Just make sure you wear heavy gloves if you use a vise as its an easy thing to make contact with the edge with your fingers as you are running the file.

And that ain't no ****!



That was with a glove on BTW.

Grinders aren't a good way to do it. They take off too much material, and they hollow grind it at the same time, with is exactly the wrong way to shape an edge for wood cutting.

The edge should be convex, smoothly tapering at an increasing radius to the edge. That makes it rounded to the ouside, and as the edge is forced into the wood fibers, it spreads them and accelerates the shock - causing the wood to split along the grain. A hollow grind doesn't, it just gets stuck in the wood because it doesn't aggressively spread the wood fiber.

If anything, sharpening on a grinder is usually the worst thing to do - most grinders have heavy coarse wheels on them, they run too fast, removing far too much of the steel and heating it past it's temper. Just say no to grinders.

Best thing to get is a good quality 12 inch "mill bastard" file, which is a smooth cut file with a single cut diagonal tooth - not a crosscut. It shaves the excess steel off the higher slope of the edge, and runs the taper back into a fine line where it becomes sharp again.

Axes don't have to be razor sharp - none really have the steel and temper to hold that fine an edge, they would chip out. What they do in cutting is use the impact of a swing, which is why they need a lot of material behind the edge in a convex shape. A hollow ground edge is much weaker and prone to more chipping, plus gets stuck in a tough grain which prompts twisting it out - cracking it even worse.

File an axe, it lasts a lot longer than grinding away on one. So will a knife - hand stones are a better solution than power operated ones.

Scrounge a belt sander and carefully put it belly up in a bench vise, Use 120 grit because you are new at this and going too slow is better than cutting too fast. Have a bowl of water handy to dip the blade in as you go so it doesn`t over heat and damage the blade. Finish with a stone or puck.

120 grit doesn`t bite much at all, so as long as you are using the belt grinder correctly and have it secured in a cradle or vise you should be ok. Wear a dust mask and eye protection because the sander throws off everything from grit to steel to resin.

Fine, use it as an excuse to get a grinder, belt sander, bastard file, and a set of stones.

+1 on the belt sander upside down in a vice. I've used mine for everything from shovels (weed choppers) to axes and machetes. I don't remember what I paid for mine, but probably under $50 at a big box store. The water bucket is critical, easy to overheat expecially when the edge gets thin.

I would clamp the axe in a vice, not the sander. Or use a stationary belt sander, start coarse then fine, keep a good angle (35 degree) on the edge not like a knife (15 degree), you don't want it to chip!

QUOTE And you don't want a grinder unless you want your new hatchet to look like somebody took a grinder to it!!!.

.......................

Question:

Mine also came dull, but I always thought this was a working edge so it wouldn't be prone to chipping? Is this wrong?

My guess is, they ship them sort of dull to keep every dummy that runs his thumb over the edge in the store from getting sliced open like the one in post #10.

And / or slicing pieces off the leather sheath putting them back in, before not buying them.

Clean-up in the hatchet aisle, don'tca know!!!

Paul Bunyan shaved with his ax.
And I imagine most of those Collage Lumberjack champions you see on the TV show could too if they wanted too.

rc

Funny guys.

A file or fine stone is what the old boys used, and they took them into the woods with them to keep them sharp during breaks.

http://www.wikihow.com/Sharpen-an-Axe
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22814
http://www.raymears.com/Woodlore/Bushcraft_Tips_And_Advice.cfm/11-How-to-Sharpen-an-Axe/
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment...lications/fs_publications/99232823/page15.cfm
https://lansky.com/index.php/blog/how-to-sharpen-an-axe-in-the-field/


If - if - there are huge chips, gouges, and nicks in the edge, a grinder or belt sander is good to get things back into shape - but not to get it sharp. One thing every pro mentions about the grinder is that it will take off too much material in the wrong place too fast, and it will overheat the steel and ruin the temper. Then you wind up filing a lot of soft steel into shape, which deforms, chips, and gets gouged again. Recipe for disaster.

Grinders are the last thing to recommend, and if the axe is that badly damaged, it might well be better to get a new one. File it from new, and it won't get that bad.

Yo Mama said:

Question:

Mine also came dull, but I always thought this was a working edge so it wouldn't be prone to chipping? Is this wrong?

Click to expand...

A working edge for most axes should be hair poppin' sharp to start, IME.



I use a belt grinder for most of my axe sharpening. Field maintenance is with either a DMT diamond hone or a double cut handy file depending on requirements.

I carried an Estwing carpenter's hatchet for short time when I was framing houses. I traded it for a Plumb that was two ounces lighter, went back to the Estwing, then abandoned the idea altogether and bought a Vaughn framing hammer. The axes were just too heavy to use as hammers. I guess it took me three months to come to that conclusion.

The first thing my foreman did when I showed up with my shiny-new hatchet was to ask to see it. He immediately ran over to a concrete cleanout pile and chopped it into rubble. He handed the hatchet back to me and explained that greenhorns don't use sharp axes on his crew; he'd let me sharpen it after I began to show some proficiency with it, and didn't hurt myself or others while surmounting the learning curve. He was wise.

In still have both those hatchets, and use them for hatchet stuff, so they are kept sharp with a handy file and a puck stone.

Belt sander for major sharpening work. File/stones for touch ups.

I betcha Tirod has sharpened a few axes, a mill bastard file and a stone will make that Eastwing cut through tree limbs like hot butter.

They have some great steel in those axes, I have the small axe not the hand axe, the blade on it is thin and SHARP used for limbing only.

Electric grinders, belt sanders used without caution are good ways to ruin a good blade.

An old foot powdered grind stone with plenty of water to reduce over heating, is the best
way to quickly remove excess material.

A file is slower than the grindstone but a lot kinder to the bit. Once the edge is defined then the hand stone, usually a round one with course and fine sides is used to finish the edge.

dagger dog said:

They have some great steel in those axes

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It is 1055.

Sam,

I'm totally ignorant when it comes to the #'s that are used to describe steel alloys used for cutlery.

The Eastwing axe in my possession doesn't seem to be a stainless but rather a high carbon alloy similar to Buck, or Swiss army knife blades.

I usually have trouble keeping the edge from crumbling away with most harder stainless,(high nickel content ?) blades.

Do you know the make up, in lay terms ,of the 1055 alloy ?