This is a family forum, I cannot repeat what I have said, would have said, even if I first said it, and them said something else before I wanted to say what was really necessary to catch someone's attention. Even if I was talking to John Kerry:D

Basically I never cut anything on the ground when I am splitting wood. If I wanted to ding up my splitter I would ask the Team Sergeant to split .45 caliber slugs on it by firing at it with his pistol. The log that I am going to split is elevated usually on a large cut log firmly seated on the ground and cut square and flat so that the log to be split sits well balanced so I do not have to do a series of rotations trying to find the best splitting angle. Also I do not use an ax to split wood but a maul/wood spittler with a long handle. I do not want to dull the blade of my double bit using it to split wood.

And you thought I didn't read this forum:lifter

Jack, Good advice on setting up for splitting. Your right about splitting with an axe, especially a double bit because it's very a very thin blade made for cutting across grain into standing timber. A single bit axe is usually thicker in the pole thus aiding splitting if it must be used for such. I've gotten used to making my single bit axes do everything but also reach for one of the heavy mauls for splitting, then hand it to my son. :D
If I had only one axe to pack into the woods for all non-logging uses, it would be a single bit.

Never doubted for a moment that you read all here, just had to check.

Agree bit also like C-4 as a bonus item. That way you also get great kindling:D

Sharpening Frustration
 

Some full disclosure here,

I get frustrated all the time when I'm sharpening for various reasons like, "this isn't going fast enough" or "crap, I really got this steel too hard" or "damn, I missed the sharpening bevel angle" or "Sh*t, my fingers just slipped along the top edge of this double sided blade".

Sharpening is always this way for me, the key is to keep trying, every time until the job is done.

It's not all champagne and caviar around here either.

Hmmm....timely. I was just looking at the Chef's Choice 130 electric sharpener. I will now instead, in the words of Lone Watie, "endeavor to persevere."

Great quote, from one of my favorite movies.

TR

The wife brought home...I can't even remember the title, I've pushed it out of my mind...the gay cowboy movie. Made it halfway through and I couldn't take it any more -- I had to watch Outlaw Josie Wales and Ulzana's Raid back-to-back.

Mugwump,
While your working at sharpening...
I just hand sharpened a batch of knives today on the stone and noticed a small detail (that I've always dealt with as a matter of standard procedure but never articulated before) that may be of help:
When you get some small steel chips coming off the blade onto the stone use more WD-40 and a paper towel to wipe them off. Then put more WD-40 on the stone and keep going.

If one continues sharpening with these hard steel chips on the stone they, being the same hardness as the blade, make little micro flat spots on your edge as you run over them again and again.

Mr. Harsey...

So comforting to hear you admit that. I began to believe that I was going to require a ride on the short bus to a sharpening school for the gifted.

I've only used my Spyderco Tri-Angle sharpener in the past. I haven't purchased the stones that you've mentioned yet, but I did try my DMT diamond whetstones recently and have had many trials and frustrations with them. I must say, though, that after much patient practice, I am able to get my knives to hair-popping sharpness finally. I can't imagine how these things will cut when I finally break down and buy the stones that you suggest.

This is good info...thanks!!!

Bill, thanks for this. After practicing on the kitchen knives I'm finally ready to sharpen my Uncle Ray's WWII KA-BAR. A while back, he asked me to put an edge onto it and pass it on to a young man in the field -- it's headed off to my Godson. It'll be hand delivered, that knife has soaked up a lot of history.

That's a very honorable thing to do.



I've always said, it's "Mom, The American Flag, KA-BAR and Apple pie" in terms of things to never speak ill of.

Ray was a very honorable and modest man who led a helluva good life. Many moons ago, I got smart enough to try to emulate him -- my life has gone a lot smoother since. :)

Sharpening Demonstration
 

A few days ago I had some shop guests who asked to see me sharpen a knife. A brief search turned up no dull or damaged knives to sharpen so I pulled a scrapped, fully heat treated 4140 steel, .30 caliber rifle barrel from under the bench and put it in the vise.
Next I took a very good condition prototype 6.5 inch CPM S-30V blade and started taking thin shavings off the rifle barrel.
This wasn't damaging the blade enough to make sharpening difficult so the next step was to chop straight down into the rifle barrel putting a series of nice cuts across the top of the barrel steel and doing some visible damage to the blades sharpening bevel in the form of fine nicks and chips.

Now we had a knife that all agreed needed some sharpening.

The rifle barrel was taken out of the wood jawed vise and the Norton two sided stone was clamped into place. Using the medium Carborundum (silicon carbide, colored grey/black)) side of the stone, I oiled it up with WD-40 and started sharpening. Lots of WD-40 works well too.

The Norton Carborundum side cuts pretty quick and is a friable surface which means it breaks down fast continually exposing fresh sharp silicon carbide particle edges of the stone to your steel. This is also a good place to be very sure of your sharpening technique so you don't dig grooves in your stone.

After getting all but a single remaining micro chip sharpened out of the blade, the stone was turned over to the "Fine India" side and the final sharpening work finished resulting in a blade that would slice note book paper from top to bottom.

The sharpening took about 15 minutes which is a long time for a single blade but it showed my visiting dignitaries that a blade with real problems could be restored to it's original high sharpness by use of stones without having to use a belt grinder.

Silicon Carbide Names...
 

The correct term for the fast cutting Norton silicon carbide stone I use is, "Norton Crystolon, medium".

In 1893 a man named Edward Goodrich Acheson invented and recieved the United States patent for the process by which silicon carbide is made, he then went on to invent and patent the oven that did this.
His patents are recognized as some of the most important patents resposible for the modern industrial age because these abrasives could cut hard steel to high accuracy in machine processes. The name of Mr. Achesons silicon carbide was "Carborundum".

Sometimes I get confused.

Street Light Bulb
 

Forgive me if I did not see this in the previous post but I thought I might run this by ya'll. Have any of ya'll used a street light bulb? I have a Cold Steel Recon 1 tanto that I carry everyday and the light bulb makes it razor sharp after a few hits. If anyone knows why this thing works please let me know. Thanks-