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General Information on Sharpening
Axes & Adzes

  
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Typical Grinding Media Used

250+ micron abrasives

Preferred

  • Angle grinder with sandpaper flap disc, 60-80 grit
  • 10” machinist’s hand file, bastard double cut

Tormek

  • SB-250 Original Grindstone, graded course
  • DC-250 Diamond Wheel Course

Sorby ProEdge

  • 60 grit ProEdge Zirconium Belt

Benchtop High Speed Grinder

  • CBN wheel : <100 grit
  • Very friable grindstone : <100 grit (not recommended)

Shaping the Tool

Axes are typically only reshaped once in their lifetime. And that happens when the woodsman gets the tool from the manufacturer and adjusts it to their own preferences.

Typical Grinding Media Used

40-250 micron abrasives

Preferred

  • 8” machinist’s hand file, second cut
  • 8” machinist’s hand file, smooth, single cut

Tormek

  • SB-250 Black Grindstone, graded fine
  • DF-250 Diamond Wheel Fine

Sorby ProEdge

  • 120 grit ProEdge Zirconium Belt
  • Pedia ProEdge Diamond Belt
  • 600 grit ProEdge Trizact Belt

Benchtop High Speed Grinder

  • CBN wheel : 150-180 grit
  • Very friable grindstone : 150-180 grit (not recommended)

Sharpening the Tool

Axes should be resharpened at the start of the day, and as often as needed. Very hard woods and teenage sons can certainly shorten the time before the tool needs to be resharpened.

Typical Grinding Media Used

11 - 40 micron abrasives

Tormek

  • DE-250 Diamond Wheel Extra Fine
  • CW-220 Composite Honing Wheel
  • LA-220 Leather Honing Wheel with the honing compound
  • SJ-250 Japanese Waterstone

Sorby ProEdge

  • 3,000 grit ProEdge Trizact Belt

Other

  • Paper wheel with a honing compound or diamond honing paste
  • High grit (800-1,000 grit) diamond plate

Honing the Tool

Carving with axes greatly benefits from honing the cutting edge.

As with turners, there are others who sharpen and hone; and then they re-hone again as much as possible (rather than resharpening each time) using a diamond plate.

My experience has been that rough cutting can be done using a tool which is not honed; however the final cuts should be done with a tool which is honed. This provides for a smoother surface which requires less sanding (as sanding is the verb form of a 4-letter word !).

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Honing and stropping to remove the burr

Also, a well honed tool surface is a great benefit for woods with tight grains or which are very hard.

Note: When honing or stropping, the side to start on is the one where the grinding was last done. If you start on the other side, the burr will get ripped off and you will probably have to re-grind the edge.

Dr. Larrin Thomas’ book, Knife Engineering: Steel, Heat Treating, and Geometry (2025), discusses burr removal quite well.