Axe Refurbishing WIP: Sharpening

Probably wasn't the best idea to sharpen the axe before making the sheath since now I have a 3lb razor lying on a table somewhere, but I was getting impatient and am still waiting on my drill press for putting holes on the leather...the number of speed bumps in the project are too many to count but I shall put something up on that once it's finished...eventually.

I initially try sharpening using a file, followed by sandpaper on a quartz block and Japanese water stones, but that yielded less than satisfactory results since the edge itself was going to be convex and well, it's pretty difficult to make a curved surface consistent on something flat - it was a square peg round hole moment. Plan B, I made up this sharpening jig for getting convex edges and used that in lieu of the quartz block. It's made from a 12" x 12" x 3/8" granite block with a piece of high friction foam mat stuck to it, and some pieces underneath to keep it from slipping on the table. It was surprisingly effective, and has about the same amount of flex as a mouse pad, just bigger and a little thinner. 

My sharpening setup - I use Windex as a cutting fluid to keep dust to a minimum and I wrapped a towel around the upper part of the handle to keep it from getting too grimy - wouldn't want to be going back and refinishing the handle now would I <shifty eyes> 

Convex sharpening pad - the mat is about 1/8" 

From the filed finish I took the edge through 120 grit, 180, 220, 400, 600, and 2000 grit wet dry (had to jump as I ran out of 1000). 

filed finish - I forgot to take pictures of the other grits , but you get the idea 

I then gave the edge a quick buff with some black compound following 2000 grit to blend the scratch pattern given how horrifying it looked before, and it was onto the 8000 grit water stone - I decided to just put a micro bevel on it to strengthen the edge and spare myself from working up from 800 grit to 4000 to 8000 on the primary bevel. I have no idea what the angle is right now but I'm willing to guess somewhere around 40 degrees inclusive..maybe...it seems to be similar to the edge profiles you see on a Gransfors or Wetterlings, so it's so far so good.

8000 grit microbevel - getting shiny! 

After the water stone - I stropped the edge on a newspaper charged with some green chromium oxide compound I had to get a hair shaving sharp edge. I would say that the stropping was overkill - but I would think that many would say I should have just stopped after filing haha.

And now for the final test - I get some sick sense of satisfaction when I sharpen something and can do that to paper < laughs maniacally> .