OK, that's what I do. I guess I'm doing alright then.

I filed the edge of the S&N axe a little bit - not too much - maybe back about 1/4" - and then finished it off with a hockey puck-shaped stone.

I've never owned a Hudson bay style axe before. Clearly they are more suited for chopping & cutting than splitting, since the handle would get in the way of splitting larger wood. But then again, when I need to split wood I'll use the maul anyway.

With use by the Scouts in my son's troop in mind, I actually also just bought a fullsize fiberglass-handle 34" 3.5 lb Truper Axe and a fiberglass-handle 34" 6 lb Maul from Northerntool.com. I got the axe, but the maul will be a bit delayed. Very nice for only $15 each. At that cost they can do some damage to them (all too likely) without me breaking a sweat. I did quite a bit of filing on the Truper axe to bring the thickness of the edge down - back about 1/2" - and finished it off with the stone.

To this point they've really only used hand axes (hatchets). My goal is to teach them how to use/swing a fullsized axe (and maul) too. When I was a kid in Scouts (loooong ago) we only used a fullsize axe.

Here are the Truper axe & maul for those interested:
http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200325123_200325123

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200325115_200325115

I noticed that the Scouts spend much more time splitting logs than they do chopping. I want to teach them to use a maul for that - rather than an axe. I'm not sure how the younger Scouts will handle the 6 lb maul, but we'll see. (The S&N axe & maul are for my use - not the Scouts)

Oh, one more thing ... I'm new to mauls and I didn't know that they have mallets on the backside of the heads. Cool! Does anyone know if they're designed more for striking other stuff, or more for being struck? Or both? Or does it matter? Just curious.

One of the coarser diamond-type knife sharpeners does wonders for my old axe.

I am very interested in the S & N Hudson Bay axe (mostly because I am a menace to myself and others with a hatchet), but the old one seems to fill the bill well enough that I haven't found it in me to part with the cash for the S & N.

I found the axehead under the back porch of a house I owned a while back. It wasn't much more than a hunk of rust at the time, but I dropped it in a pan of used engine oil that I hadn't gotten around to taking to the dump station yet. After a couple of days, I was able to get all the surface rust off and fit it to a new handle. I spent an hour on the edge with a file and coarse stone, and I've been pretty happy with it ever since. It's a "Michigan" pattern, or close to it, and probably weighed 3 1/2 pounds when new. It's probably a quarter of a pound less now due to repeated sharpenings, so I would guess it was all of 50 years old when I found it. It holds its edge well and the balance is pretty good, or I'm just very used to it.

I finally got the varnish sanded off the heads...it's not all off but it's off enough not to bind in wood and not to gum up my sharpening gear.

I just sharpened the Maul and man had I forgotten how much I hate sharpening that hard axe steel.

My mill file was a bit worn but eventually I got the bevels even. I was surprised at how rough the factory grind was for a hand tooled piece but I understand good axes rarely come sharp (I found some rivet dents in the edge from shipping anyhow...that might be why?)

After I was satisfied with the angle I went over it with my diamond file (the style that's a perforated thin metal on a plastic base) and after about 10 minutes it broke. I went back to the file and then to one of the coarse rods from my Sharpmaker.

If it were a knife I'd still be working on it but it will push through a 24lb sheet of copy paper...pretty good for a 3lb. maul.

Now for the real work. The edge on the kindling axe isn't much better and I'd like to put a more narrow profile on it for chopping. Add to that the fact that it has twice the edge length and I'm in for a long night I think. Ideally I'd like to be able to use the Sharpmaker to touch it up but I don't know if I want to go that narrow. I guess I'll start filing and play it by ear as I cramp up.

One more thing. I'm tossing my Gerber axe stone. I tried it after the file and it's not up to grinding down this steel. After just one minute there was a large pile of dust from the stone and the surface was already cupping.

I know I told you all that I don't think axes need to be as sharp as knives but I can't wait to see how sharp I can get this axe. It has a very concave profile and is just begging for a nice polished edge.