This has always been my achilles heel even before i was interested in bowmaking. I've never been too good at sharpening tools, whether it be a hatchet,a knife, or a chisel when i was into carving. Now i was roughing out a maple sapling that i suspected was very hard or my axe was very dull. I took the axe to a green stave just to see and it didn't remove wood as it should. I take a file to the axe and try and grind it on a stone and it seemed to only get duller haha. Its an axe i bought from Ace hardware about a year or so ago, a camp axe.
I've read you can use a file, or only a stone. I usually file at the wrong angle, i suspect, so i am wondering if it is possible to sharpen an axe the same way you can a knife by just taking slicing cuts across a coarse stone then a fine. I'm also imagining, although my sharpening skills arent worth a penny, that the axe itself is making it more difficult to get a good edge.
Anyways im wondering what are your guy's method for sharpening an axe/hatchet. I could really use some help. Using a dull tool makes bowmaking a difficult,tedious task.
