I’M REALLY BAD AT SHARPENING BLADES

Although in a pinch I can sharpen (Kinda) a dull blade when in the outdoors, I am in no way good at it. In fact I am terrible at it. Free hand sharpening is something I have never mastered , truth be told not even close to it. I can get it to cut what I need but in the process I totally mess the blade up. Then its off to the local sharpening hero to save the day. This on my budget is not working for me. I needed to figure this out.

I have spent a lot of time online looking at videos and reading up on how to information. Which as a whole has improved my knowledge but not my physical ability to be successful at it. If you are suffering from this same melody as me , HOLD FAST. Help is available. Yep, found me a blade saver. No I did not stop using my knives and axes, although I was at the point of seriously considering this. Along with put your fancy blades on the wall for display, never to use and buy cheap throw aways …., Uh Huh I actually considered that.

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But as was usual for me, The budget came into play and even cheap knives would not save me. So I looked for other help that if affordable enough to save me money and agony in the long run is the way to go.

Oh yes ! after long hours scouring the web I came across the perfect solution. What caught my eye was the line “for the NOVICE and PROFESSIONAL. SIMPLE and cost effective.” ……BOOOM!!!. Clicked on that right away. And low and behold there it was. My life (and Budget) saver.

I had discovered the WORK SHARP WEBSITE. The joy! They have a wide range of sharpening tools for everybody and every use. From a basic field sharpener to a bench top full sharpening system. Like I said before the joy. I went straight to the for “for the NOVICE sharpening system”.

And bought it. Yes I considered the price and the long term saving. The Warranty on this is 42 years , Yes not a typo, they say 42 years. How they came up with that I do not know. Do I care , Not really. I doubt I will be concerned about the warranty after 10 years. Even on my budget.

So here it is. Truth be told, This all started with me attempting to clean up my Knives and Axes, in preparation for spring which, fingers crossed is starting to show up. I was simply wiping and oiling the blades and checking the handles and sheaths for damage etc. I was certainly not going to sharpen anything. That’s for sure. To my horror my new COLD STEEL TRAIL BOSS AXE was damaged . Yep. I had chipped the blade, pretty badly to say the least. How this happened I have no Idea. Needless to say this was not just your everyday touch up fix. It would need some serious work

Work which I felt I was not up too. That meant another ding to my budget. Not Good. So I started the whole previous research I talked about and now here I am. spending a little more than I wanted to, but with the idea that this will save me in the long run. So money spent and I waited in antisipation of my new purchase to arrive. Fortunately It arrived sooner than advertised and I immediately sprung into action.

I tore into the package, Quickly went through the contents and was extremely satisfied with the results so far of my long research time. When I decided to purchase this, I downloaded all the info from the website (www.worksharp.com). Greedly read it all and felt semi- prepared to “give it a go”

I was not going to get the AXE out and grind away. I decided to pull out my pocket partner, (EDC) always in my pocket, that is my Folding Buck. A blade I have owned for ^&%$ years. One that I had sharpened. (Well Kinda). It needed fixing after my many abusive attempts to sharpen. well,

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The joy, 30 mins later I had a new blade on my Buck. Well an old blade, finally sharpened correctly, as good as new again.

After the success, right out the box, first time at it. I decided I was now qualified to repair my TRAIL BOSS AXE. Ok mostly qualified.

How successful was I, well heres the visual story of my quest to repair my Trail Boss axe blade and the purchase I made to do that.

Happy viewing. Dont forget to leave a “yay or Nay” comment below.

Remember Knowledge and a little bit of research and elbow grease is a survival Skill.

Stay safe out there, and remember to leave no trace

The Novice Survivalist