I have a bad habit of splitting my kindling on the hearthstone, and occasionally the hatchet dives clear through the wood and bounces off the hard flat stone. This is not very friendly to the blade, so every now and then I have to sharpen the hatchet. (The last time I did so was probably five years ago. I’m a busy guy.) The whetstone is a round dealy-bob, and I think one side is rougher than the other, and I also think I am not the most professional hatchet-sharpener known to man. I don’t remember the knife-sharpening lessons of my boy-scout days, so I just do the best I can. (That’s the case in most things I undertake.) It takes a while to sharpen out those flat spots where the blade has met the stone, but with a little effort it works out fine.

Here Jacob is helping me out. (I try not to split kindling when he’s close by.)

My method is as easy as one-two. (Sorry my hand is blocking the view.) 1, I get the stone wet (Why don’t they call it a wet-stone?). The manly way to do this is to spit on it. That’s gross, and it doesn’t get the stone very wet. So I run it under the faucet for a second. 2, I run the stone around and around on the blade until the flat spots disappear from the metal and the blade is sharp.

That’s it. The hatchet works a lot better now. Watch your fingers, Jacob.