I remembered a modern anecdote about a conversation between father and son:
- Dad, don't say homemade anymore. Need to say - "craft"!
- Smart guy, take a craft shovel in your hands and let's go mine potatoes.
Probably, there is no man who never holds a shovel in his hands! From an early age, my grandfather and grandmother constantly took me by the greaves and kicked me off to the dacha to dig a vegetable garden.
Even then, I knew how not only to dig, but even to sharpen this inventory with a file! Alas, the Bulgarian was then very rare ...
But it turns out there are those who have never sharpened a garden tool, and moreover, do not know what to do... Several months ago, new neighbors appeared along our street, who came from the metropolis. A neighbor yesterday started digging a hole behind the yard for concrete rings for a drainage well ...
... digs and spits, they say, the ground is dense, the bayonet does not go deep. So I gave him advice that you need to at least sharpen the tool you just bought! Thereafter, the earthworks were completed in a few hours.
So, until recently, I sharpened both hoes and shovels with a sharpener, and when I was too lazy to get it (lies far away, I rarely use it), took a grinder and quickly passed it along the blade of a garden tool:
But, this method has a drawback, firstly, such a sharpening quickly becomes blunt, and secondly, the bayonet is quickly grinded, and accordingly shortened. That is why it is preferable to sharpen chains of chainsaws with a file, although there are craftsmen who sharpen with a grinder.
Blacksmith's advice
There is a very good way to sharpen the shovel so that it does not dull for a very long time. And it turns out that in the old days they sharpened their braids, which were blunt very slow. A blacksmith two years ago showed me how to do it ...
... all you need is a hammer and an anvil! Just kidding, it is not necessary, the main thing is a hard hard surface, for example a second hammer!
This sharpening method is called by work hardening! With this method, the metal is crumpled and its structure is strongly compacted, the cutting edge becomes incredibly rigid and much less blunt.
This is done as follows ...
If the steel is soft (low-quality), then the edge is beaten off by the flat part of the hammer head (striker), if the steel is strong (spring or rail), then the shovel is beaten off by the pointed part (toe).
Hard work is done cold, you do not need to heat the bayonet in coals, since there is a high risk of burning the handle, since it is impossible to heat only the cutting part, all steel will be red-hot canvas.
In the process of work, it is important not to overdo it and not to "thin out" the metal, otherwise jags will appear that bend and impede work.
The method is simple and really working, because it is not for nothing that braids were sharpened just like that before! There is only one drawback, you need to plug your ears, because the hardening itself is very sonorous :-))) But, it's worth it! Trust me!
I hope the article was useful to you!
Thanks!
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