Overview
Our sharpening service will provide a good serviceable edge on the blade. The result is typically “very sharp” with a small secondary bevel and a bit of an “apple seed” profile. The resulting edge is somewhat dependent on the particular blade. Some blades will take and hold sharper edges than others and the thickness of the blade will determine how wide the bevel will need to be. We adjust the angle of the edge to suit the specific blade and attempt to get as close to a bevel-less edge as possible without marring the surface of the blade.
The Sharpening Process
The sharpening service is done with a belt sander. The process involves many passes with sanding belts of various grits. The blades are rested between passes to prevent them from becoming hot and damaging their temper. By default we will sharpen as much of the blade as possible including any false edges if appropriate. If you have a different preference, feel free to make that request in the special instructions at check out. We can sharpen only the last half or third of an edge, for example. Our sword sharpening expert has personally sharpened several thousand swords at this point, so will provide you with a professional service.
What the Service is Not
The resulting edge will be “sword sharp” not razor sharp. Our goal is to provide you with a usable edge for cutting practice that will hold up to some use and not require constant re-sharpening. In other words, we intend to provide you with a serviceable weapon, not a personal grooming implement. The service will not provide a completely bevel-less edge. To create that type of edge will necessarily scratch up the blade surface and we lack the machinery and time to provide a full re-polishing of a blade’s surface. A service of that nature would be significantly more expensive as a great deal more time would be required. We do not offer this type of service at this time.
Disclaimer
We make no guarantee that the resulting edge will meet with your expectations. Every blade is different and some will take and hold a sharper edge than others, due to the blade material, heat treatment or geometry. Some customers can also have incorrect assumptions about sword sharpness and improper expectations as a result. All we can say for sure is that the resulting edge will be sharper than the default edge, in most cases, significantly so. We can not provide any refunds for the service once it has been completed, so consider it to be provided “as is”. That being said, if you are unhappy with the product for any reason, we do still allow you to return the item for a full refund, including the sharpening costs under our normal return policy. This does not apply to special sharpening requests, for example if we sharpen something specially for you that does not normally list that option on our site. The vast majority of our customers are happy with the results of the service, so as long as you keep the above mentioned in mind, we are confident you will be pleased with the results as well.
Drew A. –
Strong pole axe Great piece. Nice detail and well built. The square handle is different but seems to help with the we apon rolling when striking a target.
William Dezoma –
Strong and Beautiful This polearm has incredible strength and wonderful elegance of design. It manages to look both menacing and lovely. I sometimes wish it had a longer shaft so it could function as an honest halberd, but it makes a wonderful poleaxe.
Anthony D. –
Very Nice Poleaxe Initial reactions — This Pole axe is pretty big, pretty solid, and very stabby. The square handle is a bit odd and feels a little clumsy, but I imagine sanding it down a bit will help with that issue. Really liked the addition of the buttcap as well.
I bought a “munitions” grade special. For the life of me, if there’s a flaw I can’t find it.
Shipping was very good. As always, a pleasure.
Kasey –
RESPONSE TO ANTHONY D:
Back in medieval times, there was a good reason that poleaxes, halberds, warhammers and similar weapons had square wooden shafts instead of round ones. And that reason is the following:
Amidst the frantic chaos of battle, it was the squareness of the shaft that allowed the weapon’s wielder to chop and cleave with proper edge alignment on target because a round-shafted pole arm might roll in the hand on impact with the enemy’s body mass or armor due to the resisting impact-stress and shock.
Think about it, assuming you’ve ever chopped wood;
Even with a typical lock splitting axe’s ovular handle profile, the axe will spontaneously twist in your hand sometimes with every other chop of the axe head into a given log. So, to try and avoid this flaw in battle when wielding a polearm such as a poleaxe or halberd, every major military superpower in the middle ages that used them designed one with a square-sided pole shaft so that the wielder may easily know exactly which direction the cutting and stabbing surfaces of his weapon were facing on their way to the target, as well as to ensure that the powerful resistance created at the moment of impact would not force the weapon to twist in the wielder’s hands thus resulting in an inferior blow to the enemy.
Thank you.