Hello ladies and gentlemen
First time I see this forum, but seem interesting! and sry for my poor english, i'm from Québec
I've done ice climbing only one time but i think i can answer your question;P
first off, there have been lot of thing completly wrong said in the thread, so i'll try to replace everything so no one scrap their axe or crampons!
Btw I studied in mechanical engeneering but i'm now full-time armorer (medieval armour and blades), you can see some of my stuff at
http://www.armoury.org
Thing you DONT want to do:
Annealing: Softening the steel by heating it red hot and letting cool VERY slowly (something like 24hour)
Normalizing: Softening the steel by heating it red hot and letting cool in air
Quenching: Heating to red hot then quenching in proper fluid (water,oil,liquid salt. depending on alloys)
***Tempering: Reducing the hardness (After the steel being heat red-hot and quenched) to the desirable hardness, all your tools are tempered(unless this is alloy that are quite hard even as-rolled), to something like 40-45 HRc (knife and file are higher...55-60) for most alloy this is done my heating the steel to something like 600 F.
If you are starting to temper your piece, the steel will show color (wich is a good way to judge temperature as every color correspond to a temp.) but you dont want to see color. With most grinding method this will not be a problem for light sharpening, if you can hold your hand on it, this will not be too hot.
However, for most *sharpening* (not shaping) a bench grinder is most likely to remove metal too quickly to get uniform surface, unless you have a belt grinder with flat portion. File are precise and well enought stock removing capacity for good sharpening. Water-cooled grinder probably have very fine grit making them good for sharpening, however you are quite limited in the area you can reach
If you want to do a really good job, follow the file by sand paper backed by a flat surface, going from 100 to 600 grit with 2-3 step between , you can get an edge that will be shaving sharp. but i doubt this would be of any use on ice
of course this is a very basic explanation, if you have any question i'll do my best to help you on this subject....as for other subject, i hope you will answer my tons of questions:P
Guillaume Côté
