Sharpening Tools.--A man will get through most work with his tools, if he
stops from time to time to sharpen them up. The son of Sirach says,
speaking of a carpenter--"If the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the
edge, then must he put to more strength; but wisdom is profitable to
direct."--Ecclesiasticus. A small fine file is very effectual in giving
an edge to tools of soft steel. It is a common error to suppose that the
best edge is given by grinding the sides of the tool until they meet at
an exceedingly acute angle. Such an edge would have no strength, and
would chip or bend directly. The proper way of sharpening a tool, is to
grind it until it is sufficiently thin, and then to give it an edge whose
sides are inclined to one another, about as much as those of the letter
V. The edge of a chisel is an obvious case in point; so also is the edge
of a butcher's knife, which is given by applying it to the steel at a
considerable inclination. A razor has only to cut hairs, and will
splinter if used to mend a pen, yet even a razor is shaped like a wedge,
that it may not receive too fine an edge when stropped with its face flat
upon the hone.
Nails, Substitutes for.--Lashings of raw hide supersede nails for almost
every purpose. It is perfectly marvellous how a gunstock, that has been
shattered into splinters, can be made as strong again as ever, by means
of raw hide sewn round it and left to dry; or by drawing the skin of an
ox's leg like a stocking over it.
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