On 6/8/2017 10:48 AM, Ed Minch wrote:
> Worked on my uncle’s tree farm fro 11 years starting at age 11.  We were
taught just as Qrchie says - use your file to bevel the outside edge, leaving
the back flat.  Sharpen 2-3 times a day.
I am the youngest of 9 kids.  My dad (born in 1894), who had been reared 
in an orphanage, kept a home vegetable garden of a quarter acre or more 
from the late '20s into the mid '50s.  I spent many hours before I was 
old enough for school with him 'tending' the garden (which mostly meant 
staying out of it but fetching tools or water or whatever).  One thing I 
remember is how he cared for his tools.  After the main part of the 
growing season was over and the winter garden had been planted, he would 
sharpen hoes, shovels, and other implements he used.  I don't recall 
whether or not he honed both sides of a hoe blade, but I suspect he only 
did the inner face.  What I do remember clearly is that he would clean 
up both faces of shovels, hoes, mattocks, etc. and would actually put 
beeswax on them.  He also wiped down all wooden handles with boiled 
linseed oil.  I still have some of those tools with handles intact all 
these years later and use them.

Bob Hutchins
Temple, TX USA