Unlike metal cutting edges, putty knives are dressed by filing the edge flat and square to the face of the blade.
Hold the file perpendicular to the blade and square it up and remove nicks. Also lay the file flat on the blade and deburr both sides.
Finish with a light sanding with very fine sand paper like 400 or finer.
On shovels, I learned to sharpen them from a guy in his 80's back in the 80's. He was so old there were places on maps named for him. He worked on the Hoover Dam.
Later as a wildland firefighter, it was essential to keep shovels sharp for digging fire line. We had to cut all roots out of the line and sharp shovels were a must. We would hand file the shovels sharp on our breaks.
I was a firefighter in Yellowstone in '88. Lots of shovel sharpening there.
Hold the file perpendicular to the blade and square it up and remove nicks. Also lay the file flat on the blade and deburr both sides.
Finish with a light sanding with very fine sand paper like 400 or finer.
On shovels, I learned to sharpen them from a guy in his 80's back in the 80's. He was so old there were places on maps named for him. He worked on the Hoover Dam.
Later as a wildland firefighter, it was essential to keep shovels sharp for digging fire line. We had to cut all roots out of the line and sharp shovels were a must. We would hand file the shovels sharp on our breaks.
I was a firefighter in Yellowstone in '88. Lots of shovel sharpening there.