Sharpening an Ice Fishing Auger

Video Transcript

"Let's talk about some equipment maintenance here. One thing that you always want to make sure with your ice auger, whether it's a gas auger, like this one, or a hand auger, is that the blades are sharp. They need to be sharp to cut through that ice. As people often say, "A dull knife is more dangerous than a sharp knife." The same holds true for ice augers. You can remove these blades, you can send them back to the company that you bought the auger from and get new blades or have the blades sharpened either at that company or through a local sharpener. It can get pretty expensive to do this from season to season. What I did was I simply purchased an auger, a hand auger sharpener. Probably about $5 to $10. Not a big investment. Has a hand guard, and simply all you do is hold that, making sure that the guard is between you and the auger, place the tip on and just bring it from the inside out, making sure to sharpen every blade as you go. Do that two of three times and then because sometimes you create a slight burr on one side by doing that, you simply reverse it, bring it back the other way. Again, pressing firmly but not too hard. And, just making sure that you get both sides two or three times each. Again, that's going to, that's going to increase your efficiency, especially with a hand auger. It would make you life a lot easier while ice fishing."