field sharpening

knifelife

knifelife

Joined
Jan 17, 2002
Messages
66
what would you consider to be the best sharpener to take on a long field trip or for a survival kit.i have looked at those pen like diamond coated jobs from gerber and ezlap also the triangle stones from lansky then theres the mini crock sticks on a key ring.
what would be the best.
 
Pen-like sharpeners are way too little to work any decently on typical, say 4 to 5-inche long, outdoors blades. I would definitely avoid them as equipment for outdoors/survival trip, especially if it is relatively long one when you could need to sharpen your knife several times or to restore decently blunted or damaged edge.

So-called dog-bone sharpeners like these from Lansky or GATCO can be pretty useful to work on serrated blades, they are also inexpensive, lightweight and easy to pack, pretty sturdy (because short) as well. Drawbacks – too short surface to work decently, too fine grit to restore badly blunted or damaged edge, too small dimensions to work safely. I would reserve them rather for touch-ups only or to sharpen recurved or serrated part of the blade (if your blade has it).

My strong favorite is DMT Double Sided Diafold – 4-inche long double-sided sharpening plate what folds into the plastic handle like balisong knife. Very easy to pack and carry, fast and safe to work with, very lightweight, not brittle at all – just right for long outdoors or survival trip. I would prefer coarse/fine (blue/red) one for such purposes. Coarse side will help you restoring badly blunted or damaged edges and to deal with axes, shovels and another such equipment. Fine one is just right touching up knife blades to more than decent working sharpness.
Diafolds_02.jpg

Not also without drawbacks – will work so-so on pronouncedly recurved edges and will not work at all on serrated ones. In this case could be completed with inexpensive dog-bone styled sharpener or with DMT Diafold Serrated Knife Sharpener. I guess you are not going to take your trip alone. If one person in your accompany would take DMT Diafold and another dog-bone sharpener you would be prepared to sharpen everything you would need.
 
i second that
the DMT doubled sided diafold medium/fine is my EDC in case i screw up the blade somehow
for the really fine touchups i use a ceramic stone
but you won't need those in the field

it's light and easy to pack
but not really cheap if u know what i mean :)
 
Agree, at first glance DMT stuff looks pretty expensive among brand-named sharpeners.
However is it any expensive in comparison with brand-named knife prices? Here are a lot of Folks who shell out hundreds and even thousands dollars buying knives what they really maybe need and equally probably they do not. At this background it is pretty strange for me if someone who buys $50, $100, $150 and more expensive knives would regret $25 to buy decent sharpener to keep them sharp. This would be completely out of my imagination :rolleyes:

One silly thought more. Just divide Diafold cost along the years it will serve you and more than likely you would be convinced it is not too expensive.
My first DMT sharpener was fine/u-fine Diafold (left at my photo). Then (1998) it was my single DMT sharpener. I have used it pretty extensively sharpening at least dozen knives monthly and abused rebeveling edges with fine grit what is basically not intended for such tasks. So I can say with a clear conscience that it is very durable, of course if used properly. Today this one still is my favorite sharpening tool and I reach it pretty frequently for blade touchups being too lazy to deal with benchstones. It works like it would be bought just yesterday.
Comparing with a total cost of about dozen of cheap no-name diamond sharpeners I have tried previously it is not expensive at all.
 
I've used a boy scout coarse and fine stone set, from a local surplus store I get them for about $5 a pair. Add $1-2 for a ceramic stick. Keep the three together with a thick heavy rubber band that's been doubled around it a few times and you're good to go.
 
Any of the DMT folding hones work great, Diafold with two hones is better, Smiths makes a nice setup that slides into it's own handle, with a coarse, and fine hone.

Basically somethings better than nothing, and there are several makeshift hones available if all you want to do is drees up your edge, one example is the edge of your car window, kinda works like a crock stick.

Do a search on makeshift field sharpening
 
I have two favorites for field sharpening. One is the little folding DMT. Very compact, light, durable and fun.

The other is wet/dry paper. If you ask me, it's the best field sharpening system around. It's dirt cheap too. I'll carry a piece of 400 grit for removing chips in blades, a piece of 800 grit for bringing back a dull edge, and 1500 grit for polishing. Wet/dry is a must if you're using a convex grind, but also works well on other grind.
 
Originally posted by Buzzbait
I'll carry a piece of 400 grit for removing chips in blades, a piece of 800 grit for bringing back a dull edge, and 1500 grit for polishing.
Click to expand...
I've been using an EZ Lap Model M for well over 20 years with good results. I never thought of using 400 grit sandpaper on chips before. Instead I would just wait until I got home to take them out. Thanks for the tip.
 
I've been thinking of getting a set of 6" Razor Edge hones to take to the field with me. It seems that this would give me a complete sharpening system, but wouldn't be too large either. I have a diafold, and it certainly does the job, but I've always liked working with the largest hone that I have available.
 
If your talking about a folder, a crock stick, or small arakansas stone is fine. If your talking a about a fixed blade a med. size arkansas stone would do well.

I carry a crock stick (key chain) one and use it on my avalanche.
 
ichor,

I bought a similar one years ago, it will do ok for touching up a small soft blade (like a small or medium SAK) but not much more.

When you use crock sticks you slide the blade of the knife along the length of the rod, after a few passes a black line is formed along the rod and it won´t work too well, you can rotate the rod a bit and get a "fresh" length of ceramic to keep on working. With the small sharpener you slide the blade along a single part of a thin rod which gets black (clogged ??) in a single pass and you can´t move to a cleaner section so it wont do much after very few passes, and its not that easy to clean either.

I usually carry a small medium grit hone for sharpening and a small steel (from Victorinox) for touch-ups.
 
I take a different approach. About the worst thing I do to knives is a trip to the National Grasslands in South Dakota. I have a truck; we do hike, but not that far.

I take a few knives, with edges that I have carefully sharpened at home, without cold fingers and in a desperate situation. My wife also carries a spare.

It's just easier to chuck the dull, or broken knife, into the glove box and take out a different knife. It's only for a week or ten days.
 
I read Buzzbaits thread and I had to laugh. I didnt know anyone else who used sandpaper.
When I was young and in shape, I use to do a lot of Boyscout stuff. I use to put a survial packs together for the boys. In it was a sheet of sandpaper for them to sharpen thier knives on. I dont remember what grit I used, but sandpaper is the smallest and lightest of sharpeners you can backpack.
Now I probably would use a small ez lap. I have one in the office here and it works well.
I also have various "crock sticks" but IMHO when a knife is dull you need a little more then a crock stick.
Good luck
Jack
 
Sandpaper is very good, I´ve used it and heard it mentioned elsewhere.

If you do a search on the web for "scary sharp" you´ll see a method with sandpaper of different grits glued on glass plate.

I´ve also tried the sandpaper on a mousepad method described on some other thread and it works real nice.
 
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