Fixing an abused knife in a survival situation

C

crafty

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Jan 15, 2010
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Was reading these threads again.
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/838018-Putting-the-BK2-to-the-test-so-you-don-t-have-to
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/839944-BK2-test-the-final-part-%28LOTS-of-pictures%29

and this sentence got me thinking
BRab said:
If this was your only knife in a survival situation, it is nice to know it is not going to break on you.
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hm true but how + how much effort would it take to get a heavily abused knife to touch up to a decent working edge in a survival situation. So with only the sharpening tools you bring along during your standard trips (or even without having sharpening tools, so you have to search for stones etc).
So no belt sander this time to get a perfect edge again ;)

How would you do it? Any experience, pictures?
 
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I think most of us carry something in our pack to sharpen a knife with. Getting the 'abused' knife back to 'perfect' is not necessary. It just has to be 'functional'.
 
Interesting thread - im one of those types that doesnt always carry a sharpener with me so it could be interesting if things went sideways.

It reminded me of when I was trekking in thailand and our guide who had some dodgy rambo knife put an impressive edge on his knife with a river stone. All for show but impressive all the same.
 
This is an easy answer-I bring my Lansky Puck and my 1x4 arkansas hardstone on ALL of my trips, often with wet and dry sandpaper for finishing.
 
In my bag is a DC4 . In my wallet are a few squares of wet-Dry paper.

I have never needed to repair my F1 in the field. I have removed chips and dings on my hatchet out in the woods. The DC4 works well for this.
 
I've never carried sharpening stones, rods, kits with me. For one, I am careful with my knives and don't subject them to abuse. A dull knife isn't hard to sharpen on a picked up stone (assuming there are stones) or on a leather boot or belt. Adapting a broken knife to still be used can be done easily enough. And I have made field expedient knives from glass bottles and stones, even bone once. That might be an experimental project that you might want to try before the need arises. It doesn't take a lot of skill, just a bit of creative thinking.

I do have a box of broken knives which were found in the Imperial Schrade factory after it closed in 2004 (warranty returns I assume). I may experiment with a few of them if you would find it helpful.
 
I've tried the whole 'knife on a rock' thing-at that point I realized it's not practical or efficient and started packing the extra weight and volume.
 
PayetteRucker said:
I've tried the whole 'knife on a rock' thing-at that point I realized it's not practical or efficient and started packing the extra weight and volume.
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If you are going for a practical, working edge it works just fine.

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Arne't you the guy who claimed to carry a 200lbs ruck plus three long arms and ammo?

Then a puck , 1X4 stone, and wet-dry paper is negligible for you.


If I am not carrying my hatchet I even leave my light DC4 at home.
 
I carry the smallest EZ lapp diamond rod, nesting in the cap it looks like half a pen. At base camp I have a spyderco doublestuff stone , a strip of 600 and 1200 wet/dry and a 5 in fine toothed file.
 
I carry one of the small GI sharpening stones and have practiced sharpening my SAK on a rock just to be sure I could do it. As long as the stone is hard enough you can get a usable edge.
 
I personally don't carry a sharpener. I just sharpen my blades before the trip and sharpen again when I get home. I don't use blades enough for them to get dull. Maybe if I was out for a week or more I'd throw in some wet dry paper. I have a condor sapien on the way. Maybe if it doesn't work for me I can use it as something to practice rock sharpening with. :D

Edit: I just remembered that I did bend the tip on a knife once. I just pressed it against a hard surface to bend it back to true.
 
I will be honest about this. I generally do not abuse my knives if I know I am going to need them for a while before I get back to the hones. I also have difficulty imagining a situation where I will be out for a length of time greater than the edge holding abilities for my knives. Interpret that as, yes my knives are amazing, but (a greater truth is) the duration of my outdoor endeavors is not;)
 
I think my problem is the type and grain size of the rock around here-it's so hard to find a good hard rock with uniform grain that's small enough to do any kind of sharpening without farther damaging the edge. There's some very large grain sandstone cliffs by my house but again, grain size is too large-it'd be akin to using 80 grit sandpaper on an edge that might be worn down to maybe 320 grit dullness.
 
A field expedient sharpening stone need not be superfine to put a usable working edge on a knife. It may not be pretty, but it will be toothy. Another method is to embed fine dust in leather and use it as a stropping rouge. A leather thong dipped in blood and then sand has been used to perform amputations before. You could use water or grease instead of blood if you prefer. Remember that OP is suggesting a survival situation.
 
I carry a little steel and a small 2 sided diamond stone sharpener. Rarely used but good to have. I have also polished up an edge on the top edge of a car window (Ray Mears has a vid doing some good field sharpening and shows this technique).
 
Eze-Lap diamond rod and a DC-4 I use.
The trick is not to screw your knife up in the first place. I only do regular cutting. chopping and batonning ( depending on the knife) and only have to touch up occasional dulling of an edge.

I don't think I've ever had a knife snap , blow a chunk of edge or seriously bend and I am pretty tough on them. I don't push them to abuse stage ; regular use only. For me that goes for any cutting tool.

If something major happened to one of my knives in the bush , I'd just grab another. I never carry just one.
 
I'll go with all that has been said before.

I have an old Fallkniven DC4 which is quite good, with a diamond plate that can do a good deal of sharpening (please note recent DC4 being plagued with many problems). That said:
* generally you'll try to avoid damages in the first place
* you'll also try to touch up the edge often so you always have a good edge (it's easier to prevent problems than having to repair)
* in an emergency even a damaged edge generally have quite a lot to go left even an edge like this http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5261/5617118300_9022fe790d_z.jpg can still perform quite a lot of task, at least as good than quite any field expedient you could find on spot.
 
Mannlicher said:
I think most of us carry something in our pack to sharpen a knife with. Getting the 'abused' knife back to 'perfect' is not necessary. It just has to be 'functional'.
Click to expand...

This ^ . While a pristine edge with no gaps is nice it is not a requirement to "survival". Getting that BK2 back to pristine would take hours by hand with good stones, getting it usable, even using a flat rock in the woods wouldn't take all that long.
 
I always have some kind of stone on me, usually in a sheath pouch or some such, but I think the op was trying to focus on refurbishment ?

If so, I might recommend finding two likely rocks and then lapping them to true before sharpening. Or possibly a stropping motion on shale or slate, or maybe even using flint or chert in a similar fashion to one of those V sharpeners -- I know they're evil, but might save a butt in a case such as this hypothetical.
 
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