Fixing an abused knife in a survival situation

[Joezilla]

You can round the point using a rock, or beat a warped edge with a rock. You may be able to make a point with the rock too. I would rather have it than not have it. I'm thinking if it was severely broken, I would try to use a bown (hahaha I like that. I meant bone.) awl or something to make the incision point.

 

[crafty]

Thanks for all the quick replies :thumbup:

I do agree of course that you shouldn't get your knife dull and abused in first place. I always carry a DC4 with me as well, which is in most situations sufficient. Especially because I sharpen the knifes before I normally bring them along.
As kid I tried sometimes to sharpen my blades on stones I found, but that was never really successful (I would say lack of sharpening technique was the cause then). Half a year ago I was camping and a friend brought an axe which was more than dull (let's say the spine of my knives is sharper). Started with my DC4, but that didn't go as fast as I wanted. So searched for a rock to reprofile it, followed by the DC4 again. Took quite long to get a decent edge again. And I was glad I had the DC4, without it would be another story I guess. Then reading the BK2 post again made me think.

Maybe I should change the topic a bit more to alternative sharpening methods.
Actually I was intending for the "what if" situation, so you're in a survival situation and all you have is that dull/abused knife (so badly chipped, rolled, extremely dull; something like that BK2). Obtaining a working edge is good enough, no need for a perfect edge.
Let's say you didn't bring any sharpening tools with you. So only got the stuff you can find in the area. Which alternative techniques would you use? And how long would it take?

stones are quite straight forward idea, but I had some trouble finding good ones around (several grits, and flat). In general I think I only found suitable stones in rivers (or a brick in urban area's).
Like ThePointyEnd suggested lapping 2 stones together could be nice idea.
I like the idea of leather with sand. Maybe one can use Tinder Fungus instead of leather (I know it can be used for stropping). I saw Bear once using a wet stick and smearing it with sand (actually crushed rocks). Not sure if the way he demonstrated would really work, but the principle should work.

@RoyalM: The Ray Mears window method was, as I remember it well, mainly to give the knife a little extra bite after sharpening. I've never tried it tough.
@Codger_64: could be interesting experiment with a broken knife?

 

[Zuluninja]

I'm sure that anyone who knows how to sharpen with stones shouldn't have a problem using a rock to get a knife sharp, I tried it once with a brick and sidewalk concrete (and some spit, lol) and it gives me an usable edge.

If crap hits the fan and you are left with a broken knife, I'd say the best you could do is salvage the blade, try to get some kind of wrap around the lower part if its big enough or try to fashion a spear.