How keen an edge do you keep on your outdoor/survival blades.

My machete has always been my "outdoor/survival blade" I have kept it at a hair splitting, newspaper melting mirror edge for quite a few years now.

[video=youtube;fX95Kil5t0s]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fX95Kil5t0s&feature=youtu.be[/video]

Took this video for another thread, but it works for this too.

It doesn't take any time at all to establish or keep this type of edge up.
 
For backpacking I keep my smaller knives very toothy - usually stop at the coarse side of a Norton Crystalon stone and strop just enough to remove the burr. These generally just get used for food prep and cutting line. My larger choppers, be they hatchet or machete get more work - polished a bit to where they start to loose drawcutting efficiency. In my experience this reduces friction considerably when chopping. Mid to large sized knives, well, I don't carry them. My general philosophy is toothy for small knives and as the blade gets larger I refine it more. In any case, no more refined than being able to tree-top some leg hair and the coarse edges need to at least shave arm hair.
 
I had always read about 20 degrees but my fiancees dad who's an old cowboy and mountain man type prefers about 25 degrees for his general purpose blades and i had him do the edge on my bushcrafter about 2 months ago and even after a lot of heavy use its still shaving sharp without even a retouch on the edge...
Brian
 
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