Improvised sharpening methods

M

miro44

Joined
Oct 28, 2007
Messages
752
Hi, I would like to hear about what you can use for a sharpener, if you haven' t got one with you at the time, for example when you' re at a friends, in the field etc.

I already now about the bottom of a coffee cup, and use that trick regulary, works realy well.Any other funny/interesting things?
 
I have heard the rough unfinished edge of a car window works too, but I have never tried it.
 
The bottom of a ceramic plate for larger knives is similar to the coffee cup idea.

Stropping can be done on cardboard or glossy paper like a magazine cover and to get inside a curved or hooked blade shape, these things can be rolled up.

For a coarse surface, I have heard of people using a cinderblock or concrete surface. Some concrete is finished pretty smoothly and I could see that being usable.
 
The unpolished, rounded edge of a car window rolled down does work very well. ;)

I also used to CAREFULLY take the element out of large quartz light bulbs and use them as a hone....they worked well, too. :thumbup:
 
For honing or stropping you can use just about any hard surface.

For actual sharpening you need something abrasive. I have heard of concrete blocks, bricks, driveways...

I think it was in one of Ed Fowler's books that he mentioned a rock he picked up on his ranch that he used to sharpen knives.

On one episode of Dinner Impossible they were tasked to cook at a renaissance festival. Robert Irvine was having a tough time with the cutlery that was supplied to him. He took the knives over to the fireplace hearth and scraped them on the brick.
 
I got a dull knife at a restaurant. I held it at a 25 to 30 degree angle and used glass tumbler to straighten the edge, kinda like using a smooth steel. It worked, It must have just had a rolled edge.
 
Stropping against a sheet of paper laid on a flat counter will improve the edge on a knife. Alittle rougher - a ceramic plate. For just straghteing any pyrex edge will do. For rough work, there's the sidewalk.

---
Ken
 
I've sharpened axes on cinder blocks and concrete on numerous occasions. I use the coffee cup/plate method fairly frequently, as well as the phone book strop. Any relatively rounded rock can be used similarly to the "puck" sharpener by Lansky. I've even used a rusty pipe to sharpen a beater knife on (china cheapy). The back of a butter knife can work well as a smooth steel, just as a glass will. My leather wallet works as a good strop that's always with me as well. ;-)
 
In a pinch, when in the woods you can find a stone to touch up an edge. Even a semi-flat stone will work. You can throw dirt/sand/grit on a semi-flat fallen log. Sandpaper in the pocket works, but I usually carry a thin flat diamond hone in my wallet (credit card sized), or when in the woods, the Victorinox pocket hone, which is light, thin, and stands neatly beside my wallet.
 
I was at a friends house and ended up sharpening a cleaver on the curb, then finishing it up on the bottom of a ceramic bowl. Not great, but definitely an improvement.

Ric
 
I've never encountered the need to improvise beyond using the diamond file on my Leatherman Wave. I usually carry a couple of DMT Diafold sharpeners in my back pocket. What can I say, rocks are hard to come by out here in the prairie, although the fine blow sand would make a nice abrasive if you could find a piece of wood to imbed it in.
 
It actually works pretty well. The edge it leaves is about like the DMT coarse (blue) hone, which is serviceable, especially for softer materials like meat.
 
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