Is the Ka bar right for me?

Just one thing to remember with diamonds: don't use too much pressure. This is a good rule of thumb anyway, as it's far easier to pay attention and maintain consistent angles when you're not bearing down too hard, but it's even more important with diamond hones because it can significantly reduce the lifetime of your sharpener. The reason being that a diamond hone doesn't expose new abrasive points the way a stone---natural or ceramic---does as they get worn away. Diamonds are imbedded into plated metal surface with part of the diamonds exposed, but there's nothing underneath them. Pushing too hard can tear little bits of diamond out of their bedding, and it doesn't really speed up sharpening anyway as diamonds are SO much harder than steel that they're already biting about as deep as they can bite under normal pressure. Now, some amount of this is going to happen regardless; diamond hones are always extra-aggressive when they're new, as some of the little diamond bits are not embedded very deep into the honing surface at all are are sticking up very prominently. At this stage, they'll sharpen edges faster than at any other time in their useful life as tools, but they also produce very uneven scratch depths on your bevel. After fifteen or twenty sharpenings, these shallow diamonds will tear out, and you'll be left with a much more consistent abrasive depth that doesn't cut the steel as fast but cuts it very evenly and consistently. Many people think that the stone is already wearing out when the truth is it's finally behaving the way it's supposed to. I used to sharpen professionally, and have DMT stones that have literally sharpened thousands of knives and are still going. I finally had to replace a couple of the more coarse ones as they always get the most use/wear, but they've lasted significantly longer than any natural stone could.

So, how much pressure to use? Some will say the weight of the blade, and with a bowie or a meat cleaver that'll work, but not a paring knife or slipjoint. If you've ever peeled a raw carrot, that's about how much pressure you want to put on a sharpener, or you can go just ever so slightly harder. Of course, you want to go with much slower motions and maintain consistent angles, but that's how much pressure to use, regardless of the type of hone you're using.
 
I have a Smith's Tri-hone.

I use it for specialty knives.

For a field knife...?

Pullin' a KA-BAR through the ceramics of a Smith's PP1 w/ only blade weight will give you a sharp edge in a few minutes. Just check the edge every five pulls or so.

The bevel angle is ~ 23 deg. so it is both sharp and durable as a field edge. (22-25 deg.)

I use the Carbide for camp-axes and machetes that see hard use. (and maybe some gravel or rock :D )


I understand the "Zen" of knife sharpening, and struggle mightily w/ my "temple" blades... but in the field?... dull sucks. Dressing game or prepping food after clearing a shooting lane, camouflaging a Jon boat, or building a fire is not a good time to pull out the Tri-stone.

The key is pressure... and blade weight is fine for a solid edge.

My $0.02...
 
Is the Ka-Bar right for you?

Well, is the Batman a crime-fighting machine? I rest my case.


(Sorry, I couldn't help it.)
 
I think a full sized kabar is a great b.o.b option, and for some light woodland use, I've bent my tanto kabar battoning some dried duglas fur, got the job done, but it bent the blade where the hand guard is, none the less, kabar does magic with heat treating their 1095 cro-van, plus the regular kabar's are so affordable, good luck.

Regards,
Jack
 
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