New sharpening stone.

[Recursion]

I currently have a sharpmaker at home as well as a Spyderco 303M pocket stone with me. I find it hard to sharpen with the pocket stone as Its small. It works gret for a quick sharpen but it just doesn't work to well for a full sharpen. I have not really had any other types of stones or hones, so if somebody could recommend me what I will need for a nice full sized stone. I am used to the ceramic stones, but am willing to try something else. Natural stones also sound pretty cool,

 

[yablanowitz]

For field use, I use DMT Diafold sharpeners. The abrasive surface is only 1" x 4", but the handles fold out so it is easy to get a good grip without getting in the path of the blade being sharpened. They are available in a variety of grits, and I generally carry a pair of dual sided units, X-Coarse/Coarse and Fine/X-Fine. Lets me do anything including a complete reprofile in the field.

If you prefer ceramics, take a look at the Spyderco Pro-Files. They work great, and the curved surfaces fit serrations nicely.

 

[Cougar Allen]

 

[Broos]

If I could only have one, I'd probably get a 1000/4000 combo water stone.

Second one would be a 8" coarse diamond for reprofiling of damaged edges and flattening your waterstones.

If you do some searches on this forum you can read opinions and methods on sharpening all day.

Good luck!

 

[Unbreakable]

Spyderco also makes bench stones in the same material as the sharpmaker stones in medium and fine and ultra fine... they are pretty good size and they come in plastic cases so you can wrap them in a towel tie them up with 550 cord and toss them into your 3 day pack if you're going in the field. Add a good strop, some slitz, and maybe a coarse stone for damage control and you can maintain your edges anywhere.

 

[Blues]

Those Spyderco bench stones are way too heavy to be carrying in the field for sharpening. (imho of course.)

If the 303 MF is too small, get a DMT Diafold in Fine/Coarse which will give you a 4" diamond surface for sharpening/honing as well as a nice handle.

As for bench stones, (and I do have the three from Spyderco) you may want to get something which will remove more metal faster. Good options include:

Norton Fine India
Norton Medium Crystolon
DMT Diamond Bench Stones in the grit of your choice (I prefer the coarser end of the spectrum for faster steel removal and finishing on ceramics)

I've little experience with water stones so I'll leave that to others with vastly more experience.

 

[Gshock300]

for a full size stone... i use eze lap double sided diamond hones. medium grit on one side and superfine on the other. you can also get medium and fine as well as other combinations but they take steel off fast and always stay flat and work wet or dry.
abit expensive to start off with but i think youll find theyll last alot longer then a traditional stone and you never have to worry about reflattening the honing surface.
medium grit is 400 , fine is 600 and the superfine is 1200.