Portable / Compact Convex Sharpening?

klammer

klammer

Joined
Jan 30, 2009
Messages
580
I am curious to see what folks pack in their BOB / PSK's / Light equipment set ups to sharpen their convex edges?

I have a mini strop made from a wooden paint stir stick with a piece of leather glued to it which I can also place some 2000 grit on if required...I keep it preloaded with compound.

What does everyone else use?

Cheers,
Klammer
 
I don't worry so much about strict convexing when I'm out. I carry either a diamond rod or one of the fallkniven 2 sided stones.
 
get an altoids tin cut a piece of mas pad to fit the top and gule it in place... on the bottom of the tin glue some leather.. precut wet dry to size and store in the case.. lay the wetdry over the top of the case and close the lid on overhanging ends... you can resharpen a convex edge with ease. flip it over and you can strop to maintain.
 
I have carried several things in the past...all work great and are nearly never needed.

Riley's altoids tin sharpener, a DMT 1200 grit diamond card with a leather strop glued to the back, a paint stir stick with a coarse and fine grit strop, a traditional small pocket stone, etc...

Convex isn't really that big of a deal to maintain, and I don't get too picky about it. I like a strop to keep the edge in good shape, though, without removing alot of metal.
 
I have an old portable strop made from pigskin that I got on eBay for $1.00. The rough side is imbedded with carbides for cutting and the smooth side is for dressing-up & wire removal.

It is about 10" long and 1.5" wide, and can roll up to almost nothing.

If I didn't have this, I would have made my own.

Also have mini Arkansas stones in leather pouch, but have never needed them outdoors because the stop has always worked.
 
JRE Industries Packable Strop.

Love It:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

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I am going to be making the Altoids one myself here as soon as I buy some more altoids. I had one before, but it wasn't for convexed blades, I just thought I might need it. But, I lost it, and now I need it :o
 
I need to try my stuff out with an altoids tin sharpener. What I do is mostly use a strop, and work on a diamond rod hone when I really mess things up. but almost all the time, a strop works.
 
Either a hand held DC4 sharpening stone :eek:

or this smaller double sided pine backed strop.
Leatherbacking1.jpg



That fits inside a ziplock sandwich bag with precut abrasive sheets
Fitsinsideziplocksandwichbag1.jpg


Both work well.




Kind regards
Mick
 
my leather belt, a carbiner and strips of sand paper in varrying grits cut to the width of my belt.
 
For portable sharpening, I like to just use 220 grit wet/dry sandpaper backed by a small piece of wood and then strop. You can go up to 400 grit before stroping but I don't see a need to go finer than that before stroping for portable field sharpening.
 
I gave the altoid tin thing a try, and it didn't work for me. The lid of the tin is too flexible, so it wouldn't really give me a flat surface upon which to strop. There was always some concavity to the glued-on mousepad that annoyed me. Just my experience. I've also tried the paint stick strop like in the KSF videos, but they just never seemed to pack away right because of their length.

I've since just switched over to those little field strops that KSF makes and sells (I've made my own too, but the leather on the KSF strops take compound easily without any sort of prep). I'm really diggin them so far. Simple, easy to hold, and compact. I also carry around some sandpaper cut to size, all of it in a ziploc/aloksak with the little strop.

I'd really like to learn how to "properly" maintain a convex on a simple stone, like advocated by Fallkniven. Then I could just take my little diamond/ceramic pocket stone.


ETA: I've never really had to sharpen a convex in the field yet; I've only ever had to touch it up with a strop (BRKT black and green compound).
 
raylaconico said:
For portable sharpening, I like to just use 220 grit wet/dry sandpaper backed by a small piece of wood and then strop. You can go up to 400 grit before stroping but I don't see a need to go finer than that before stroping for portable field sharpening.
Click to expand...

I'll go down to 600 or 800, but even when I'm using a belt grinder, I don't go past that before stropping. doesn't take that long to do. I personally save the belts anytime a break a decent one that's 320 to 800 and use them sometimes when I'm camping or whatnot.
 
rksoon said:
I'd really like to learn how to "properly" maintain a convex on a simple stone, like advocated by Fallkniven. Then I could just take my little diamond/ceramic pocket stone.
Click to expand...

It's really simple. First just sharpen a plain ole v-grind at your desired edge thickness. Put a really sharp edge on it. Then just lay the blade lower, no need to be real precise just lower that's all. Between the fact that a certain degree of convexity is inevitable when a human free hand sharpens and that you are doing a extra step to round the shoulders, you'll have a fine convex edge :thumbup:
 
theonew said:
It's really simple. First just sharpen a plain ole v-grind at your desired edge thickness. Put a really sharp edge on it. Then just lay the blade lower, no need to be real precise just lower that's all. Between the fact that a certain degree of convexity is inevitable when a human free hand sharpens and that you are doing a extra step to round the shoulders, you'll have a fine convex edge :thumbup:
Click to expand...

Right, without the aid of guided systems, the convex edge is indeed inevitable. I'll try it out on one of my cheap knives :thumbup:.

I like using strops, I just think being able to use a stone would provide one with a more foolproof portable system. I think it would also make one more adept at using any suitable rock to sharpen, if it came down to it.
 
rksoon said:
I like using strops, I just think being able to use a stone would provide one with a more foolproof portable system. I think it would also make one more adept at using any suitable rock to sharpen, if it came down to it.
Click to expand...

That's my attitude. The only sharpening device I carry is a DMT Mini-sharp

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I've been a decent free hand sharpener now for a couple of years but have never tried using a rock to sharpen. But that's on the agenda for this weekend :D

Strops are great for touch ups but for sharpening a very dull edge it will take way too long.
 
here are some pics of the higher end altoid kit--but in an OtterBox

otter_sharp_kit.jpg

otter_sharp_kit_leather4.jpg

otter_sharp_kit_paper4.jpg

otter_sharp_kit_paper1.jpg


We had the double sided leather hone designed to fit in the recessed part of the OtterBox 2000. It works like a champ.
 
okbohn said:
here are some pics of the higher end altoid kit--but in an OtterBox

otter_sharp_kit.jpg



We had the double sided leather hone designed to fit in the recessed part of the OtterBox 2000. It works like a champ.
Click to expand...

Brilliant. I love it. I might have to make myself a regular altoids one and one of these.

Sidenote: Excuse my ignorance on convex sharpening....but I though that using a firm surface to sharpen or touch up will take off the convex. That is why folks use leather or a mouse pad. I see a few of you guys saying you use stones...those don't mess up the convex? Or are you using them on the very edge of the.....edge... if that makes sense, so you don't touch the shoulder on the convex.
 
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