primitive sharpening??

cbwoods67

cbwoods67

Joined
Oct 12, 2010
Messages
8,189
For the past couple of years, I have been seriously contemplating going off the grid and living on my own, without any modern means of comfort or survival. I have no experience with survival (other than watching Discovery) and I want to see if I am able to figure it out on my own. I thought about going out there with only the clothes on my back and giving it a shot, but then figured I should at least bring a knife.
My question is: Does anybody know of a way to sharpen a knife without any modern equipment (including leather strops)? any info or references would be greatly appreciated.

I am just thinking about it at the moment, but at some point in my life, I think it should happen, and hopefully it will happen while still have some piss and/or vinegar left in me. Knowledge based on personal experience is what drives me.
 
Forget all this boring preparing stuff. Sharpening is nothing more than rubbing a knife on a piece of rock.
Just grab your knife and head out, you'll figure it out along the way.
Don't wait for spring, just go now when you have the chance. What's the worst that could happen.
 
Grab two brick-sized pieces of rock and rub them together till they flatten out. Use this to put the edge on and when it needs touching up just rub some fine stream grit (or similar material) on your bare calf and use it for a strop.
 
Before challenging Mother Nature, who will not give a damn if you live or die, why not see if you can travel from one coast to the other and back, leaving home with just a dollar in your pocket and no I.D. You have a great deal more learned skills already under your belt to deal with civilization than with nature. If you are resourceful enough to survive that without winding up in jail, then give Nature a try. Otherwise, all you'll be doing is creating a drain on some state's search and rescue service.

Stitchawl
 
I grew up at the edge of 'the grid'. Not as cool as everybody thinks it is.

I think that I will stay on this side of it.
 
Oh for heavens sake... "Before challenging Mother Nature, who will not give a damn if you live or die" at the very least study & PRACTICE fire building in the rain & snow, study finding & using medicinal plants & other food foraging/hunting, and please don't be so eager to for "personal experience" that you fail to pack at least a small bag of basic gear before you head out. Your gear won't hold out for ever but it will at least give you a chance to get a real start on your radically new life. Survivaltopics.com is, at the very least, worth a few hours of reading. Your first week or two out could be the most ecstatic &/or the most unbearably miserable times of your life. Why not at least give yourself a head start towards the former? Good luck man. "A warrior is impeccable when he trusts his personal power, whether it is small or enormous."
 
I don't think of it as a challenge to Mother Nature, but a challenge for myself. My whole life has consisted of reaching into the fridge and making a sandwich. I want to teach myself to make the bread and kill and clean the animal. There are easier ways to do this and I know that it is stupid, but if I teach myself how to do it, then I will feel more confident if the shtf and I am forced to disappear. and I am aware that there isn't any reason that this should work for me, but, this is all about starting from a pretty much blank slate and filling it in on my own.
 
Do see a little bit of that "off the grid" living in urban FL. A commune without having to drink the Kool-Aid might be a worthwhile test bed.

Whatever you decide, be very careful out there..in some areas fearful folks might mistake you for a Big Foot, Chupacabra or Zombie..just kidding.
 
cbwoods67 said:
I don't think of it as a challenge to Mother Nature, but a challenge for myself. My whole life has consisted of reaching into the fridge and making a sandwich. I want to teach myself to make the bread and kill and clean the animal. There are easier ways to do this and I know that it is stupid, but if I teach myself how to do it, then I will feel more confident if the shtf and I am forced to disappear. and I am aware that there isn't any reason that this should work for me, but, this is all about starting from a pretty much blank slate and filling it in on my own.
Click to expand...

Just out of curiosity, have you ever even read a book about survival? I might suggest that, before you go running off into the woods, you at least read up on the subject. You might try Cody Lundin's books to start. They're inexpensive, but full of useful information.

There is no substitute for being prepared, and knowledge of a subject is the most important preparation you can have: all else follows from that.
 
cbwoods67 said:
I don't think of it as a challenge to Mother Nature, but a challenge for myself. My whole life has consisted of reaching into the fridge and making a sandwich. I want to teach myself to make the bread and kill and clean the animal. There are easier ways to do this and I know that it is stupid, but if I teach myself how to do it, then I will feel more confident if the shtf and I am forced to disappear. and I am aware that there isn't any reason that this should work for me, but, this is all about starting from a pretty much blank slate and filling it in on my own.
Click to expand...

You're not going to just teach yourself how to "kill and clean the animal" by going in to nature with just the clothes on your back and a knife. I give you three days tops before you get cold and hungry and return to the grid. Put some thought in to it. Our ancestors benefited from generations of trial and error and passed these lessons down to their offspring. You don't have that benefit and will need to study from people who have relearned the skills.
 
Calm down guys. Our new friend already said he has watched plenty of Discovery channel. I think he knows more than enough to live off the land.

If a monkey and a caveman can survive in the wild why can't a (presumably) much smarter human. Cavemen and primitive peoples didn't have Les Stroud, Bear Grylls, Dave & Cody and the Hawkes to teach them how to survive so he is already many steps ahead. You will be a master of the bush compared to the average primitive man.
 
Just bring two knives. When one gets dull, throw it away and uses your back-up. :D

Seriously, you can sharpen a knife on any rock. May not be pretty, or get you a mirror polish, but it'll give you a cutting edge.
 
cbwoods67 said:
For the past couple of years, I have been seriously contemplating going off the grid and living on my own, without any modern means of comfort or survival. I have no experience with survival (other than watching Discovery) and I want to see if I am able to figure it out on my own. I thought about going out there with only the clothes on my back and giving it a shot, but then figured I should at least bring a knife.
My question is: Does anybody know of a way to sharpen a knife without any modern equipment (including leather strops)? any info or references would be greatly appreciated.

I am just thinking about it at the moment, but at some point in my life, I think it should happen, and hopefully it will happen while still have some piss and/or vinegar left in me. Knowledge based on personal experience is what drives me.
Click to expand...
First off, survival training and going-off-grid are two different things. Survival training is geared to keep you alive till you can make your way back to the grid. Going-off-grid is a lifestyle decision. There's a lot of overlap in the techniques but the goals are completely different. The Amish are basically off-grid and I doubt most people would be able to last a week working on one of their farms, let alone go off-grid with just a knife. Primitive man did not live off-grid. He had his own grid. He did not make his tools on the spot. His kit was the most technologically advanced equipment for that time and area. Trips and trades were made to secure better equipment that wasn't available in his area. Survival training is more akin to living like a primitive man who lost his kit.
 
smegs said:
First off, survival training and going-off-grid are two different things. Survival training is geared to keep you alive till you can make your way back to the grid. Going-off-grid is a lifestyle decision. There's a lot of overlap in the techniques but the goals are completely different. The Amish are basically off-grid and I doubt most people would be able to last a week working on one of their farms, let alone go off-grid with just a knife. Primitive man did not live off-grid. He had his own grid. He did not make his tools on the spot. His kit was the most technologically advanced equipment for that time and area. Trips and trades were made to secure better equipment that wasn't available in his area. Survival training is more akin to living like a primitive man who lost his kit.
Click to expand...

Nicely said :thumbup:
 
tabeeb762 said:
Forget all this boring preparing stuff. Sharpening is nothing more than rubbing a knife on a piece of rock.
Just grab your knife and head out, you'll figure it out along the way.
Don't wait for spring, just go now when you have the chance. What's the worst that could happen.
Click to expand...

I'm with this guy. Well said. Planning and preparing is for nerds. We didn't build the Panama Canal through sissy planning. We built the canal by picking up shovels and digging until we saw the other ocean. That's how things get done.
 
stevekt said:
I'm with this guy. Well said. Planning and preparing is for nerds. We didn't build the Panama Canal through sissy planning. We built the canal by picking up shovels and digging until we saw the other ocean. That's how things get done.
Click to expand...

No need to mention the more than 27,000 people who died with those shovels in their hands. Yikes!
 
Yeah. I think the point is that *SNAP* the caveman is dead. Oh well we were counting on him to bring home the food so I guess we all are going to die too this winter.

The good old days were not so good.

The grid is good and 10,000 years of mankind has been laboring day and night, fighting countless wars, etc etc, to put "the grid" in place. Don't fight it man!

Now with that said, there is much one can do to sort of tune back in to living naturally. I am just about 100% sure you probably live in town. Move out to the country. Land and homes out there are pretty cheap in this economy. You would be surprised how much of the sort of knowledge you desire will come from modern rural living. You learn a lot about animals, wild and domestic. You learn a lot about chopping wood. You have room to set up a workshop and do stuff. You can go shooting anytime you want and not have to put up with annoying range officers (actually a good thing) or annoying bozo goofballs sweeping the place (a bad thing). Just set up a back drop and shoot. If it's 10 below zero and you got a new gun...what the heck. Go outside, crank off a few rounds and come back in before your nuts freeze off. Likewise when it 99 above.

On topic. Steam beds would be the best place to find what you'd want in a rock to sharpen with. The pebbles will be smooth and you may have to try some different ones until you find the ones in your locality that work well. some people (maybe you) may live in a region with layered outcrops of sedimentary rock that may well be both flat and a good grit to get the job done. In fact, get some carbon steel Mora knives for $12 each and practice on them. Get that skill, with a proper whet stone or a rock, while you have a roof over your head.

Everybody has that dream from time to time.
 
HoosierQ, you are right,I live in a small town in west central Illinois. When I get out of college and have a decent job, I will move out to the country. But before I do that, I want to build up some basic skills so that I know how to make it without equipment. I know that I could just go out to the woods for a day or two at a time and learn tons, but I want to give myself the challenge of learning from necessity and being able to sustain myself for an extended amount of time. Not surviving until someone finds me, but living.
 
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