Questions for master knife sharpeners...Yuzuha?

S

slugtrail

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Aug 26, 2007
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I was reading one of Yuzuha's past posts about different sharpening stones and I quickly fell into information overload. Let me explain what it is I'm trying to acomplish and then I hope somebody can tell me what I need.
I have two bushcraft knives that I want to maintain under field use. They are bush knives, so I can't have the hair shaving edge that would go dull in 2 minutes. The first is the Skookum Bush Tool by Rod Garcia, the second is the Skifa Scandi by Charles May. The Skifa Scandi is D2 steel, the SBT is A2 steel and both have a scandinavian grind.
Assuming that I don't let the knives get butter-knife dull, but rather I maintain the edges in an ongoing manner, which waterstones would I need in what grit# to maintain the knives? On the offside chance that I do let one get truely dull, what grit# would I need to use to bring it back to life? I do want waterstones, that much I am certain of because I don't want to bother with oil, I just need to know which maker and in which grit. I'm leaning towards the Japanese waterstones since it seems that they are harder and don't wear as fast.
I need input from somebody who knows their business with waterstones and particularly Japanese waterstones. Yuzuha, I'd really like to hear back from you if you're still around here.
 
For field use, I don't know that I'd recommend Japanese waterstones, but rather DMT plates. A 6 inch plate with grit on both sides might work well for your needs. Probably the x coarse (220 grit) or coarse 325 grit would be ideal, I'm assuming weight is a fator, so I would avoid anything larger. Waterstones - if you did want one, probably a 500 or 220 grit Shapton GlassStone would be as good as it gets although this is a bit large 8 x 3 inch for field use, but it is thin. Most other stones require soaking and will stay wet and are heavier. There are other DMT solutions too, down to keychain sized and this is worth reviewing depending on your needs. The GlassStones work well on these harder steels as do the diamond plates.

---
Ken
 
I have the Shapton GlassStones, three of them with the holder. Together they weight about five or six pounds. I'm taking a second look at the DMT diamond plates. What kind of milage do you get out of the little four inch ones that have the polka-dot pattern on them?
 
You've got 2 excellent scandi's from 2 very skilled knifemakers. I'm jealous of your Skookum (I have one on order)! Hope you like it!

Back to your questions ... Waterstones would be impractical for field use because of their size, the need for water, and the resulting mess from the slurry created while sharpening. You can easily use the DMT DiaFolds for field use with your scandi's. My preference is the Fine (green)/ Ceramic (white). Just lay the grind flat to the DiaFold and sharpen as you normally would with a benchstone. The steels on those fine knives won't need much else if you periodically maintain them while afield. I've even used the Fine (green 1200 grit) credit card sized wallet stone for the same use but because of the limited size of the card just used a circular sharpening motion; worked very well.

Another excellent stone for the same use is the Spyderco Double Stuff medium and fine grit ceramic pocket stone. If all you want to do is maintain the very edge of the knife, also look at the Spyderco 701 Profile ceramic stones, also in medium and fine grits. Very easy to use when used like a chefs steel and has multiple profiles for serrations, and recurve blades. Can even be used like a bench stone when the hones are placed flat on top of the leather sheath.

You could also use Arkansas Surgical Black or Translucent (a standard Washita stone will work in a pinch also) field stones to maintain your edges equally well. I use them as "finger stones" with a spot of water or spit to lubricate the stone. Just move the stone along the line of the scandi grind and you'll have a spooky edge back in no time

I've used all of these products on my scandi's (Kellam Wolverine and Rosselli Hunter UHC) with equal success.

Good luck.

NJ
 
For maintenance under field use, I would recommend the Sharpmaker. It is the size of a single waterstone and a tad lighter and very rugged when packed. Mine has traveled by various means more than 30,000 miles with me. Waterstones are way too fragile for field use (unless you have them in a pelican case in the car). I love them but they are not the right thing for field use.

I strongly disagree though that you can not have a shaving sharp edge on your field knife. A good shaving edge will last longer than any other edge and it is a common mistake to think that you need very high finsh to achieve a shaving edge. A shaving edge is something that you should always be aiming for, regardless of the grit at which you finish, or what the knife is intended to do. A good knife will not go loose that sharpness that quickly either. Any person working with axes will maintain a shaving edge even on their axes.
 
HoB,
good to know. I'll aim to maintain a shaving edge but not an edge that you could perform surgery with.
 
Actually, for field grinding scandi knives, I'd probably go with a couple of those 6" ez-lap double sided duo-lap plates since you could get the coarse, medium, fine and super fine in a compact, 2 plate set. Waterstones would be too heavy to carry around and would require flattening, which would be difficult in the woods (dish a stone and there goes your nice flat scandi grind). If you want to go with a polished edge you could get a fine spyderco ceramic... they're thin, don't dish and come in a little plastic case and can be used dry or with water.

For home use, I'd start with coarse diamond plates (DMT XXC for reshaping), then go with waterstones... say, a Bester 500 or 700 and a 1200 or 2000 followed by Shapton glass or pro stones in 2k, 4-5k, 8k, 12-16k depending on how much of a smooth razor edge you want (and maybe different stones if you're looking for cosmetic polish as well or get into the zen of sharpening).

If you touch things up before they get dull, you can generally start with a 2k waterstone (or frequently touch up with a fine ceramic in the bush) and save a lot of blade wear until such time as you damage the edge or thicken it enough that you need to reprofile it (that is when the Diasharp XXC and Bester 500/700 come in handy)
 
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