Sahrpening in the field

[nick681]

Greetings and Happy Memorial Day!

I have been giving a lot of thought lately to sharpening my INFI in the field. I have never used the "Official" method i.e. a ceramic rod and strop. I have seen these in the PX and thought of getting one.

My question is would it be long enought for say a Natural Outlaw or Euro4/Badger Attack 3? If not is there something similar that would work? I need something I can carry on my person in my gear. Maybe even in the pouch on the sheath.

Any input would be appreciated.

Nick

 

[utmts4me]

here's one possibility. Check out this thread http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=203897
following ideas in this thread, I ordered some of the sandpaper from Lee Valley with the peel off sticky backing and put it on an old mouse pad I had and now it's an inexpensive, light weight and flexible(will roll up) high quality strop. I've been practicing with the tips Buzzbait and Cliff Stamp gave in that threadand it really is quick and quite simple. I think especially if you started with a Busse factory sharpened edge and stropped the flat side of the edge at the end of the day ANY time it was used so as to RESTORE the edge, it would make a very light and portable tool. You could even bring along an extra sheet of that Lee Vally sandpaper and if you happened to wear down the original paper, just peel off the backing and apply a new sheet right over the old one.

What I don't know and maybe someone else could chime in here, is if you used your NO for some hard use digging as I think I remember you saying you have done in the past, if that would degrade the edge (even an INFI edge) to a point beyond the easy restoring ability of this SiC sandpaper strop? Cliff? Jerry? Anyone?

 

[Andrew Lynch]

Originally posted by utmts4me
What I don't know and maybe someone else could chime in here, is if you used your NO for some hard use digging as I think I remember you saying you have done in the past, if that would degrade the edge (even an INFI edge) to a point beyond the easy restoring ability of this SiC sandpaper strop? Cliff? Jerry? Anyone?

I think that if you severely degraded the edge, you should just go down in grit of sandpaper. I would imagine that a low-grit sandpaper would remove metal quite quickly (as long as it is high quality, such as Lee Valley's SiC).

Nick, I'm sure the sharpener above would work fine, and quite quickly. It would probably put quite a toothy edge on the knife, which has advantages and disadvantages.

 

[nick681]

Thanks for the input guys. I will definitly use the sandpaper/mousepad for stropping. On my last deployment I had to use a Lansky to resharpen my Natural Outlaw and in the process had to reprofile the angle to get to work with that system. Now I will have to send it back to Wauseon to get it resharpened. I couldn't find any thing to use as a strop in the middle of the desert except for the cardboard back of a writing tablet. So I have been giving a lot of thought to sharpening in the field and portability. I need to be able to maintain my knives with the least amount of equipment possible. Since I have some time before this becomes an issue I thought I should check out what I would work best. The mousepad/sandpaper strop is really portable and should fit the bill.
I am still looking for the ceramic rod part of the equation. I foung this collapsable Jewlstick. With three grits/sides It should work well. Does anyone have any experience with one of these? They look like they may be just the thing.

 

[Buzzbait]

I take the easy way out when it comes to field sharpening. I just bring a couple sheets of wet/dry paper. The sheets are obviously light, roll or fold up, and are small enough to hide just about anywhere in your gear bag or sheath pouch. I just strop with the paper, using the blue jeans on my leg as a base. It might be slightly more dangerous than a mouse pad (but this is debatable, given that you're pulling the blade instead of pushing), but a fleshy leg conforms wonderfully to a blade's profile. This is the ultra-ultra-ultra-light method of field sharpening, when every ounce and inch counts.

 

[Cliff Stamp]

Buzzbait and Andrew covered the above well, and I would just like to add one small point. When using a rod, you are generally going to be creating a small secondary bevel on the edge. This thickens the edge and makes it more obtuse, thus lowering the cutting ability. This effect is small, but over time will degrade the performance of the edge.

However, keeping the edge sharp on sandpaper as noted in the above, works on the entire edge bevel and thus the cutting ability stays the same as the edge profile never changes. This also means that the time and effort of sharpening is always the same. With the rod method it takes longer each time you do it.

If you do use the rod, I would recommend you don't let the blade degrade to the point that you actually notice the effects of the thickened edge. Periodically sharpen the entire edge bevel with a hone or the sandpaper. This will keep the edge profile pretty close to 100% and prevent a long sharpening session down the road.

-Cliff

 

[Copis]

I have always felt that diamonds are too agressive for INFI. They are overkill. INFI sharpens very easily. I prefer a white spyderco rod. It should be noted though that I have never experienced any edge damage. It takes very little to restore a scary sharp INFI edge.

Bill