Simply put, many people push too hard when sharpening or maintaining their cutlery on abrasive papers, diamond stones, honing steels, ceramic rods, natural, water, oil stones, strops, etc. To keep from damaging your bonded diamond surface, let the diamonds do the cutting. Manhandling either the diamond stone or, a strop for that matter, will not render the best of results. If you are bending something like the DMT Diafold while sharpening, you are pushing MUCH too hard.
Whether the need to sharpen (remove metal) actually exists in the field has nothing to do with the amount of time spent in the field, but rather on your *activity level with the knife* while in the field. In this case, it doesn't much matter what someone else requires with regards to knife maintenance, but what do you require with your activity level in your environment, is the question.
The small diamond stones (Fallkniven, DMT, Eze-lap, Lansky, Kershaw, Chefs Choice, Gerber, etc., etc.,) will all do an adequate job of maintaining your Scandinavian knife in the field...providing your bevels were flat to begin with. Flattening bevels on a Scandi-grind with something like a small stone is something I wouldn't wish on anyone. I have better things to do with my time, myself.
Consistent and persistent (when needed) stropping will often keep you from having to actually haul out the sharpening stone. If you want to avoid the slight convex edge that can occur when stropping on soft strops loaded with honing compounds (many people prefer a very slight convex edge on their bevels), a firm surface is what you will want to use (can be leather glued to a paint stick or belt laid over a stump or rock, so on and so forth). I have stropped on my pant leg or belt with adequate results for the moment.
BTW, I have stacks (all brands, sizes, shapes, flavors) of synthetic water stones in the shop. Water stones have the ability to cut very quickly or, polish and refine to a mirror finish as one graduates through the grits. Scandinavian grinds work best with polished bevels since Scandinavian grinds are specifically intended to work with softwoods. My quailty wood chisels, plane blades, carving knives, other wood cutting tools all have polished grinds. Many of these are sharpened on the high maintenance water stones because of their unique characteristics and efficiency.
