Cliff - the Force Recon is a combat knife, but as a civilian, I don't plan to use it for that purpose! Although survival knifes are most likely better suited than combat knives for long treks in the outdoors or extended kayak trips through national parks, I nevertheless plan to bring the FR along as a general all purpose outdoor knife. It's just too nice to leave at home. So - that's what I intend to do with it.
In any event, I wrote to Mr. Ennis and asked his advice re sharpening. He responded curtiously and extremely quickly, and pointed out a very important fact: Entrek knifes have a convex edge, and as a result of this, sharpening them back into a v-type edge necessarly leads to shaving off quite some material in order to achieve this. I will therefore keep the original goemetry of the blade, and will consequently resort to stropping it.
As I told Mr. Ennis, I've had alot of success sharpening Busses with the strop (at the least the convex edge of the Busse), but have had no luck whatsoever with the likes of VG-10 on Fallknivens. INFI is an interesting metal as far as it seems to have a more "rubber" like quality which probably lends itself better to stropping than the extremely hard, almost rigid edge of the Fallknivens.
I'm very interested to see how 440C will react to stropping. At 57-58 RC, I assume that this will be quite possible.
Finally, I'm still in communication with Mr. Ennis, and will post any other interesting tips which I may get from him in connection with sharpening the convex edge of the Entrek knives.
By the way - the FR is one hell of a knife. Not only does it have a mesmerising design, but as is now notorious for Entrek knives, it just has the solid quality and feel of a knife you can rely on. I'm absolutely delighted with it.
