Sharpening in the wilderness

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wildstar

Joined
Jun 7, 2002
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Can you/ do you sharpen your blades while you are in the wilderness? I do not want to carry a sharping stone with me, even a small one. I was thinking of using available smooth rocks and stones found in the outdoors.

I could only imagine a soft steel such as a SAK might be easier to sharpen than a premiem steel. Any one sharpen using rocks? Any comments?
 
You can strop on the inside of your leather belt (assuming you wear one).

A very light alternative to stones is to take a partial sheet or two of wet/dry sandpaper (one coarser, one finer) and use that to touch up your edges in the field. Weighs next to nothing and is highly effective.
 
I used to carry a small gatco ceramic sharpener with 2 fine and 2 medium rods. Takes up very little room and easily fits in small belt pouches. But I switched to a full convex blade, so now I carry 600 and 1500 W/D paper with me, along with half a mouse pad. Is actually bulkier than the gatco, but still doesn't take up much room and does an excellent job, along with stroping on my belt, to keep my blades nice and sharp.
 
Eze-Lap sharpener which is a 4" x 1/4" diamond covered rod . It fits into it's handle.
 
longbow50 said:
But I switched to a full convex blade, so now I carry 600 and 1500 W/D paper with me, along with half a mouse pad. Is actually bulkier than the gatco, but still doesn't take up much room and does an excellent job, along with stroping on my belt, to keep my blades nice and sharp.
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This is what I would recommend. I strop all my knives no matter what edge type.
Scott
 
I'll add another vote for a small diamond sharpener.EZ-lap makes a small flat hone on a piece of plastic about an inch wide and 6 inches long. it's flat enough that when I cut off most of the handle it fits in my wallet.

I've always felt if you carry a knife, carry something to touch it up on.
 
I'll carry a DMT duofold sharpener in the field to get a quicky touch-up edge. If I was really up the creek w/ out a paddle I'd try the flat stone thing, I'll probably experiment w/ it using a cheaper production knife, but I wouldn't make a general habit out of it.
 
longbow50 said:
But I switched to a full convex blade, so now I carry 600 and 1500 W/D paper with me, along with half a mouse pad.
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Also agree with the convex edge and paper. I carry a piece of 600 grit only and use my thigh as the pad. Works great. Belt strop ends the chore nicely.

Sharpening need not be complicated.

Skam
 
Why do you not want to carry a small stone? A 3" diamond stone is light and easily stored away and will sharpen knives from tiny to mighty. It's better to have it than depend on stones and such. Stropping will work if the blade is'nt really dull, then you'll need somethiong that will work for sure. Just my opinion..hope that helps, Jim
 
wildstar said:
I was thinking of using available smooth rocks and stones found in the outdoors.
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Lots of sharpening stones are natural rocks, I have quite a few including a chinese one which is so soft you can score it with a fingernail.

I could only imagine a soft steel such as a SAK might be easier to sharpen than a premiem steel.
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There is a lot made about ease of sharpening in a steel argued based on ease of machinability of the steel, this is actually of little consequence for field work for a number of reasons.

Primarily it takes a massive amount of work to blunt a knife to the point where you could improve it on a river rock, this isn't a few minutes, or even hours of wood work, with a quality steel.

The main reason you have to sharpen knives in brush work is when the edge gets damaged, I carry a file and a dual coarse/fine stone for repairing the edge on a bad glance or when an axe tears through ant-wood.

Same thing for machete work and other large blade chopping, even with a cheap machete I have never had to stop in the middle of a day to sharpen unless I hit a rock or something covered in grass.

-Cliff
 
forgive the newbie question but, could someone explain stroping to me?? i see this mentioned alot. i spend a lot of time in the woods and am also looking for i small lightweight sharpening device. i'm looking for something that could sharpen both a 1095 rat-7 and an SAK, as these will be my most likely choices. i've always carried just a folder and more recently a mora. but i like the versatility that a 7" blade would give me (light chopping and splitting). i was thinking of a small stone, course on one side and fine on the other. any reccomendations??

thanks
 
Stropping just means the blade is pulled rather than pushed into the abrasive, it is mainly done on leather. Diamond plates are fairly nice for carrying around as they are far less likely to break than ceramics or most benchstones, DMT makes nice ones.

-Cliff
 
I use the ceramic rod I got from Edge Pro..What a beautiful sharpener it is. Start sharp and just do touchups....
 
im my area, theres lots of sandstone, and clay. what i do, is go to a river, and get a smooth piece of stone, and smear some fine silty clay on it, and sharpen that way. we also have granite, that i use for the final edge polishing. ground up slate powder, mixed with water, and put on a leather stap will work for stropping a razor edge. you could also use clay instead of slate.
i still would carry a good diamond stone in a sheath pocket. it takes too long to get a good edge with natural materials.
 
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