Sharpening on vacation

I guess the question is what kind of vacations you are taking and what kinds of cutting you have to do.

I mean, you could go with Bob Denman Bob Denman 's suggestion and choose something with higher edge retention. You could also sharpen before vacation to ensure a fresh edge. It all comes down to the above questions though. For instance, are we talking about extended hunting trips or roughing it in the woods for a couple of weeks?

For what I'd normally consider "vacation", I've almost exclusively taken budget knives. As with regular EDC, steels like 9Cr18Mov and 14C28N hold up just fine.
 
Chronovore said:
I guess the question is what kind of vacations you are taking and what kinds of cutting you have to do.

I mean, you could go with Bob Denman Bob Denman 's suggestion and choose something with higher edge retention. You could also sharpen before vacation to ensure a fresh edge. It all comes down to the above questions though. For instance, are we talking about extended hunting trips or roughing it in the woods for a couple of weeks?

For what I'd normally consider "vacation", I've almost exclusively taken budget knives. As with regular EDC, steels like 9Cr18Mov and 14C28N hold up just fine.
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Last year I drove to Montana to visit family and I took my ESEE folding zancudo in AUS8. I cut up food and some small sticks for s’mores but the edge was running dulling by the end of 2 weeks. Just curious if anyone took something along.
 
RugerNurse said:
Last year I drove to Montana to visit family and I took my ESEE folding zancudo in AUS8. I cut up food and some small sticks for s’mores but the edge was running dulling by the end of 2 weeks. Just curious if anyone took something along.
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These days, I'm pretty happy with budget steels like 9Cr18Mov, 14C28N, N690, etc. They tend to hold a better edge. If you started with a fresh edge and weren't cutting food against glass or ceramic, I'm betting any of those steels would have made it through the trip with working edge to spare.

A decade ago, I might have taken a Kershaw in 14C28N but I also tended to carry budget knives in AUS-8, 8Cr13, or 7Cr17. Those steels definitely needed to be stropped or sharpened more often. AUS-8 was usually the best of that bunch but still a step down from what I'd consider adequate budget steels today. A fresh edge on a decent piece of AUS-8 probably would have made it but I like a larger margin.

That's what higher edge retention really is: a larger margin. I look at corrosion resistance in a similar light. It's a higher hedge.
 
Stropping on cardboard helps to make the edge a little keene, not for a super steel, but basic it did just fine. Has anyone used the bottom of a ceramic coffee cup? Or a car window edge?
 
DMT Diafold HC in Fine/Extra Fine. If that's not enough, it's not an on-the-go sharpening job.
 
I have slipped a DMT Diafold into an inside pocket of my bag whenever I'm going to be gone for longer than a day or two. I've carried that thing for years, and can count the times I've actually needed to use it on two fingers. Both times, it was exactly the situation Owen K. Owen K. describes, where an AirBnB we and a few other couples were staying had laughably dull knives in the kitchen. The ladies needed their limes, if you know what I mean.
 
EZlap diamond stick, my whole life is a vacation.

I’ve had knives and tools stolen out of my luggage back when I used to fly. I don’t fly anymore, but I tend to take knives that wouldn’t be a disaster to lose. I also tend to be a lousy predicter of future cutting needs, and want to be prepared for the unexpected.

Like John, I’ve also sharpened other peoples’ knives with the EZlap.

Parker
 
besides the smooth river rock i pluck out of the nearby stream.......


dmt diafold too. on a long stay at family cabin in ga mountians.....ill pack up the spydeco sharpmaker. never needed more than that.
 
Could also follow the advice of Mr. Horace Kephart and glue a piece of emery cloth to some cardboard.
 
Bob Denman said:
Damn! I like how you think!
Are you related to K.O.D.?

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Thankfully (for the world) I only have one sibling, and she is the normal one. Then again, when you crack open an 11 year old's skull open and scoop stuff out like a cantaloupe, mental instability is a likely result.
 
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