Sharpening Question...

Marion David Poff

Marion David Poff

Joined
Oct 8, 1998
Messages
5,403
Good Day,

At home we have all sorts of cool gadgets and rigs to sharpen our knives and we get edges that satisfy us.

But, if we want to enjoy the great outdoors without a pack animal, what sort of sharpeners can we carry that will get the job done from start to finish and not weigh us down un-necessarily?

Especially focusing on sharpeners that take some of the guess work out of good edges and that can take a knife from profoundly dull or even damaged to as sharp as we can stand.

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Thank you,
Marion David Poff aka Eye, Cd'A ID, USA mdpoff@hotmail.com

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I have two that I carry:

1) Myerco Sharpenit; lightweight, stays in my daypack (or backpack)
2) My key ring size DMT fold out diamond stone which is with me always (if my pants are on
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Both are good for field touch up although the Myerco is much more efficient and easy to use.
 
Recently bought a Sharpen-It, haven't had a lot of time with it but it does seem to do what it says it will. Regrets are that the shapening rod should have been diamond coated. My all out favorite is a diamond hone, much more versitile, and weight effecient, these can more easily sharpen any tool you need with a little practice and patience.
 
Fold out DMT pocket sharpener for me, please!
Light weight and 'bites' into stainless steel easily. I also have a ceramic rod sharpener that cannot deal with stainless steel. Coarse DMT in knife sheath pouch, fine in the kit. I use the coarse more often for convenience.
I have not tried a diamond rod but like the idea.
Has anyone tried natural stones? Besides sandstone, what did you use?

HM
 
For myself I like to use a flat surface and abrasives such as carburundum powder through green buffing compound. The surface can be leather, cardboard, glass, even wood. The only advantage of this is to construct a large sharpening surface without weight or cost of large stones. I find such stuff to work well on my Scandinavian type knives where whole bevel is sharpened.
I find that if I properly set bevel on a cheap Mora, and sharpen to fine edge, then I can do a lot of cutting and resharpen edge to point where it will cut a zig zag white cigarette paper within two minutes - no special sharpeners required, just following bevel. The hard steel does tend to chip out finely and lose sharpness quickly if sharpened with a diamond stone only - I don't have an ultra fine one.

I have a friend who can destroy the edge on any blade in minutes cutting wood. If there's any tree in sight which develops silicious accretions - like in hemlock stubs - he'll find it and try chopping at it. So some people might need more sharpening aids than others...

I've used naturally occuring abrasives - fine sand/silt on a flat surface. It isn't as easy to get sharp crystals as one would think, since most stuff carried by water will be rounded. You also have to water settle it to get uniform size to work well. As you'll find by using some kitchen cleaner like Comet, the quartz crystals soon chip round or abrade each other and lose effectiveness.

For most people a DMT duofold with medium and superfine grits would probably work best.
 
Jimbo :

I've used naturally occuring abrasives - fine sand/silt on a flat surface. It isn't as easy to get sharp crystals as one would think, since most stuff carried by water will be rounded.
Click to expand...

How about grinding them up a little to break them apart and expose sharp cutting surfaces?

-Cliff
 
Hi Cliff:

The best answer of course was to go where the grains are angular - higher up the mountains or to a lateral moraine where glaciers have left millions of tons of stuff in angular state. I'll have to try pounding up some rounded grains of sand to see just how well that works though.
For sure any natural abrasives will work to some degree. One can clean the oxidation off a knife quickly by rubbing in any sand or dirt. In actual sharpening there is a big difference in efficiency between sharp grains and rounded grains - obviously.
Water settling is the best way I've found of sorting to grain size and mineral type. Things are not too critical with grain size if a soft support is used so that the larger grains can just embed more deeply.
I'll look into this stuff and let everyone know how it goes.

A couple of questions occur to me that people could help with:
1. What woods in your area contain hard spots that destroy knife edges? I mentioned in my previous post about the effects of the silicious concretions in western hemlock stubs.
2. Does anyone know of a source for large flat ceramic sharpeners? All the tile I've looked at has protrusions for gluing or isn't flat - and I'm not seeing any large flat ceramic stones advertized for sharpening. I need stones in 4" by 8".
 
at my shop seattle cutlery. we have Idahone 8" ceramic stones and some 4" med. & fine.

ph# 206-441-8988

on a trip I take a norton india c/f 6" alittle heavy but worth it. sometimes I take an Ultimate Edge 4" diamond. It is the best one out there and does serrated as well


 
DMT Duofold coarse/fine. This is my first diamond sharpener and I must say that I am amazed at how effective they are. I was having trouble recently sharpening a knife on my Sharpmaker. I tried for about 20 minutes and gave up. I busted out my Duofold and got a shaving sharp edge in about 2 minutes. The Duofold is light and compact yet long enough to sharpen big fixed blades. The handles fold over the stone like a butterfly knife and keep it safe and protected. For field use, you will not find a better sharpener.

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Louis Buccellato
http://www.themartialway.com
Knives, Weapons and equipment. Best prices anywhere.
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"only the paranoid will survive"
 
After trying, reading and generally fustrating myself with flat stones, I bought a GATCO sharpening kit, added the "Ultra" hone, and the serrated hone. Now my knives are always hair popping sharp, and only require a couple of maintenance strokes to keep 'em that way.
 
I just reread the thread and noticed the sharpener was supposed to me used in the field. That leaves me back to the maddening, fustrating flat stones. When hunting and i know I'll need a good sharp blade...I bring three!
 
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