Stone for the BK16 Sheath & Straight answer on how sharpen a knife

The picture on the first page is of the Norton India Combination Stone. It has two sides, the orange one is the finer of the two. The other courser side is black.

The two sizes shown are the 8 x 2 x 1 and the 11 1/2 x 2 1/2 x 1........they make a pocket stone also. I use WD40 as a lubricant and to clean the stone with.

The DMT stuff is great and I wish I had a few of them but they are expensive in the larger sizes that I like. I'm just cheap so I stick with the Norton. For steadiness I hold the knives with both hands and slowly and carefully sharpen with not much pressure as desribed above by 22-rimfire.

Sharpening can be a hobby within a hobby! Whatever you do, I would learn to freehand first, then if you want move on to something else. It's all fun!
 
My Norton India Stone was $15 (2x8"). The small (1.5x3") one which is still a bit wide for the pouch on the BK-16 was $7. I prefer to carry a SAK in the pouches on the sheaths versus a sharpening stone. Yes, that makes me more likely to forget a sharpening stone in the field, but I seldom have ever sharpened a knife in the field other than in a camp situation or for fun.

EZE-LAP is another brand of diamond stone which are less expensive than DMT. Some have said that the consistancy of the grit was an issue. My superfine (1200 grit)/fine (600 grit) 2x6" was about $50 and is just fine. My large Duo Sharp DMT (coarse/fine) was approaching $100. The smaller ones are much less expensive and there are quite a selection to choose from. The DMT Mini-Sharp (1x3") works just fine and is easy to carry in the field, but I prefer a larger sharpening stone.

The Smith brand stones seem to work just fine and they offer diamond and "arkansas" type stones. They are less expensive than the DMT brand. I use a couple of these with regularlity and keep one that slides into the handle in my field bag (for work) and use it from machetes to knives to axes.

I have had poor luck buying really hard Arkansas stones when I used to camp in the Ozarks and Ouachita's in Arkansas. Years ago the Bugger Hollow store sold seconds and were like $5 each then. I still have a number of these.... they never go away.

I have a little Case brand moon stone that I believe is a water stone. Always worked well with Case brand knives. Used it for years as my primary sharpening stone.

As you can see, there are a wide selection of sharpening stones available. Then you have the sharpening systems like Sharpmarker and Lansky.

I seem to buy stones every couple of years "just because". Don't need them but a new one catches my eye. The Norton India was my most recent purchase and that was because of Ethan. Been using it a fair amount.
 
Find an old man whittling and ask him to show you how to sharpen a knife.
 
tradewater said:
Find an old man whittling and ask him to show you how to sharpen a knife.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure where you live but out here in NJ the odds of spotting a old man whittling is about as high as finding bigfoot. I've heard of both, never seen either.
 
Sometimes I'm not sure where I live either. If you have flea markets, thrift shops or antique shops in NJ pick up a few old butcher knives and a stone, watch a few videos and put some effort into it. It's the only way you'll learn.
 
Nobody has mentioned how to sharpen freehand with sandpaper yet?

These techniques shown in these videos have proved extremely valuable to me, and I already knew how to freehand on stones before learning these methods.

I just received a BK16 for Christmas and plan to keep a small roll of sandpaper in the sheath pouch. I usually just strop on my jeans (yes, strops of denim are actually preferred over leather by many and for me, stropping is done way more often than sharpening)


I hope these help.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE8_HIdBZWs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qlM2JDJkQY
 
With sand paper, assuming the paper doesn't move, you would pull the knife across the paper rather than pushing the knife into the stone. You can also use a stone the same way. Most stropping is done with a pulling or dragging motion rather than pushing motion of the blade.
 
^ Thanks Derek. I was looking for that thread and the linked "nail file" thread within it this morning. Iz Turley had some good videos though, so I posted those in lieu of a link to your thread posted above.
 
A sharpie is an indispensable tool for a novice sharpener in my opinion. Really, the secret to sharpening is to make sure you actually sharpen to the edge. Everything else is negotiable. But if you don't get to the edge, you don't get a sharp knife.
 
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