Super steel folders sharpening in the woods

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sherlockbonez

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Apr 28, 2002
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Did some car camping on the weekend, and guess what, no one brought a knife but me AGAIN. One guy brought a giant spool of rope and no knife :rolleyes:.

Anyways, it got me thinking that how am I suppose to sharpened all these
S30Vs w/o a sharpmaker?

It held a workable edge fine enough, but what it gets really dull??
 
I carry a small Smith's diamond sharpener, course/fine on opposite sides. It does fine with my Native (SV30). I also use it on my RAT-3 which is D-2 although I find it difficult to actually dull the edge to the point of needing anything more than a touch up.
 
The only S30Vs I have are a nemesis Hellion and a Buck Hartsook, neither of which get much use though the Buck is only a couple months old. I use a DMT butterfly 2 sided stone as my primary sharpener but as of yet I can't how well it will work on S30V.

Sounds like you better get a couple Moras for your knifeless friends to use.
 
Would the crock sticks be clogged quickly? I only carry a busted sharpmaker rod with me, but I never use it for anything but fish hooks.
 
Spyderco sells pocket-size stones made out of the same 'super ceramic' as the Sharpmaker sticks. I just bought the DoubleStuff model, which has a fine surface on one side and a medium surface on the other. Works just as well with my ZDP Caly III as the Sharpmaker in terms of removing metal, but of course the Sharpmaker is handier since I don't have to think about holding the bevel a the right angle.
 
I always wondered about those. Don't they slide around when you try to sharpen with them because they are so light?
 
Maybe I am a little old fashion but I carry a Schrade "Old Timer" honesteel for field touch ups on flat ground knives. It will return a slightly dull knife to skinning or meat cutting condition in minutes. It also does a bang up job on fish hooks.

On convex blades I have a flexible pocket hone I made from a mouse pad, some double edged tape, various grades of wet dry sandpaper and an Altoid box. The truth is I use it very little. I have a piece of cardboard charged with chromium doxide that I carry in a zip lock bag that handles most of my field touch ups.

My hunting and camping belt is leather. On the back of it is a section charged with a chrm oxide wax crayon. I keep that section covered with duct tape when it is not in use. Between the charged section and the raw leather on the other side my belt will touch up most dull knives.
 
sherlockbonez said:
I always wondered about those. Don't they slide around when you try to sharpen with them because they are so light?
Click to expand...

I use the method Spyderco recommends -- I lay the stone on its suede pouch and the pouch acts as a "placemat" to keep the stone in place. Sometimes I just hold the knife stationary and move the stone, though.
 
The Lansky Dog Bone is a good ceramic field sharpener and very light. They make a triangular one that fits the Spyderco serrations.

DMT makes several folding diamond sharpeners. The Mini Sharp is one of my favorites as it folds and has enough handle to keep your fingers out of the way.

The lightest, most compact diamond field sharpener I have found is the EZE Lap model H, which is a flat 3/4" x 2-1/2" 600 grit stone with a hook groove. It comes with a snap shackle and split ring to use as a keychain. I just used a loop of paracord on mine and it stays in my PSK.

EZE Lap makes some credit card sized flat diamond stones down to 1200 grit.
http://www.eze-lap.com/product/creditcard.htm. That 400/1200 kit for $20 is tempting.

If I were going for broke, a small 600 grit diamond stone and a Lansky Dogbone would give great edges in the field. I carry the 600 grit EZE Lap H as a minimum in my kit, aiming at really messed up blades. You might not get a shaving sharp edge with the 600 grit, but you can get enough edge back to keep working.

You could carry a little sandpaper for touch-ups --- you won't get much lighter or cheaper than that and it can be used for other things. Also, Fallkniven makes a small whetstone that is ceramic on one side, diamond on the other. It works great, but its a little on the heavy side for hiking.
 
Eze-Lap 1/4" diamond rod .I've used one for many years .It will sharpen anything. They have many other choices now.
 
For longer stretches in the woods, I will carry a DMT two-sided folding sharpener in fine/x-fine. If I am carrying a convexed knife, I carry a two-sided strop with two different grits.
 
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