What sharpening system do you compliment your RAT with?

home or field.....at home I use a burton tri stone system same as at work(butcher). In the field I use a small arkansas stone and strop
 
absolutely Just about everyone I know owns one but me.....They are awesome and easy to use.......I just never got one because I already had my burton, and I don't see me using a sharpmaker on a 12 in. breaker knife.
 
For outdoor use, I'll be getting one of those
M-Sharps. But that will be way after getting the RatPack knife. I won't be out that much this winter.
 
I usually just use sandpaper and strops. In the field I will often just pack some sandpaper (or a small stone) and some cardboard with strop butter on it.
 
I personally like large bench stones, at least 8" long.

For very dull edges or reprofiling, I start with a course India man made stone.

Next is a fine India stone.

Then I use a Soft Arkansas

A final hone is then put on with a hard Translucent Arkansas.

To finish it up, I strop the blade on a manila folder with green compound.

I choose what stone to start the process depending on how sharp the edge is. If it's still pretty sharp, I just strop it to bring the edge back.
 
I always sucked at sharpening til I got a set of paper wheels. Now everything in the house is sharp.
I've also used my 2 x 42 belt sander, either way I end up stropping a little to polish up the edge.
 
I use custom made sharpening system with Al2O3+ZrO2+SiO2 stones. But principle of operation is just like any Lansky or DMT - so i would recommend something like that. Still same edge angle, no tricky sharpening tip of blade.
 
I have a Sharpmaker and love it. Simple, compact and effective. Most knives are too thin to handle a true convex edge so maintaining the beveled edges makes sense for a lot of knives.

It's much harder to maintain a proper beveled edge when stropping and free-handing on benchstones.
 
I use a sharpmaker at home but a series of DMT diamond cards and a couple of half-sharpmaker rods (deliberately broken in half and kept in a plastic tube) when I'm in the field. :)
 
I mainly used leather hones but it really began to get messy, now I use a Fallkniven DC-4, I can carry it in my pocket, and damn are they really nice stones, I used it to sharpen a camp axe that had the childproof flat edge and it worked really well, I used it on my HEST, Izula and RC-6 so far and I am really pleased, its a great pocket carry sharpening stone, I would highly recommend anyone to try it at least once
 
I own a Sharpmaker, and used it for quite some time when I was a beginner with knife sharpening. Now that my skills have improved, I can get away with some DMT diamond plates and a nice Viking whetstone I bought from Ragnar. Not only is it much more portable, it also allows me to experiment with more acute edges, while the Sharpmaker is somewhat limited in that regard. The whetstone (which I hang around my neck along with the Izula) does a great job of finishing the edge of a knife, so I rarely bring out the DMTs.
 
I would go with either dmt aligner system or gatcos diamond system if you want to have a consistent edge.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top