Sharpening

[Jake D]

Hi

I noticed we have a good few members joined who are into bushcraft. The new section is a useful addition. Welcome to all the new members.

Can any of you tell me the best way to keep a penknife sharp when backpacking without taking a huge oilstone with you? Thanks.

[Scott]

There's lots of different ways you can do this, but I would reccomend taking a small field stone something like a arkansas stone that can be lubricated with good ole spit or the Diamond DC4 although I hear they are quite fragile. I use a gransfors Sharpening stone for sharpening my axe and my knives in the field as they are smaller than a hockey puck, can lubricate with spit, easy to sharpen with and has a coarse and fine side.

[David]

If you don't fancy using a stone for any other reason, you could always use a small steel, which is very versatile if you are not trying to get a razor finish. Alternatively you could use a lapping plate or ceramic rod. These can get exceptional sharpness, but I think they may be slightly too expensive for the average backpacker. You could even use extremely fine grained sandpaper if you are not too bothered about the end result. Remember to take a bit of leather as a strop to get the final finish.

[Scott]

Yes a strop is very important to ensure your edge will remain sharp. If you don't want to spend on stones and steels then you could make a "Hoodoo Hone" these are especially suited to convex edges

[Survivaldon]

Jake wrote:
Can any of you tell me the best way to keep a penknife sharp when backpacking without taking a huge oilstone with you? Thanks.
Hey Jake,

Unless you hit the blade on a rock or severely damage it, I wouldn't recommend using a diamond or Arkansas stone or on your knife. Most people assume that it is necessary to sharpen a blade by this method (stone.) When a blade gets dull it's only because the edge has rolled over. Using a stone removes steel. you don't want to remove steel, you want to re-align and hone the edge.

A ceramic stick or steel is the only thing that I use. A ceramic stick will put a really sharp edge that will last for a long time.

My belt is 2" wide leather that I use as my strop. First I hone the edge with the ceramic stick then I polish the edge by stropping it with my belt. It works great. Been doing it that way for better than 20 years and all my blades still look like new too.

The other nice thing about the ceramic stick is that you can carry it in your pocket with you all the time so it is there whenever you need to sharpen your knife. I've been carrying the one I use for better than 12 years now.

Here's a link to the Gatco ceramic sharpening sticks.
http://www.premiumknives.com/ShopSite/Pocket_Sharpeners.html

[Scott]

Jake you may also want to run a search for "Starkie Sharp" this is a piece of leather that comes with a special compound that you rub onto the leather and will sharpen a dulled edge upto razor sharpness in a few minutes strop!

[Digby]

This stropping compound sounds interesting. In the old days razored were stropped on leather dressed with a mixture of carborundum or jewelers' rouge and goose grease. I'll be glad to find a modern alternative - I'm getting too old to chase geese!

[Survivaldon]

Digby wrote:
This stropping compound sounds interesting. In the old days razored were stropped on leather dressed with a mixture of carborundum or jewelers' rouge and goose grease. I'll be glad to find a modern alternative - I'm getting too old to chase geese!
Digby,

The modern day jewelers' rouge compounds do an excellent job on strops for polishing blades. There is a polishing compound that is a silica based jewelers' rouge that will hone a knife blade to actual shaving edge quality.

Here's a link to some really nice strops:
http://www.classicshaving.com/page/page/522944.htm

Here's links to some cutting & sharpening compounds:
http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/nenam/buffing-material.htm
http://www.englishcustompolishing.com/usca/abrasives.html

Cheers! :D

[Scott]

You can get the starkie sharp from www.axminster.co.uk (http://www.axminster.co.uk)

[Emanresu]

In the UK you can buy a 'kitchen devils' knife sharpener which has two small steels embedded in a U shaped plastic handle. You run the knife blade to restore a 'steeled' edge at the point where the steels cross. Once you have got an edge on a good knife, these are great for maintaining it.

[Marmot]

Yer we've got one of those. Not so good with small stubby blades, but they are good

[Superslogger]

If you use a knife with a carbon steel blade, it's a good idea to also carry a small plastic bag containing a few square inches of cloth soaked with WD40.

[carbon]

you can buy folding compact diamond "steels" that are only a couple of inches long.You could try http://www.militarykit.com/products/gerber/diamond_sharpener.htm
Diamond steels will leave you with no blade at all if you use them too much.altho i havent worked in a kitchen for many years i'm a trained chef and this will give you the best edge.i love the outdoors too much to be cooped up in a hot kitchen.

[Marmot]

dont blame you, a kitchen must be aweful in hot weather, this weekend is unbearably hot!

[Ollie]

Or it was ;) Dunno what's happened to the weather now :(