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How do you sharpen at home and in the field?
Posted: Thu, 22 Sep 2011 17:04:28
by ShortMan
Specifically large survival knives. Got an Ontario Air Force knife recently and while its a good blade I'm having trouble making a nice sharp edge on it for all day use.
When I couldn't get results with the included stone I tried my electronic butcher knife sharpener. Did OK but there's not enough room to shove a fat blade down in there and get it done perfect. The cheap chinese survival knives I own have never given me this much trouble.
Also, whats your preferred method to sharpen when away from home?
Re: How do you sharpen at home and in the field?
Posted: Thu, 22 Sep 2011 17:44:10
by Jakeiscrazy
The Ontario blows those Chinese knives out of the water. I use two different methods
1. A Smith's Tri Hone
This works well for smalls knives but on a large knife there is isn't enough stone but with a little patience you can use it. If you do want to use the Tri Hone you need to mostly use the medium and fine stone unless you have really knocked your blade. It works okay on my KABAR.
2. Strops
I just use the back of a belt and a polishing compounds. Works great for knives that need a razor edge but I kind like a slightly rougher edge on my larger knives.
Re: How do you sharpen at home and in the field?
Posted: Thu, 22 Sep 2011 17:54:28
by ShortMan
Re: How do you sharpen at home and in the field?
Posted: Sun, 25 Dec 2011 20:27:40
by hatchetman
I use a multi-stone and finish with Arkansas hone stone at home, with various ceramic sticks, including a Dexter 3 stick sharpener for touchup.
Usually have a small diamond hone when out in the field. A trick I've used a lot while out and about involves raiding the kitchen and looking for ceramic plates and coffee cups that aren't glazed on the bottom. You can draw a blade backwards against these unglazed areas for a more than decent hone.
Re: How do you sharpen at home and in the field?
Posted: Sun, 25 Dec 2011 22:20:13
by jdonovan
ShortMan wrote:Specifically large survival knives. Got an Ontario Air Force knife recently and while its a good blade I'm having trouble making a nice sharp edge on it for all day use.
What are you using a survival knife 'all day' to do?!?!?
Re: How do you sharpen at home and in the field?
Posted: Tue, 20 Mar 2012 20:40:52
by dmharvey
I've always used one of these for all of my knives...home, kitchen, hunting, outdoors, whatever.
https://lansky.com/
Re: How do you sharpen at home and in the field?
Posted: Tue, 20 Mar 2012 21:07:18
by allingeneral
I like a good two-sided whet stone and a smidge of WD40.
Chuck Norris, on the other hand, has been known to sharpen knives with his teeth, with a balloon and with his beard!
And while we're talking about Chuck Norris...
Chuck Norris can cut a knife with a stick of butter.
Re: How do you sharpen at home and in the field?
Posted: Tue, 20 Mar 2012 22:06:51
by sigster
Woodworkers call it the scary sharp method. A piece of plate glass and wet/dry sandpaper from 400 up to 2000 grit. Glue the paper to the glass and hone away. One word of advice, leave the lights out when using this method. While sharpening my tac-tool one night, my wife turned the light on and the shadow of the knife cut off the curtains.
Re: How do you sharpen at home and in the field?
Posted: Wed, 21 Mar 2012 19:53:55
by M1A4ME
I've been using the Lansky since about 1981 or so. I've replaced some of the stones once, one of them twice. With a lot of use they'll get concave in the middle and that defeats the idea of controlling the angle of the edge.
Re: How do you sharpen at home and in the field?
Posted: Wed, 21 Mar 2012 21:41:28
by allingeneral
jdonovan wrote:ShortMan wrote:Specifically large survival knives. Got an Ontario Air Force knife recently and while its a good blade I'm having trouble making a nice sharp edge on it for all day use.
What are you using a survival knife 'all day' to do?!?!?
That hit me kinda funny. So what's the answer?
