On Sharpening A Knife

Always be careful with sharp things.You can get a flesh wound - it will heal, (be careful of infection); but, you can also sever a tendon and that needs immediate medical attention or you’ll lose mobility of whatever it moved - assume how I know.

If you find yourself pushing the edge of a blade into an object or otherwise not slicing - stop, sharpen, or figure out how to reach a material that can be sliced. If it wont cut - stop! A ready knife hardly needs a sawing motion.

There are several keys you must keep in mind while sharpening: keep your hone clean, addapt attention to the pressure and angle that you use.

Knives, choke knives (aka, an ulu) or any tool designed for cutting are given a value by the hands that wield them - ones which can efficiently put a sharp edge back on.

A-feild, the diamond hone works very well; it won't shatter or crack and the bite lasts.

The "puck" is a cheap, two sided, manufactured, abrasive stone, commonly used for axes. These can be a helpful tool to reduce the bevel on a thick spined, multi purpose knife. You can then take it to the finer grit for the edge.

The best sharpening stones are the ones you can find off the ground, but you may need to work a little to make it a stone for sharpening a knife. If you are in the field, without a hone, a flat rock surface of the required grit will do. You don’t want a dense granite stone. With water, rub the flat abrasive sandstone gainst another flat stone to make an already near flat surface, even flatter. Then, keeping the surface of your flat honing sandstone wet — so to prevent clogging the grit of the stone.

Ceramic stones are the best bought all around stone; specifically referring to the "Whet stone", by Spyderco. Choose the brown medium grit for an all around stone.

You can use any ceramic, such as a mug base, but ceramic made for the task has materials baked into the formula during the manufacture and this makes it especially effective at sharpening knives.

Lye water can keep these ceramics clean while honing.

Work the bevel on one side, then the other. Eventually a burr will form; this will appear as a sliver of steel at the leading edge; this is also something you want to remove, as it will easily peel over and "dull" the edge. So once you have ground out a burr , lightly, begin to make a sharp edge of the blade by sharpening one side, then switch to the other; almost as light as allowing the knife to use its own weight, and that’s all.

At this point, the knife should be quite sharp, and the burr gone. The knife is ready, but you can strop too - this will clean up any left over burr or imperfections on the edge. A strop is a length of leather, with a green “compound” coating, but there are many things with similar in material quality; a square of cardboard works quite well. I use piece of thick leathe, a compact inch by three cut glued to a chunk of flat lumber, flesh side up and without compound. Sweep the blade back and forth at an angle where the bevel is near flush with the surface. 

A heaver, and yet quite a good alternative to the strop is the steel rod and is great for making a shaver and maintaining without sharpening. The rod (or/and strop) will prolong the life of your knife tremendously. Skate the rod with the edge; you aren’t grinding steel, only re honing or breaking away micro dulls.

If the situation presents itself, you can even use the edge of another knife to rehone your current blade. An off angle scrape will give both a working edge.

Keep in mind that with lower end steels, a shaving sharp edge achieved to the blade wont last very long, especially when working with bones and so forth. Often times a jagged micro saw, achivied from a rough quick lick on a sandstone or other abrasive rock is a fine result.

The leading edge of a knife is micro thick (everything else on the knife blade is supportive mettal that must be chewed off when sharpening). No matter how well your knife is made, it wont take mutch to dull this measure of steel. The key to sharpening a peice of steel is to pay attention to pressure and the agle of the knife on the hone. Under normal use on just meat, gently scrape on the leading edge when it loses the razor - GENTLY. Hard rough off bevel steel ,which is only there to suport the fine sliver of center steel that will be the leading edge of the life of the knife, and then throughout the day just skirt the edge on your fine ceramic or other hone. If you are nicking bones or cutting dense materia, like leather or tendon, put more pressure on the hone to cut off the micro dulls.

Pay attention to the angle; generally, maintain one.

The above also shows why a overy thick bushcraft knife is a bad choice. Excesses steel will only serve as weight in the pack and an energy drain when reducing bevel in the bush. 1095 or another high carbon steel knife, finnished thin is the best bush knife. The high carbons are flexible, intensely tough and easy to sharpen.

But that is in an ideal situation. Even the best made knives have a limmited keen edge time, so if you don't have the means, if you already have a tone of knives, just dont wory too much about what your knife is made of or how. Use the steel to the practical end and then get a new one.

Sharpening - like any skill - takes practice which will lead to understanding of material performance and develop into practical muscle memory. The point is to just have a cutting edge in hand however, so don't worry too much about other details.