Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Field sharpening knives

a good knife should not need much sharpening in the field. If mine were to need a touch up, I have a small diamond stick in my pack.

I'm with George. Good steel shouldn't need touch up in the field. Last year I gutted three, skinned and quartered five with a D2 KOA and it's ready to go again this year without any work. I had Dale Atkerson make me a big size Santoku out of 5/32 D2, and that beast gets used daily. It came with a toothy edge on it. I sharpened it once, put a finer edge on it and it's still shaving sharp. In the last year it's sliced up an awful lot of venison

I do go to deer camp with a decent stone, an oval diamond steel and both medium and fine ceramic rods though because other people do bring dull knives.

Did I have to go minimalist, I have a six inch oval diamond steel that can take a knife from bad dull to shaving sharp, but it's a little less precise and a little slower than a decent stone.

Oh good, since others have pointed out that you don't have any idea how to use or sharpen a blade, and that your blades are of inherently inferior materials, as theirs are not the same and thus are to be instantly recognised as superior design, build quality, colour, and shape...and they automatically endow their users with a longer penis (or two).

For the rest of we poor uneducated saps that have been using knives for a lifetime (and obviously doing it wrong), it is a simple thing to carry a Case Moon Stick or a similar ceramic sharpening stick in the paddock, I suggest this as the ceramic sticks allow for use as a small butcher's steel and are light to carry.

This is as simple and easy as the afore-mentioned Gerber steel and the Schrade version...and as the knives in question are not comprised of a fractured titanium frame housing a depleted uranium core supporting a nano-derived diamond filament edge, in BLAZE ORANGE, each of these units will suffice.

I carry the same small gizmo Steelhead noted in my pack. I have a waustoff sharpener in my gear box in the truck. I cant remember ever remember using the small one in the field. My knives seem to stay sharp for a few deer as longbas i dont use them like a hatchet.

well, until you get with the "cool" crowd and spend hundreds on knives and sharpeners, this works great.

http://www.rei.com/product/780741/smiths-pocket-pal-knife-sharpener

btw, i have been using the same $15 Queen Steel sheath knife for 40 years and using that little gizmo, i can get it to shaving sharpness in a few min. granted, i can't cut 20d nails and then butcher a rhino with it, but it works on all north american sized game.

Although one of the DMT products is probably better, this little guy could probably be a solution for only $10. A few light passes for touch ups or you could regrind the edge "when you do something stupid". Remember to use light pressure with diamonds.

http://www.basspro.com/Smiths-4-Diamond-Sharpening-Stone-with-Cover/product/1307221115/

Additionally, you could contact cement a piece of scrap leather onto a paint stirring stick and charge it with the buffing compound you use to sharpen. That along with the little diamond stone would be a complete, portable and inexpensive sharpening system. If you avoid "stupid" the little strop will likely be all you need.

I've tried them all. Being a woodworker, I took a class on sharpening chisels and plane blades. Diamond plates is what works best and fastest. DMT makes a small folding sharpener with two grits of diamond coated plates. Very small and very good. I can use it to put a razor edge on a knife very quickly. Had a steel prior to that. Had a ceramic prior to that. They can't compare. Use the DMT and then strop the edge on your leather boot or leather knife sheath. Trust me on this.

xxclaro;
Good morning to you sir, I believe you folks across the Rockies have a Stat holiday today as well so perhaps you like me this morning are not heading off to the salt mines?

As many already here know about me, I'm more than a wee bit of what Lt. Pat Powell dubbed me - a "knife nut".

So over the years I've tried most of the latest and greatest steels with various blade shapes.



For example in the above photos there are representations of S30V heat treated by Paul Bos, VG10, 154CM, D2, A2, Elmax, G2, GIN 1 and whatever Gerber used back in the day on the Skookum knives. As well but not shown I've played with blades made up from 52100, ATS34 and of course the 440C, 420HC, AUS8 and some of Kershaw's 14C28N stuff too if memory serves.

We've been processing the game for our family and friends since the late '80's too, so we've amassed a fair collection of various commercial meat cutting blades and whatever steel they're made from too.


Once upon a time I used to go help our taxidermist friends down the road when work was slow for me in winter, so I've caped a few animals.

Speaking broadly then sir and I am acutely cognizant of the murky situations that practice can lead to, I'd suggest that a blade that handles deer,bear,sheep,cats,coyotes and beaver should be able to be touched up quite nicely with a medium grit ceramic rod.

Moose in my experience, especially a bull that's been rolling in the mud and is covered with frozen, sandy mud, can present more of a challenge to knife steel.

There are at least 3 different "grits" of ceramic rod that we've purchased so far, the grey one being the coarsest and a white one from Buck knives being the finest. Depending upon how sharp your knife was to begin with, the angle of your sharpening and what the steel is - usually a ceramic rod will work fine.

We've got a couple variations of the small sharpening tool that Steelhead/Scott showed a link for and have found the carbide side to be OK for many of the softer steels such as the commercial meat cutting blades are made from. I'd say that the steel found on most Mora's I've had or a Henkels would fall into that category.

The ceramic side on the ones we've got is quite fine actually so it's a bit of a stretch going from the carbide side to the ceramic on some harder blade steels - S30V or Elmax - but should work OK for the knives you prefer.

For many years I carried a diamond rod in my pack and it worked fine for light field touch up work. Honestly since I've given it away to our eldest daughter I've taken to simply carrying another lightweight folder or even fixed blade knife in my pack.

With apologies for my typically too long reply sir, I hope you or someone got something of use from my information, good luck with your blades whichever way you decide and again have a good Stat day off.

Dwayne

Figured you to go straight to the [bleep] talk.

You might not suck a dick but you'll hold one in your mouth till a [bleep] comes along.

While I always carry a good knife, both hunting and for business, last year I used a Havalon Piranta for the first time to skin and bone out a Cow Elk. It stayed sharp until the last quarter and then all I did was replace the blade. I was skeptical it would work that well, but it did. It will not replace a good knife, IMO, but for quick work while in the field, this "knife" works really well.

Dwayne, I always enjoy your posts. I use regular butcher knives exclusively except for the Buck folding sheath knife that I always carry. I often wonder why butchers do not buy themselves some high end knives, that you can use forever and not have to resharpen, and save themselves a lot of time and trouble. Just look at all the meat they could be cutting while they are taking care of their knives. Maybe beef prices would go down. miles

I've used them all, and am pretty good at freehand sharpening with diamond/ceremac, but the gizmos like the Smith's are the ticket in the field.

milespatton;
Thanks for the kind reply sir, I do appreciate it. Hopefully this first Monday in August has been treating you well.

This is a guess on my part, but based upon doing a fair bit of game processing over the years I'd suggest that commercial meat cutters don't go with a "super" steel because they take too long to get a workable edge on when they do get dull.

As we're trying to get all the edible meat we can from our game, the working edge of the steel on a boning knife will be grinding on deer/bear/sheep/moose bones for it's entire shift - so it IS going to dull somewhat.

Honestly Miles I've gone using the softer blades such as the wooden handled one - Dexter I think it might be? - because it takes a nice toothy edge easily with a steel. Much faster than my favorite wooden handled Forschner/Victorinox boning knife for instance.

Then too, the Dexter's blade works really, really well with either a carbide tool like Scott showed or a double disc carbide pull through from Rada.

As always Miles, there are many ways to either skin a cat or get to Mecca and I've not found the only correct one I'm sure.

Thanks again sir and all the best to you for the rest of our rapidly vanishing summer.

Dwayne

(Oops. Below was written before I saw your most recent post, and duplicating some of what you said).

Dwayne, you really are a knife junkie! Bravo!

My family says that I am, so I may point them to you. A man in excess always needs to have someone in greater excess so that by comparison he looks moderate. I need to drink another cup of coffee and see if that sentence makes any sense.

IMO sharpening knives in the field needn't be either/or nor "better than you"-- merely how we have developed our personal style of procedure and our choice of tools. I like steel so hard that it is almost brittle and such steel usually has a reputation of being hard to sharpen. Hard to sharpen means that it is harder to dull and holds an edge.

Shaving edge or wire edge is another difference of personal preference. The butchers I know all go for the wire edge which they achieve with slightly softer steel touched up often with a quick pass on a sharpening steel.

FWIW I have a reputation for over obsessing about sharp knives-- but my daughter back east wants me to visit every few months and sharpen all the knives in her house. I got her a sharpening steel and a large crock stick and she has been delighted to find that a brief touch up of edge each time she pulls the knife out to use it has kept knives sharp far longer.

If you can sharpen before the knife gets very dull it is easier to keep a functioning edge. If really dull, we may have to start over and reshape the edge and its shoulders, not a field project unless we have a fairly coarse stone along.

And then their are granite counter tops... grrrr They are NOT a cutting board, which is apparently beyond the comprehension of many low information knife users.

99.9% of females.

Don't take you long to start talkin' about other men's loins does it? They are always on your simple mind.

I also have a ceramic hone similar to the Rapala shown. I keep it in the kitchen drawer for use on an occasional filet knife, or for Momma to use since she does not care to use the hone steel in the kitchen.

In the field I carry that same sweet EZ lap as was mentioned earlier. But seldom have need for it.



I usually carry an old Schrade LB7 on my belt and a drop point Gerber folder in my pocket. Either is capable of skinning and boning a typical elk without need for resharpening.

In 2012 I carried a Cutco hunting knife on an elk hunt.

My bull collapsed onto his stomach with all four legs under him. As big as he was, that seemed to be the perfect way to skin him.

We slit his hide right up the back bone from tail to head. That hide was like cutting old shoe leather. (the meat was quite similar) I was glad to be carrying the EZ Lap as I touched the Cutco knife up several times as we skinned and boned that beast.

That little dual grit DMT with the "bali-song" handles is about the best sharpener in existence. The blue grit is the one you can't be without. You can get blue with black (coarse) and have an excellent tool for shaping/sharpening an axe or hatchet, in the field or otherwise, or get the blue with the red (fine) grit if you feel the need. Blue with a steel gets sharp edges everytime unless the steel is junk, IE the Glock field knife.

I use the DMT Bali blue/black. Skin from inside out to keep it out of the hair.

Harsh

Snake