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

No, just silly. I wonder how Jim Bridger got by.

Is this the one? Those little suckers are spendy.

Okanagan;
Top of the morning to you sir! It's always good to see you post as I enjoy what you have to say - even in this case if it's the stinging truth that I can now serve as a bad example for you.....glad to be of service.

In all truth I've just wandered back in from the shop where I was putting a coat of G2 epoxy on the burled quince scales on my latest addition. It's my first venture into higher end cooking knives - a Mcusta Zanmai VG10 Hocho.

This is pre-epoxy on the scales by the way.


Of course the way these projects go, I had extra epoxy left over, so started to coat the handle on a Hultafors Bruks axe that I picked up at the OK Falls flea market earlier this year. Let's not talk about my addiction to Swedish axes this morning please - we'll save that for later in case you need it for your family at a later date.

Anyway sir, I figure as long as I'm not cutting into family finances too badly - as I believe I've said to you, nowadays my gun and knife purchases are financed by stock repair work mostly - it's a "fairly" harmless hobby.

It's been too long since we've had coffee on our back deck Okanagan, so if you get the urge to hunt out our way I believe you should follow it this fall for sure.

All the best of our Lord's blessings on you and your fine family Okanagan.

Dwayne

Easy. Havels Piranta. Spare blades don't weigh an ounce. Carry 12 or so generally... phooey on having to sharpen in the bush. Heck I don't much use anything that needs sharpening anymore period.

Once you learn as a youth, how to dejoint things, small knives with replaceable blades, once they came along, are a heck of deal.

believe I have most everything pictured with the exception of the gizmo Steelhead prefers, it seems it would have some merit.

but like Dwayne I wonder how many moose some folks have worked up that say a knife never needs touching up in the field.


and truthfully, sometimes I take a break from butchering moose just to straighten up and ease my back for a moment. To cover my sissiness, I'll whet up the blade a bit as a cover. (grin)


here's what I'm using when I'm touching up a knife in the field.


http://www.fetznerspeedysharp.net/

I ain't scared to have a couple of knives with me.

Owwww! Flashback to pain. My aging back does not like field dressing critters anymore, especially big ones.

I carry a fine hard a Arkansas stone about 2" x 2 " and a 6" ceramic steel. I have seldom used them in the last several years.

I have bought few knives from a little unknown farmer in Kansas by the name of E.J Smith (Smith Knives).

They hold up very well, I touch them up after every elk season, but they need little. Knife and sheath was $60.

I have told others about them and offered to buy the knife if they were dissatisfied. In 10 years or so, I have never had to buy one of those knives .

Spending a few hundred $$ on a knife is not something I would do. I have a tendency to loose things.

I usually have two: one for cuts that may dull or contaminate the blade and the other for all else.

Beautiful knife BTW, and a practical one for the kitchen.

Some good info in this thread, but so far nobody has mentioned this. Carry a few replacement blades and you won't have to worry about dull. I never field sharpen a knife any more.

When I found out about Havalon knives, I told all my doctor friends who hunt, and my taxidermist friends. I found out they all use them, although not all of them knew about the folding mechanism the blade attaches to. They were using them on a fixed handle.

I figure if it's sharp enough for doctors, it's sharp enough for me. Saves a lot of time and weight. Wish I would have had one on my moose hunt.

Steve.

That's it. Worth your coin.

Now THAT is a knife!

1 knife, 3 blades

Good info here guys, appreciate it. I'll see what I can find next time I'm in the city, I'm sure at least a couple will be available. I got drawn for a moose tag this year and just got permission on some primo elk hunting land, so I'm anticipating some knife usage this year.

Dwayne mentioned something else I'm curious about, the "toothy" edge. The wheel I use leaves the edge of the blade with a mirror finish, and easily shaves. However, sometimes it seems like its almost too smooth, and that knives sharpened on stones or whatever seem to almost cut faster. Anything to this, or just my imagination?

Take a knee;
Thanks for the reply sir, indeed so far I'm quite pleased with it's performance.

It's got just enough curve or belly for me to be useful for carving smaller venison and pork roasts and for stuff like cabbage or watermelon it's really useful.

As mentioned the only thing that gives me a bit of pause is the quince scales didn't seem to be coated with much of anything to seal them. Naturally all the good blades in our house are hand washed only....

This one came my way via a Canadian site I venture onto where a professional chef wanted a ZT560 I had for sale/trade and had this sitting next to new in his drawer. A quick couple thousand mile trip in the mail for each blade and it appears both new owners are happy.

Thanks again sir and all the best to you in the upcoming week.

Dwayne

xxclaro;
Top of the morning to you again sir, hopefully the day has been going well.

So obviously I'm incapable of a short answer, but here goes...

For skinning and "typical" field dressing I'll usually go with a mirror polished edge if the steel is happy with that or say a 1500 grit finish at least.

I mention the 1500 grit finish as one folder I've got - Gerber GatorMate first run of 154CM - does not cut as efficiently on hide with a mirror polished edge but cuts like the dickens if finished with 1500 grit wet/dry sandpaper.

Lay the sand paper grit of choice on a piece of glass - use favorite cutting oil and go for it.

For a mirror polish I use an 8" leather faced stropping wheel I made up with 3/4" MDF and a chunk of oak bark tanned rein leather. I use a grey, fine polishing media to dope/dress the wheel and turn it with a 1/2 HP motor at 1760rpm.

When cutting meat, that is to say butchering, I've found a coarser "toothy" edge works better and in my experience lasts longer than when I put a mirror polish onto the boning knives.

Steak or roast cutting scimitar knives that don't run along bone for their entire shift seem to do OK with a mirror polish, but are equally OK with the coarser edge I've attempted to describe.

Hopefully that made some sense and was useful information to you xxclaro. Have a good one and good luck whichever way you decide to sharpen your various blades.

Dwayne

You're gong to love that knife. For slicing work VG-10 and a skinny angle (10 degrees/side) is as good as I've found. I've been using VG-10 blades for ten plus years now and haven't found something I like better for butchering and general slicing. They stay sharp forever.

When you start thinking about a second VG-10 blade, try here:

http://www.woodcraft.com/category/4/2083870/2084248/ZHEN%20Premium%20Damascus%20Knife%20Kits.aspx

The Nakiri is a wonderful tool for making jerky.

yes - but it will outlive u

Dr. Saxton Pope, a surgeon and bowhunter before the days of disposable broadheads did a test of three points, two steel and one stone. One had an edge sharpened like a razor, keen and smooth, one sharpened with a file, toothy and nasty , and the last was finely chipped obsidian. All shot into a shoulder of some kind of quadruped. The toothy steel penetrated farther than the razor edge but the black glass arrowhead with the chipped out serrated edge beat both of the steel points. The sharpening gurus at places like bladeforums will tell about polished edges and push cutting and whittling hair but they can speak to waterstones and see microns. For the rest of us it's nice to know we can use man portable hand stones and get a pretty good edge. Or the, purists>>>close your eyes,........Accusharp.