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

In my experience, the EZ lap tool does not wear well. I've now three that are in varying degrees of smooth. I only use them as steels since they are near worthless for lapping. I've stopped purchasing EZ and have gone to DMT. It has been nearly 10 years and I have not had to replace the DMT.

The palm of your hand works pretty good as a hone as well, but be careful.

yeah. the dirtier your hands, the faster.....

Yes. Knife loonies are even worse than gun nuts.

fwiw...rant...

listening to JStuart will save you guys a bunch of headaches and purchases...:)

was trained by an industry pro, boned beef for years when I was a pup, had crew, on the wholesale end of things...retail is for gentiles

-knives hardened for the edge to last the longest are a PITA in the field, do your self a favor and get a blade that is easily sharpened, mind your angles and suddenly there is no science to knife sharpening, it just got a whole lot easier, a fine file and the blue jeans for a strop will do in a pinch. I rue the day the USDA made us go to stainless steel knives.
-wire edge? sharp is sharp, either side should shave hair
-no where in the universe is there more BS than guys talking knives, how many guys have actually used a knife for 1000 consecutive working hours? you actually do learn something....
-there is a reason the industry doesn't use short knives--well, maybe for oysters--but if you are a klutz, by all means save your fluids, knife wounds are unpleasant
-the importance of knife design is a far distant second to skill (a far distant second...)
--buying custom knives is important to family and country and we all should do it without question

Depends on the use of the Axe. My splitting axes have to be dull. Cutting ones have to be sharp.

Pretty much sums up sharpening for anything. Sharpen for how you will use it. miles

We always kept our splitting axes sharp but not so sharp as limbing. I got to practice sharpening on splitting axes, the limbing axes were off limits. As a kid I really enjoyed splitting good seasoned wood. Stacking it was another matter, grampa was never happy. His stacks had to be absolutely, positively, perfectly stable. Like building masonry, not even chipmunks could find a way in.

To summarize this discussion to this point:

There are two main philosophies re field sharpening of knives, defined in context as primarily for one or maybe two animals in N. America before return to a base with more sharpening tools. (Volume processing of many animals is a fascinating topic but an entirely different one).

Method/philosophy # 1. Use a hard steel blade that is very sharp and probably will not need touching up in the field. Take a minimal touch up device or strop on something already with you.

Method/ philosphy # 2. Use a softer steel blade and sharpen it often with various files, steels, edge grinding devices carried into the field.

The latter group folks have opined that the former are idiots who know nothing, have never used a knife and are genitally challenged.

The former folks will continue to carry what they know works when hunting and continue to dress animals with their puny equipment. Other than amusement they could not care less what anyone else thinks about it.

Both approaches work, though the latter group does not believe that.

Method/philosophy #3. Pick a knife with reasonably good steel that fits your method and sharpen it at home. Cut up game, doesn't have to be perfectly sharp all the time. You're butchering them not giving them a kissably close shave. If you're doing a whole pile of game or have a thing for sharp a steel or ceramic stick to straighten/refine the edge will do.

If you're cutting other stuff bring a camp knife and save your game knife for game.

I hate shlepping stuff I don't really need.

No relation.

FC

I guess it depends on how you look at it. I've learned a lot from gun nuts and knife nuts here and there. In the past, I learned a lot about the workings of computers from a gaming nut I worked with even though I utterly despise video games. "Enthusiasts" have brought up stuff that I would have never thought about otherwise and I am glad they are around.

One of my philosophies is that if you want to learn a little bit about something, find someone who is nuts about it. Real easy to do in this internet age. Yes you have to work through some "rubbish" but it beats heck out of trial and error.

I read a scientific study once on knife edges; it was geared towards knives for eye surgery. They compared sharpened steel, sharpened and polished steel, and glass. Glass beat the other two, and they mentioned knapped obsidian knives used by native peoples as having a superior edge to steel, but steel being more practical. The sharpened steel came in second. They had scanning electron microscope photos of all the edges and the glass and sharpened steel had lots of little teeth they called micro serations. The sharpened and polished steel had the teeth also, but they were rounded off, so not as effective. They went one step further and studied why a sharpened steel edge would go dull over time without use. In the SEM photos you could see the micro serations getting dull over time due to rusting off, even with stainless steels.

Check Murray Carter's website or his videos on YouTube. Murray is a Master Bladesmith who spent 17 or so years in Japan studying under a master. I used to see him at the knife shows in Seki, Gifu Prefecture.

Look at the one about him shaving with an axe.

He also gives classes and sells rare sharpening stones. He says he has now made over 20,000 knives of various kinds.

Keep in mind when comparing the cutting effectiveness between a toothy edge with micro serrations vs a polished edge, that a scalpel is only required to make a single cut that may only be measured in fractions of an inch. If it's dull after a few cuts it's thrown away.

A polished edge is only as sharp as the grit of the compound that polished it. A lot of polishing compound is fairly coarse and not consistent in grit. Very fine grit compound is not that commonly available.

A toothy edge may appear to have some advantages at first glance, but appearances are sometimes deceiving, a refined polished edge is superior and it takes a much higher level of understanding and practiced sharpening skills to achieve...it's not a 10-minute learning process.

Sharpening takes some skill and practice to learn, and some sharpening methods I've observed will only dull a truly sharp blade.

In the field you can do the best you can with the tools you have, but knowing how to do it, and a lot of practice refining an edge will make those efforts better.

For example, once the basic principles are well understood, a very sharp edge can be accomplished using only the bottom of a ceramic coffee cup and a leather belt.

A steel can be improvised from any smooth, rounded metal object...

I wonder where one of those are handy in the field...?

I haven't had to field sharpen a knife yet (during hunting), but I carry a sharpener with me as I backpack hunt and always plan for the worst. I never leave camp without fire tools and my knife.

BTW, I carry the DMT Diafold tool...

I use a Gatco kit at home when I need to reestablish an edge on hunting and pocket knives. I mostly use either a steel rod or the Rapala unit Stealhead posted on kitchen and fillet knives, but occasionally use a large stone. I don't carry sharpening gear in the field anymore, but always have a main knife and a smaller back-up (which I very seldom need).

I used to have a steady enough hand I could get a shaving sharp edge on most any knife, but I seem to have lost the touch. The above works well enough for me to keep them plenty sharp...