Originally Posted by MShuntfish
Just bought several Bark River Mini Canadians with 3v steel for Christmas presents and bought one for myself. What type sharpner would be best for this steel type?


3V is a tough abrasion resistant steel, BUT if you want to keep the edge truly convex, you need to try to stay away from hard Diamond cards,rods etc made for micro beveled Flat and hollow ground blades.

I believe in keeping up a knife's edge by regular honing than to let it go dull then have to totally resharpen it. Even more so on a tough 3V blade. Also unless a convexed blade is damaged and/or need major edge reshaping I tend to even try to stay away from Sandpaper.

I would use a hard wood backed double sided leather strop charged with compound as a way to keep the edge sharp. Black Compound is the coarsest and will probably do the most for that 3V blade. I would skip the green compound and polish the edge the other side of the strop charged with fine white compound.

BTW, you can make cheap, very light compact "field" strops from some hard leather scraps and cut down paint mixing sticks from the local hardware store. Glue the leather to both sides and the result is about a 1x3 inch long 3/8" thick and weights about an ounce. Take it in the field with you and the minute that edge starts to dull up strop it out for a minute or so.

Actually that works well for just about any convexed blade made from 3V or not.. wink

Last edited by jim62; 12/15/11.

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