Home Forums Gear Knives and Blades Keeping knives sharp

When I get a new knife with a factory edge they seem to stay sharp a whole bunch longer than when I sharpen them afterward. I use a Spider Co Sharpsmaker and I can get them where they shave hair, but the edge just doesn't last as long. S30v mostly.

Touchups on a truck window seem to last better.

WTF am I missing?

I hear guys talk about breaking down 3-4 animals in the season without touchups and I'm skinning a pig thinking "pass the Havalon!"

I remember EHG would send Gene Ingram knives at the end of the season, might just do that if he'd still service them.

I have more success with sharpening when i don’t let them get completely dull.

I keep some strops and ceramic sticks around to touch up after each use.

I too have been experimenting more and more with stropping. So far, I am enjoying it. Once a week or so, strop the blade and restore the edge. Haven't touched a sharpener in a while.

It is possible to get a sharp wire edge and once that breaks off then you're only semi sharp afterward. That's sort of like a false edge. Stropping can take that wire edge off and leave a true sharp edge where both bevels meet.

This is what I do.

I had another thought and wanted to come back to the quoted comment.

Last season, I used the same knife to break down 3 whitetails. I did not have to sharpen between animals but I did touch the blade up before putting it away at the end of the season. I am sure I could have done another animal if needed. This was with a boner pattern in S30V from Tim Olt.

One thing I definitely learned last season while helping a couple guys is that not everyone handles their knife the same way while dressing animals. Cutting across hair, dirty hide and riding the edge hard against bone as cuts are made were a few things I noticed these guys doing. None of that is good for any knife.

I usually start into the hide going with the hair until I can just get the hide pulled away from the muscle. From there, all my cuts are between the inside of the hide and muscle, primarily separating the fascia and connective membranes....this is not taxing on a knife's edge. When separating quarters or muscle groups around bone, I usually cut just deep enough to find the bone I am working around and then work around it, pulling the muscle and just cutting any connections as needed as the muscle pulls away. I swear, some guys in the group would hit the bone and ride it hard like they were trying to saw through it...I cringed every time.

There are a few joints that need to be popped but you can do that pretty easily without much edge dulling if you know where the ligaments are and can work some of the cartilage with the blade.

When I started paying more attention to how I was using my knife, and I learned more about the anatomy of the animals I was processing, I noticed that my knives magically started staying sharp much longer.

I've found that to be very true. With a "good" knife, I think tissue does very little to dull it. Hair, along with anything on/in the hair, and bone are the edge killers....IMHO.

I think so too. I also use a hatchet for things now I used to use a knife for. The hatchet works better and keeps my blade out of joints and off bone. The way I hunt and where I’m quartering deer up it’s not a problem having extra stuff. If I was backpacking on a mountain I would likely change my opinion.

I try to kill a hog or 2 each deer season.

I’ll use a outdoor edge disposable blade knife.

Seems no matter how much you hose the hide off, there’s still grit in it.

OK, never tried a strop bu8t sounds interesting. Most strops say they r for straight edged razors. Which one for a knife?

Good post, War_Eagle. I use a treated strop and a ceramic hone almost exclusively to restore edges.

A good store bought strop is Flexx Strop brand.

I make my own from horse butt leather.

Years back i bought some red and green strop compound from knivesshipfree.

Seems like I bought mine from Stropman or Stropguy...? Something like that.

That dude passed away i believe.

2 guys took it over. It’s called something else now.

Edit to add….

Stropbros.com

Have a strop around here somewhere. Ordered a new sharpener to see wtf. I do pretty good with an old Arkansas stone but I'm out of practice.

Spyderco Sharpsmaker just doesn't seem to produce an edge that holds up imho.

And yeah, not letting them get too far gone is key, but not always doable.

First and foremost, I never let the wife use my knives. She tries to saw porcelain plates in half when dicing up a steak.

No joke!

This may not apply to fancy steel custom knives.


I use a cheap industrial mica knife all day in my work.
Cutting treated papers or coated fiberglass cloth, both hard
on an edge. Fiberglass eats the edge.

We also use the expensive Chefs Choice style sharpener.


Some guys will go for the hair shaving edge, and its a big mistake
unless you want to shave. Whether it's just a burr, or a good fine
edge, it's too fragile. Even done well, it erodes or rolls. Leaving
an edge that won't cut.

In my knife making/sharpening research, there were suggestions for
removing the burr/fine edge.

After getting it sharp, I back strop on the edge of a Micarta table,
Then cut across the endgrain of a piece of hardwood (pallet stringer).
This eliminates any burr.

The knife will not shave at this point, but it is darn sharp.
It will easily cut .003 paper or crepe .
Crepe is hard to cut without tearing.

And, the edge will hold up a good while.




PS. I don't use the fine stone much at all. Going from the coarser one
to a polishing one just to work the burr down. Leaving a toothy
edge. A fine finished edge will quit faster.

I'm curious if the reason the Spyderco is on hind teet is because it doesn't create a burr.

Is the raising of a burr that important to good edge retention?

Maybe I'm missing that part?

How much pressure do you use?
You want a really light touch after the coarser rod.

I seriously struggle with that. I'm trying to remove metal, so
I push hard. Have to constantly think about it.

It's insane.

Disregard Brian 👍

Skin game from the inside out. Hair and dirt is what roles a edge.

If you polish the edge too fine it'll dull quicker . For field use keep the edge " toothy" ,it'll stay sharper longer

BTW, the Sharpmaker can do a good job IF, it matches the bevel angles of the knife. A little magic marker on the knife bevel will let you know where the sharpener is making contact with the blade.

I recontour all my hunting blades from a bevel edge to a convex edge. It's a much sturdier/versatile edge that is long lasting and easy to maintain. I also use a wood mounted strop with black compound on one side and white (finer) on the other.

Does anyone still strop on the inside of their leather belt?

Ironbender, yup, nothing extra to carry. Always with you, never forgotten.

with my dead animal processing knives, I don't really want a razor edge.

Yep this works well especially for someone that uses a knife on the job everyday.

I bought a Worksharp Precision Adjust sharpener the other day. Has a bunch of different stones and a strop. Looks like it will allow me almost infinite edge angles along with a bunch of degrees of "toothiness" which I've always been a fan, but never geeked out on.

Appreciate the tips and suggestions fellas.

Wife is laughing at my bare left fore arm and knee. LOL

I bought mine last year and really like it.

Lots of YouTube videos on using that Worksharp. There was almost a cottage market on ebay selling additional stones/papers/holders to get different results.

Worksharp was going to start offering some additional stuff for it as well.

I can dig that for sure.

Spyderco was a bit limiting.

I got a couple Ingrams as sharp as I could get em with the Spyderco.

A few minutes with the Worksharp got them twice as sharp.

Easily I might add.

For the strop and ceramic rod folks, do you strop first or after using the rod?

Always figured strop was dead last.

It is

Hig I know you already dropped the coin but edge pro is what I use and once you get the hang of it it’s quick and easy.

I got all the stones up to I think 2000 grit but it’s a waste.

120 to 220 to strop and you’re razor sharp

Once you set a profile (which can take some time) touching them up is pretty quick

Sounds like you are dealing with the classic wire edge.

There are only two problems with knife or tool sharpening. You either don't completely apex the edge or you don't remove the burrs that are inevitably created in that process and are working with a "false edge". If you are getting an edge that shaves you are most likely doing okay with the apexing but are probably lacking with your burr removal if the edges don't last.

You are creating a burr with your Sharpmaker rods. It does not matter whether you use the most expensive well marketed "system" or a file or a rock, you are going to create burrs if you apex the edge, and if you don't apex the edge, the knife is still dull. Most likely the burr you are creating is so small you can't see it or feel it. So how the heck to you know its there?

See if your edge will shave only on one side of the bevel or feels "sharper" on one side. If that is the case, you are shaving with the burr or feeling the burr that is folded to one side. When you cut something its going to snap off eventually and you have a short lived edge. Another issue is that the burr can be straight in line with the edge so it shaves on both sides so the next trick is to try and slice newspaper. If your edge has a burr it won't cleanly slice the newspaper but will catch and tear it.

If you get your edges cleaned up to the point that they shave on both sides and cleanly slice (with a coarse edge) or push cut (with a fine edge) newspaper, your edges should be at least as good as factory, probably better.

That’s the best explanation I have read. Or maybe I should say I understand that explanation the best. Thank you for typing all that out.

DITTO

Yes. I said this in my first reply, however not in as great detail as you sir. I also mentioned using a Sharpie to help you determine if you are matching the bevel of the knife and creating an apex. There are some good videos out there about this to include from Spyderco and the Sharpmaker system. Experience is the best teacher, do the research and then actually put it into place and figure out what does and doesn't work.

Stropbros.com is the way to go! Two great old woodworkers who KNOW what they're doing (and are friends of mine).

I use regular barbers stropes. When putting a razors edge on a knife for the first time I use a 3" wide x 18" long 1/4" thick piece of leather strap.