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.