Outdoors Knives, Keep them Sharpen

My Handy Companion, the Wandertactical Smilodon.

This time I will share some tips that might help you  to sharpen your knives on the field

-Being able to keep our knives sharp make them more helpful and safer during the use.

We all know that a sharp knife is safer than a dull knife because with a dull knife we tend to apply more pressure  which would lead to accidents.

There are different type of sharpeners on the market, from natural whetstones to artificial diamond sharpeners  but very few are practical on the field.

In the sharpening process we Grind metal off to realign the  carbides that compose the edge temporarily .

In my humble opinion natural stones  are not the smartest choice to keep your knife sharp on the field for several reason:

FIRST they are heavy

SECOND they are pretty fragile

THIRD they need more maintenance and you need to dry them out before you put them back in your pack

We also have to choose carefully the right grain size  we want to carry in our pack too

The range of grain sizes you should look for goes from 220 grit for reprofiling the edge to 2000/3000 grit to give a final touch to the edge.

BEFORE I share my TIPS, remember

SHARPEN YOUR SKILLS BEFOREHAND.

Learn about sharpening at home and then  try these things out to see what works best for you, your system, and your knife.

So Here’s my TIPS 



FIRST 

To me
The Perfect sharpening system needs to be : 


1)LIGHT

 2)EFFECTIVE

3)EASY TO USE

Get a couple of good quality diamond stones and a leather strop to eliminate the burr created by the sharpening process

SECOND


-Use your knives when it’s really needed, your knife is a tool, not a toy.

IT’S A TOOL NOT A TOY

Even  we often love to play with it I know that and I do it too!

We can Break sticks with  hands or we can use our knees

We can also Use our folding Saw

Because Conservation of resources should always be the main priority for us.

THIRD


Always strop your knife when you have done with it, it will keep carbides better aligned for longer period so  the health of the edge of your knife  will last longer.


just keep a piece of wood with a leather layer attached on it with a bit of sharpening paste in your backpack . Even a leather belt can do the job.

ONE IMPORTANT THING FOR YOUR SAFETY,  

NEVER SHARPEN OR STROP YOUR KNIVES BETWEEN YOUR LEGS UNLESS YOU WANT TO PLAY INSIDE YOUR BLOOD TRIANGLE.

Find a stable spot where you can do the job safely away from you arteries.

And If you want to make your strop  system more stable in order to work with both hand on the knife.

You can tie the leather strop around a tree trunk with a couple of spools of Bank Line . It will make your life easier.

Be patience and build the right amount of muscle memory to accomplish the job

By the way even jeans works very  well for stropping our Knife.

I use to keep a jeans strop in my pack all the time.

The first 3 TIPS are meant to prevent that you have to sharpen your knife on the Field which will always be the smartest thing.

DON’T LET YOU KNIFE GET DULL!

When it gets super dull the nightmare begin for you .


FOURTH


Understand your bevel angle.

To understand the right sharpening angle of your knife

Put the side of the blade on the  stone and see the gap between the stone surface and the edge of the blade.

Lean the knife towards the stone till the gap or  “the shadow” disappear.

You can also use coins as a ruler to define the right angle, after that,

you can keep the same angle during motion using your index finger till.

Your muscles have memorised the correct angle.


EXTRA HINT

To prevent to scratch you index finger against the stone you can wrap it with gorrilla tape.

Do the same number of Strokes  for each side so keep counting.

Apply a constant pressure with 2 or three fingers where you are working on then move those fingers towards the next sector of the edge you need to sharpen

FIFTH
Create stone holder,
We're not cyborgs , you will be more precise and your movements are more accurate if you stuck your diamond stone on a stable platform.

SIXTH


Don’t use too much pressure while sharpening, it’s easier to loose the fine control  you need to do a correct job.

 When we Sharpen we should consider that WE ALL have a dominant hand so naturally we will risk to sharpen more one side than the other .

For instance my strong side is my left hand so I always start with my right hand first.


SEVENTH


Diamond stones work more effectively on knives made with new type of steels or with more advanced heat treatment process.


If you decide to choose natural stones , I suggest you to go for wet stones instead of oil stones because you can find water everywhere when you are out in the woods, you can even spit on the stone if it’s necessary.