Knife sharpeners

[Glenn S]

I tried one of those Smith's Pocket Pals. Not really a fan I guess. Alright for touching up a serrated knife, but pulling a fine edged knife at a right angle to the cutting edge through a carbide sharpener just seems counterproductive. Most pre-set sharpeners are either 20 or 25 degrees from what I've seen.

[James Marco]

Derek,
The wet/dry paper is dark grey carborundum babper. It comes in several grits from 400 up to 4000. The finest you can get at wally world or the like is 2000 and leavs a honeable edge. You can hone it on most anything, I have used a piece of hardwood out in the field to hone, then shave with. It does NOT have to be done wet. After 4-5 uses it degrades to about 4000grit, anyway.

Blade angle is very much personal and how you work with the edge. I have some very low ground chisles that are refered to as paring chisles. I never use more than my hand for slicing stuff off. I NEVER try to cut very far across the grain or lever a chip out. I have another set of standard chisles that let me tap with a wooden mallet. These are good for hinges where light 1/16-1/8" cuts are needed. I have a third set of high angle chisles refered to as mortising chisels. These are heavy duty used for pounding and leavering out deep mortis', OR, rough framing in old style barns. These are generally softer steel and do not hold or take a fine razor edge. I just sharpen these on a belt sander. On the blade edge, you have a base blade bevel, then you have a sharpening bevel. and after a few resharpenings you usually end up with a honing bevel. Often this just makes the blade look slightly curved. Idealy. you would start with a slight concave angle to compensate. Low angles tend to follow grains more than high angles. Knives are the same except they are sharpened on both sides, usually. There is really no one "correct" angle for a blade. Only for how you work with it, and, how hard the wood is. Contrary to popular opinion, softer woods require sharper tools.

Well, sharpening tools are handy for quick reshapening of a general edge. The better the knife's steel the less well they work. Usually only for 3" blades and longer. A good $200 knife may end up as somewhat serrated, though. For a cheap kitchen knife ($15-$50) they work well. For good R55-60+ steel I avoid them.

[Delmar O’Donnell]

Hi Stephen … my favorite packing knife is a Spyderco Caly Jr with FRN handle that weighs 2 oz. It's a ZDP/420 clad knife. It's been discontinued, sadly. I also have a clad Caly 3" with a carbon fiber handle but it's heavier at 3 oz. Stouter construction and still widely available. Spyderco mentioned in their forum that they were getting around 65 Rockwell C hardness out of these…I back bevel them at around 12 degrees per side, then put the final edge on at 15 degrees, for a 30-degree inclusive edge. The steel holds well even at that steep angle. The ONLY way to sharpen these (in under a week) is with diamond hones.

[David Thomas]

I remember a magazine article about someone who was on a canoeing trip, flipped the boat, and lost most of the gear. Once on shore, he took out his knives (plural) and sharpened them. Then he felt ready to face the challenges ahead.

If having a very sharp knife helps your mental health, 1/2 ounce of one of the lighter sharpeners weighs and costs a lot less than carrying a 160-pound psychiatrist and paying him $150/hour.

But if you're only out for a week or weekend, try not to cut any rocks and any edge should be serviceable for that long.

If you are doing the PCT, mail two strips of medium and coarse emery cloth to yourself in every other drop box. Hand them off to the next thru hiker you see when you're done. It will add nothing to your pack or postal costs.

[Stephen Barber]

Delmar, that sounds like a great knife! Too bad they don't still make it. ZPD 189 clad with a softer stainless sounds near ideal.

David, absolutely agree about the emery cloth. Also agree with you, Delmar, and some others, that with a decent knife it's unlikely that you will need to sharpen it unless you abuse it.

[Glenn S]

Well I appreciate the free armchair psychology session, but if I may be allowed to quote myself:

"…for the sake of thread-topic, let's assume a substantial knife is carried. Not only carried, but let's also assume that it gets used, sometimes harshly."

So for whatever reasons I, or anyone else may choose to carry a sharpener, there have been a few good suggestions that I'll be looking into, as well as some knife duty combinations. Thanks for the tips!

HYOH

Now I've found something REALLY interesting. From the DMT site:

For hands-on control, use DMT’s Flexi-Sharp® sheets. Flexible steel shim .006" thick, diamond coated on one side. Cut, bend, glue or screw mount to create a custom diamond abrasive tool.

Available in 1×2" or the credit card sized 2×3". I can't find good weights, but Amazon lists it at .3 oz, which means squat. I can't imagine .006 diamond faced steel shim would weigh much though. Attached to an old credit card, plastic mirror, or anything. Laid flat on the bottom of a pot would even probably work. Best of both worlds with DMT's mono diamond and UL weight. Maybe this is the answer I was looking for.

[James Marco]

Glenn, Yup, I have a lot of DMT stuff in the shop. It more than pays for itself 10 times over sharpening carbide saw blades and router bits. I use them for my chisels and plane irons, too.

Anyway, the continuous coating on the Credit Card ones are very similar to using sand paper. I usually reserve diamond stones to full sharpenings of blades(planer, chisels, hand irons, etc. and touching up carbide.) The shim stock used for the base is quite flexible. DO NOT kink them. They work well and are fairly light. Heavier than sandpaper, they also cut a lot quicker.

[Glenn S]

Excellent James. Thanks for the real world feedback. Having worked with .008 and .012 aluminum printing plates most of my life, I thought right away about the kinking issue when I saw the .006 thickness. My plan is to attach it to something for rigidity. Preferably something I'm already carrying, but even an old gas card sandwiched in with my ID and a bank card would still be pretty light I'm thinking.

[Lindsey Sommer]

I feel like everyone has sort of covered most of what needs to be said for this topic, but I'll just quickly add my 2 cents, since I se the Smith's Pocket Pal Knife Sharpener (someone shared a photo of it earlier). I carry a large and impressive looking knife with me, because I'm a woman, and I'm usually on my own. I also have used this sharpener and I'm not super impressed by it.

I think in retrospect I would have gotten a flat sharpener (i.e a stone maybe) and just used that, because I haven't had THAT much luck with the angled slots in the Smith Sharpener. I end up using the tiny tapered rod a lot instead, which is kind of awkward to use. I almost wonder if you might be better off using the Smith's 3-in-1 Sharpening System….

Good luck fellow knife carrier!

[Mark]

Been using a Fallkniven DC4 for many years now, if i lost it i'd buy another in a heart beat.

Have a few very tiny tacks in the pouch which use to tap into a appropriate piece of wood to hold the stone.

Works great.

[Joel Brodkey]

As a fly fisherman, I always carry a small hook sharpener to touch up hook points. Over the years, the one that has worked the best for me is the EZE LAP Model S. It's a thin diamond impregnated rod, about 2 1/4" long, with a groove for the hooks. It weighs about 1/3 oz. and stores in a hollow tube (with a pen type pocket clip) which also becomes a handle. Check out their website – they make all kinds of diamond sharpeners.

[Dave @ Oware]

"2. With ceramic rods or simple, flat sharpening stones, how to you all maintain the correct angle for sharpening your blade (assuming you don't have a scandi grind to assist you)? What angle is blade angle ideal, by the way?"

Don't lift the blade off the stone. Just scrape back and forth. I like a very UN-chisled shape for my pocket knives. I hold the back of the knife about one blade thickness above the stone. First time sharpening will take awhile to take off that chisel angle, but then it is quick to resharpen. I am not talking about sharpening sushi knives here.

[Glenn S]

The 2x3x.006" DMT diamond sharpener I ordered in fine 600 grit (25 micron) came in the mail today, and I think I like it. It is of course fragile being so thin, but should fare well traveling with my ID and bank card.

The corners were very sharp and one edge had a burr, from the die punching process I assume. Both issues were easily smoothed and rounded with the diamond file on my Leatherman Wave. The package states "Diamonds set into nickle on a brass sheet." But the backside looks like nickle instead of brass.

My scale only measues in whole grams and it bounced between 5 and 6 grams. I cut up a little mini-ziplock for a case and it squared off at 6 grams.

Here's a pic with it sitting on a standard bank card for size and thickness reference. It's not taped down and I haven't decided if it's worthwhile doing so or not yet.

As a side note, to the sellers credit it arrived undamaged, due to being packaged in a 5x7x9" box!

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