Thread: Knife Sharpening - How do you do it?

My kit below

At home I have a course diamond flat 'stone' and a double sided Japanese water stone. I use these to get my knives razor sharp. In the bush I use a diamond ezy-lap folding 'steel' and I have a little back up double sided diamond 'stone'.

I usually give my knife a quick brush up when I roll a deer over to do the other side.

I have a lansky set for home with a leather strop and on the hill a steel. I had a new knife from John Worthington I have done 8 deer so far and only used the steel. It is just about ready for a lansky though. Used to have the brass diamond sharpener also

I use the Lansky set with the ultra fine stone. Trouble is every time I get it out the missus gives me a heap of knives to sharpen!

Lansky set with a custom made steel my dad made from a old round file. He cut the old file in half and acid bathed it. Sanded it with wet and dry. I use a Mercator in the field as it is small and stays very sharp. Have all sorts of knifes but find bigger knifes clumsy. The buck 110 is about as big as i'll go with a blade. But honestly cant afford a $300 dollar knife just to loose it in the bush lol

I use the work sharp belt sander its best iv used & you can use it as a finger sander so iv found lots of other jobs to do with it

Originally Posted by Dougie

$12 stone from bunnings at home, nothing in the bush. Knife has a great leather sheath. Found it absolutely brilliant, really enjoy looking after my kit.

Sharpening the knife and cleaning the rifle are a great way to relax and debrief ️


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Your sick Dougie, get help quick, next you'll be buying more! More sharpening and cleaning! Oh boy oh boy oh boy.

Use a grinder then a stone, afterwards one of those pull the knife thru thingys and then finally a steel. All of our knifes at home get steeled before use. Being a Butchers son I guess.

Here are a few of the knifes and sharpening devices I use.
Also a few future projects going on.
Just a few notes on what I use and my 2 cents for beginners:
If you just start or want to learn to sharpen, get a French opinel folding knife,they are cheap and very easy to sharpen,preferably with the carbon blade, and buy a descent stone to practice your stoke alternatively on each sides. I never ever use oil on my stones, always water, kerosene can work also.
The lansky is a good solution for all kind of knifes.(in the red box, this one has the diamond stones).
The spyderco is the device I used the most for most of my standard blades. For the long term, invest in the set of diamond stones that suit that kit.
You can see that I particularly affectionate the Pukkos style from Scandinavia . The reason is because they sharpen on the bevel like a carpenter cheasal. The DMT diamond large stone has double face grain and can be found on ebay for $us 100 with the base. That is what I use for my Pukkos , the little dmt is for the field. This is the second style of knifes I would recommend for a beginner, as they are easy to sharpen or touch up in the field .
Also one the best steel I got it that 3 sides jewelstick , for the large blades, I got it from Europe but it is made in the USA and I don't think it is available in NZ. And I finish with the spyderco fine stones for a razor edge.

I use the belt sander for a quick dress to take care of any nicks and finish with the SharpNEasy which I also take in the field but rarely need to use. The edges stay keen for a few kills.

I sharpen my knives freehand on Dia-Sharp and EZE-LAP 400, 600 or 800 grit diamond stones, depending on the type of knife and edge required.
Sharpening freehand takes a bit of practice to get right, but once you do get good at it you can easily taylor the blade edge to what you need it to do.

Originally Posted by ishoot10s

I use the belt sander for a quick dress to take care of any nicks and finish with the SharpNEasy which I also take in the field but rarely need to use. The edges stay keen for a few kills.

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What grit paper are you running ? Wet n Dry ?

I use the wet stone at home and a small (buck?) Flipstik diamond steel in the bush. Got it from H&F, it's bright orange so hard to loose and compact. I hunt with a Victorinox boning knife and use a Sword curved skinner at home.

Originally Posted by kiwi39

What grit paper are you running ? Wet n Dry ?

That's a 100 grit belt on there, it's not W&D. Those sanders fair whip along. Only takes a quick swipe of both sides of the blade across the belt and at a fairly fine angle to sort it. I've never been much good with oil stones and I've found the fixed angle of the little SharpNEasy or similar tools makes it easy to finish them off.

At first I thought a belt sander was a bit gash but then I saw a professional saw and knife sharpener at our NZDA club night and he was using one so I thought I would start using mine. He gave some knives a real thrashing on the sander to get the angles sorted and finished them with a few strokes on a good quality butchers steel. He "rescued" quite a few edges as we all took our fucked up knives along for him to sort.