Knife Sharpener?

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Mar 7, 2015
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What do you guys carry to sharpen your knives when you're out in the field? Didn't realize my Buck 110 was dull when i needed to skin a deer this past weekend. Tried a rod a buddy had but i didn't feel it was as sharp.
 
Tagging.

Was just about to purchase a benchmade mini tactical sharpener for hunting pack carry but interested in other insights.


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I sharpen my knives at home on a Work Sharp, but I also throw a Work Sharp Field sharpener in my pack and a leather strop that I made. Honestly, once my knives are sharpened, unless I nick the blade edge, the leather strop keeps my blades hair-popping sharp. I keep the strop loaded with some polishing abrasive and it works beautifully.
 
I sharpen my knives at home on a Work Sharp, but I also throw a Work Sharp Field sharpener in my pack and a leather strop that I made. Honestly, once my knives are sharpened, unless I nick the blade edge, the leather strop keeps my blades hair-popping sharp. I keep the strop loaded with some polishing abrasive and it works beautifully.
been looking to pick up a work sharp...do you have the regular or ken onion edition?
 
Work sharp is the cats ass. I have the regular version and it works excellent. I even sharpen my solids on it and they come out like razors
 
I might be doing something wrong with the Ken Onion Worksharp, I seemed to round off the tips of the knives I tried on it. I went back to a Smith's kit that you clamp the blade in and run different stones over the blade on rods run through angle guides. It works very well but is slower than the Worksharp. I still use the Worksharp on kitchen knives, just not on my good hunting knives.

In the field a carbide Smith's pocket sharpener is along in case I need it, but a small round steel is all I ever seem to use. If I treat the edge before it gets to dull it's all I need. My field knives are kinda old school, O1 or 1095 carbon steel.
 
That's the beauty of the new replaceable blade knives. I haven't jumped on that yet myself though. I rely on carbide knife sharpener in the field, bunch of good ones on the market!
 
Dmt credit card or a spyderco double stuff. Both work well.

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I don't. I'm much better off putting a new havalon blade on than sharpening a knife.
 
I took my sharpener out of the pack and added a Havalon, I think the Havalon was actually lighter than the sharpener anyway. However, since going to an S30V steel knife I haven't had to sharpen it in the field. I use it exclusively on one bull and it will still slice paper when I get home.

Question for you Worksharp guys......when I watch them on TV I see them run one side through and the one side of the blade is being sharpened going away from the edge. Then they move to the other side and it's sharpening against the other edge. Does that work well? I would think you'd want to do both sides the exact same way.
 
I really like the Lansky system with the different stones and the guide rods for sharpening angles. It is slower than the Work Sharp but I would say that I can get an even better edge than a person can on one of those. It is scary sharp when I am done. What's nice about this system is it makes a perfect edge on each side of the blade from the back clear down to the tip. Once an edge is put on a knife a touch-up is very simple and easy and takes just a couple minutes.

I was told those little pocket sharpeners with the v-slot in them will muck up an edge big-time so I do not use those. For a quick touch-up in the field I use a ceramic still or something similar.
 
If I were going to carry one in the field, it would be one of those little DMT sharpeners that look like a butterfly knife. You can get them with different diamond courses on each side.
 
I've carried an EZlap diamond sharpener that looks like a butterfly knife for years. It has the medium grit on one side and the fine on the other. I have a tendency to do a little prying with my blades so I haven't put much thought into getting a havalon. I learned how to sharpen a knife in cub scouts and have kept a razor edge on all of mine ever since. I may not be able to put an edge back on as fast as a blade change but as long as I hone my knife set before I put it in my pack I usually don't have to.
 
I bought the Ken Onion so I had more control over angle. I love the thing, best money spent on sharpening supplies ever. My wife was amazed when I resharpened the kitchen knives.

Are you using the blade grinding attachment - or just the "Standard" Ken Onion?

I've seen a lot of people recommend the blade grinder, but it looks completely "freehand" to hold the blade parallel and maintain the angle.
 
Fallkniven DC3 or DC4 - I carry the DC3.
Diamond on one side and ceramic on the other. Works great.

I also carry a Flexxx field strop and love it - sometimes I carry 4-6 quarter sheets of sandpaper for convex field sharpening.

I have a little altoids tin that it all fits in - except the field strop which is a hair too large.
 
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5miles - I use my Work Sharp just as you have seen, always pulling through from the same side. Hasn't had a negative effect that I can see.
Brendan - I use the angle guides whenever I can. Some blade thicknesses or shapes do prevent this, but on those knives I just freehand it.
 
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