Sharpness score of your hunting knife

[Thegman]

I'm always trying something new, and try to "keep it simple".

Lately I've been using this semi-coarse ceramic rod sharpener I bought off ebay, and following with two chop sticks, one coated in black compound (lower) and one coated in white compound (upper - the black is metal, not compound).

I loose-hand strop with all of them, putting on a convex edge. Could probably just stop with the ceramic rod and use the coarser edge.

This system seems to be working well, and is small and lightweight enough to carry in the field, and it's pretty fast.



If you're not using a hand lens to check your work, start. It greatly accelerates the learning curve for getting a good edge. I had never been very good using an Arkansas stone, but this winter needed to fix up some knives of family members, and that's what was available. Found a hand lens and went to work. Got a great edge on the knives. The hand lens told me what I was doing poorly and what I was doing well.

 

[pattimusprime22]

I'm always trying something new, and try to "keep it simple".

Lately I've been using this semi-course ceramic rod sharpener I bought off ebay, and following with two chop sticks, one coated in black compound (lower) and one coated in white compound (upper - the black is metal, not compound).

I loose-hand strop with all of them, putting on a convex edge. Could probably just stop with the ceramic rod and use the coarser edge.

This system seems to be working well, and is small and lightweight enough to carry in the field, and it's pretty fast.

View attachment 1043915

If you're not using a hand lens to check your work, start. It greatly accelerates the learning curve for getting a good edge. I had never been very good using an Arkansas stone, but this winter needed to fix up some knives of family members, and that's what was available. Found a hand lens and went to work. Got a great edge on the knives. The hand lens told me what I was doing poorly and what I was doing well.

What are you looking for with the hand lens? Are you looking for remaining burr? Evenness of the secondary bevel?

 

[Thegman]

What are you looking for with the hand lens? Are you looking for remaining burr? Evenness of the secondary bevel?

Those and everything else. Sharpness is a physical thing can be seen under a lens. The more you look at cutting edges and see how they cut for you, the easier it is to get what you're after.

The main thing I'm looking at with the things I pictured are:

Edge shape - reasonably even and the shape I'm looking for.

Bevel status - is my current sharpening actually reaching the cutting edge or do I need to keep removing material? This is mostly when starting with more obtuse edges. I remember years ago failing to get a knife's sharpness to change. Finally thought of actually looking closely at what was going on and realized how much further I actually needed to go to reach the cutting edge.

Edge burr and roughness: How straight and polished is the cutting edge, and how does that affect cutting? Finishing with very light strokes from the ceramic rod above can remove a burr if there, but leaves a toothy edge. The "polishing sticks" can smooth and polish that cutting edge. Looking at the cutting edge with the hand lens and testing cutting performance at these different stages really helps teach you what you're looking for in the particular kind of sharpness you're after.

 

[WBT]

I'm historically terrible at sharpening knives, but I broke down and bought a TSPROF K03 on Black Friday. Now I can get my hunting knives razor sharp within just a couple of minutes. It's so easy to use.