Need knife sharpening kit recommendations

Joined
Aug 28, 2017
Messages
514
I'll start by saying I'm terrible at sharpening on a stone. Tried it, can't do it to the sharpness I like. I've used the lansky kit in the past with great success but the clamp doesn't really fit my hunting knife because of the bevel on the top of the blade.

Is there a kit out there that's light enough to take afield for quick sharpening while skinning and quartering but will also do many different blade styles including broadheads?
 

oldgoat

WKR
Joined
Mar 5, 2015
Messages
2,063
Location
Arvada, CO
I've had some luck sharpening on carbide sharpeners, they are the only light weight option, but you will need a strop and rouge to finish the broadheads to be sharp enough. For home, I've recently bought a 1"x30" belt sander with some 400 grit belts and a leather strop belt. Check out the Accusharp from Magnus and Outdoor Edge makes a nice little sharpener but I can't remember exactly what it's called but seems like it's X-Something. Other than those, KME sharpeners are the Cadillacs of the Lansky type sharpeners but aren't light weight or simple enough to use while taking care of an animal in the field.
 

Holaday

FNG
Joined
Sep 8, 2017
Messages
16
Check out the Spyderco Sharpmaker. I use it for everything. It won’t be good for putting new edge geometry on a blade but for keeping things stupid sharp it’s awesome.
 
Last edited:

muddydogs

WKR
Joined
May 3, 2017
Messages
1,099
Location
Utah
My $.02 is you owe it to yourself to learn how to sharpen knives by hand as it saves time in the end and a bunch of wasted money on the latest sharpening gadget. Sharpening by hand is so much faster then messing with angle clamps and jig stands plus if you have a truly sharp knife you will not need to sharpen it while skinning and quartering an elk, I carry 2 knives in case I get a little Western but in general I can skin and quarter a whole elk with one 3 or 4 inch blade knife.

Spend some time looking at the angle your knife was originally sharpened at and practice laying the knife on your stone or paper at that angle and practice maintaining that angle while drawing the blade across the stone or paper. It takes some practice to keep the stone and blade at the same angle through the whole stroke but after a while it becomes second nature and you will be able to set in front of the TV watching some program while banging out a few blades. Start with your kitchen knives so you can see how well your edge lasts with some use and work up to your good hunting knives.

My sharpener is about as cheap as they get. I take a 1"x 2" piece of lumber cut to around 16" which I carve a 4" handle in. I then glue a piece of scrap leather ruff side out to one side and smooth side out to the other. On the ruff out side of the leather I rub rouge into the leather for a strop with a little abrasion and the smooth side I leave plain for just a leather strop. Next cut some wet dry sandpaper to fit the wood block, I use 400 grit for bad blades, 800 grit, 1000 grit and 2000 grit. The whole deal is finished of with a 1/2" wide piece of bike inner tube (ranger band) that's used to hold the sandpaper to the block while sharpening.

Start out with the 400 or 800 grit depending on the condition of the blade then work through the finer grits finishing with a strop on the leather with rouge then without rouge. Once you get the angle deal figured out it doesn't take long to sharpen a blade. I can work through a dozen low end filet knives that get dulled up through the deboning, meat cleaning and packaging process.
 
Joined
Feb 17, 2017
Messages
1,287
Work Sharp Guided Field Sharpener. Don’t think you can’t sharpen on a stone. I totally sucked at it until I spent some time figuring out what works. And by time I mean an hour, tops, maybe a half with a kitchen knife with sharpie on the edge. It’s now my preferred method of sharpening. I use it over my motorized Work Sharp sharpener. All you really ever use is the finest ceramic side. Five this way, five the other way, ten alternating, strop five or ten times, and your knife is sharp as hell. I mean wipe the hair from your arm shaving where you don’t even feel it removing hair. The key is don’t wait till your knife is dull as hell to start sharpening. Any natural break point in your skinning or butchering work, hit the ceramic for thirty seconds and you’re back in it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Lawnboi

WKR
Joined
Mar 2, 2012
Messages
7,687
Location
North Central Wi
Do you strop you knives? Sandpaper? I never get a finished edge with a stone, always finish it on a strop or sandpaper.

The only time I pull out a stone is if my knife is really dull. Even after multiple deer, including popping all joints, my knives really only need a few licks on 1000 and 2000 grit sandpaper or strop to get back to hair shaving sharp, a 2 minute job. I don't even carry a stone hunting, I'll only carry one if i know I'll be starting a lot of fires.

Part of your problem may be with your edge geometry, some edges, until you get them to where they need to be, can be rough to get sharp. This is especially true with most over the counter knives that come from the factory with a machine made edge. Add onto that what steel your using? While I can get my a2 and carbon steel knives from dull to shaving fairly quickly, a lot of the stainless steels out there provide much more hassle when trying to get them very sharp.

For me, my knives won't touch a ceramic rod, ever be put in a lansky or wicked edge, and never be run through one of those electric deals. Until I started using stones and strops on a good convex edge, I didn't know what a REALLY sharp knife even felt like.
 

muddydogs

WKR
Joined
May 3, 2017
Messages
1,099
Location
Utah
Work Sharp Guided Field Sharpener. Don’t think you can’t sharpen on a stone. I totally sucked at it until I spent some time figuring out what works. And by time I mean an hour, tops, maybe a half with a kitchen knife with sharpie on the edge. It’s now my preferred method of sharpening. I use it over my motorized Work Sharp sharpener. All you really ever use is the finest ceramic side. Five this way, five the other way, ten alternating, strop five or ten times, and your knife is sharp as hell. I mean wipe the hair from your arm shaving where you don’t even feel it removing hair. The key is don’t wait till your knife is dull as hell to start sharpening. Any natural break point in your skinning or butchering work, hit the ceramic for thirty seconds and you’re back in it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I forgot about the Sharpie trick which I used to learn myself. Use the sharpie to color the edge of the blade black then make a sharpening stroke on your stone or paper, then look at the edge to see where you removed the marker from. Adjust the blade angle until your removing the sharpie from just the blade edge. Then work on getting even strokes removing sharpie from the entire edge of the blade in smooth strokes.

I color my grinder plate blades with sharpie so I can monitor material removal and see when I get the blade flat while sanding them on a piece of glass also.

Also like Lawnboi pointed out you might think your freshly sharpened knife isn't very sharp but a quick strop on a piece of leather even the side of your leather boot can work wonders on the edge.
 

oldgoat

WKR
Joined
Mar 5, 2015
Messages
2,063
Location
Arvada, CO
My $.02 is you owe it to yourself to learn how to sharpen knives by hand as it saves time in the end and a bunch of wasted money on the latest sharpening gadget. Sharpening by hand is so much faster then messing with angle clamps and jig stands plus if you have a truly sharp knife you will not need to sharpen it while skinning and quartering an elk, I carry 2 knives in case I get a little Western but in general I can skin and quarter a whole elk with one 3 or 4 inch blade knife.

Spend some time looking at the angle your knife was originally sharpened at and practice laying the knife on your stone or paper at that angle and practice maintaining that angle while drawing the blade across the stone or paper. It takes some practice to keep the stone and blade at the same angle through the whole stroke but after a while it becomes second nature and you will be able to set in front of the TV watching some program while banging out a few blades. Start with your kitchen knives so you can see how well your edge lasts with some use and work up to your good hunting knives.

My sharpener is about as cheap as they get. I take a 1"x 2" piece of lumber cut to around 16" which I carve a 4" handle in. I then glue a piece of scrap leather ruff side out to one side and smooth side out to the other. On the ruff out side of the leather I rub rouge into the leather for a strop with a little abrasion and the smooth side I leave plain for just a leather strop. Next cut some wet dry sandpaper to fit the wood block, I use 400 grit for bad blades, 800 grit, 1000 grit and 2000 grit. The whole deal is finished of with a 1/2" wide piece of bike inner tube (ranger band) that's used to hold the sandpaper to the block while sharpening.

Start out with the 400 or 800 grit depending on the condition of the blade then work through the finer grits finishing with a strop on the leather with rouge then without rouge. Once you get the angle deal figured out it doesn't take long to sharpen a blade. I can work through a dozen low end filet knives that get dulled up through the deboning, meat cleaning and packaging process.

Blah blah, I enjoy buying and playing with all the sharpening gadgets;-)
 

boom

WKR
Joined
Sep 11, 2013
Messages
3,185
I've gotten fairly proficient with a stone. At home. In the field I'm not dicking with any stone. Especially if I'm bloody or tired. Tired is usually the issue. I just want to get done with the butchering task. Enter my only honing kit in my pack. The Accusharp. Fast, SAFE and it gets a knife a razors edge if you don't let it dull too far. It's light too!
 
Joined
Mar 13, 2017
Messages
1,086
Location
Chico, California
x2 on the Work Sharp system. I can sharpen every knife in my house in a very short amount of time. Love it. I still use a stone in the field, but it is so nice to be able to get my knives sharp quickly with the Work Sharp
 
Top