Sharp knives

[Ryan]

Has anyone ever used Warthog sharpeners? I saw a V-Sharp demoed at DSC. Seemed to work well.

I had one. Considering I even got the diamond stones for it I'd like to say it impressed me. But it didn't work so well on the tip area and for fine work I need that. So unfortunately it go shelved.

So I am back to using a good Lansky crock stick set for the kitchen day to day. 25° has worked out perfect for me. a Spyderco medium ceramic for my hunting knives at home along with a Spyderco pocket sized stone with medium and fine for taking with me hunting. The last is over 25 years old and still going. I do like the Lansky clamp type set up for broadhead blades to really make sure they're ultra sharp. 25° and fine stone there.

Lots of choices, to each their own.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

On sharping knifes you will find that even a butcher who's livelihood depends on sharp knifes will turn his knifes over to a professional every now and then to put the keen edge back onto them. There are people that make a living by doing just that.

As for me when I am hunting and once my knife is sharp I don't use it for cutting wood, food, or anything else besides dressing and skinning the animals. For other uses I pack a Leatherman that will get the wood cutting and the food slicing is left to the other knifes in camp.

For sharpening I have started to use the Worksharp sharping system. Once I have established the angle and fine edge all I use is the finest grit belt that is one it and with just a few passes I have a knife that is once again sharp enough to shave with. Now if I do need to touch it up in the field I have a ceramic rod that does quite nicely.

There is no excuse for a dull knife.

JimP
I to use the work sharp but mine is called the Ken Onion knife sharpener, an excellent bit of gear. I use it on all my knives for home and field use. Keeps all my knives razor sharp. My favorite knife is a Grohman Canadian belt knife, carbon steel flat grind. Holds a beautiful edge. I have 2 steel an old F. Dick oval steel and an ultra fine diamond oval stick. Depends on what my knives need I use.

My Grohman.
I gave my PH a Svord knife as a gift.
I had sharpened it with the Ken Onion knife sharpener. He used it to completely skin a giraffe and then took three quarters of the meat off it before the knife got to blunt to use. Not a bad test.
With the Ken Onion knife sharpener I now take a couple of minutes to sharpen a knife instead of up to 20 mins.
I know this sounds like a sales pitch but it's not. Just the best and simplest I've used. It even goes bush with me just plug it into my inverter.
Cheers
Bob.

 

[Rick Cox]

rather than invade other threads, I thought it better to star a new one.
I have always believed that sharpening knives should only require a good stone or diamond tool, with the blade "slicing" into the sharpening device.
I can usually get a blade to shave arm hair dry this way.
of course keeping the angle the same for each slice will speed up the process no end due to not wasting slices, and some form of jig is the easiest way to achieve this.
however I have come across guys that think their knives are blunt, but are sharper than mine.
they all use a steel.
I have recently discovered that a steel is not meant to remove blade material to sharpen a knife.
this is why a new aggressive steel is bad news.
knife edges bend or roll over, and the steel re straightens them so the sharp edge is not pointing sideways.
god users of a steel starting with a sharp knife rarely need the stone. all they need to do is keep the sharp edge pointing in the right direction.
then comes the strop.
strops seem to contain some abrasive, but the blade is dwawn backward over them rather than slicing like the stone.
I suspect they do remove some metal, and also act as a fine tuned version of the steel at the same time..
no knife edge is smooth, but is more like a saw when looked at microscopically.
I have started skinning and or field dressing only to have the blade seem blunt very quickly.
I now realize that it has probably bent the cutting edge, and or as garry says become blocked by tissue.
I remember skinning numbers of donkeys and thinking that dirt and sand in the skins had dulled the blades.
it was quicker to have 4 knives than stone one often.
from now on I will experiment with a steel and removing tissue from the cutting edge.
the other thing to consider is sharpenability vs edge holding.
gain one and you lose the other, so it is a balancing act to suit the individual.
and the harder to sharpen, possibly the more likely the blade is to snap.
don't ask me how I know this, but spyderco is part of the story.
I will sacrifice stainless steel to have easier sharpening, better edge holding, and a non snapping blade in the overall balance of things.
bruce.

Always try to have two blades on hand for large animals. A good folder will do all you need for a deer. But modern quality steel is worth learning about as well. It all comes together when steel meets blood.

 

[Rick Cox]

I

Sounds like a good method to me.

Hanging game for a few days with the hide on is ideal. It’s never quite cold enough down here so I use a very large cooler with hide off. I do all the boning on the dining room table or the in-laws kitchen island then vac everything up.

I once shot a big bull moose on the 10th of October up in the Peace River country. It was unseasonably warm and the flies came out. I had laid the quarters on an open frame of wood to allow air to circulate around them, but the flies were all over the meat. I decided to build another frame above the meat and place the hide over this to keep the flies out. I hiked out but didn't return till two days later with the tractor to haul out the meat. Normally I'd cut it up myself, but as it was warm Dad took it into Dawson Creek to a butcher who wouldn't touch it, saying that the heat had spoiled it.
To this day, I do everything I can to cool the meat as fast as possible. The hide comes off first, starting within minutes of death, then the guts. Then open the quarters and air.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

For those that have spent anytime in a "Skinning Shed" in Africa watching or participating in the processing of your Trophy you may have been somewhat surprised to see your prized Kudu being caped with a $1.00 knife from the gas station and a soft river rock used as a sharpening stone

zephyr
I shuddered when I saw our skinners sharpening their knives on the concrete slab. I couldn't imagine doing that to any of my knives . Hey it works for them and they skin better than me.
Cheers mate Bob

 

[Standard Velocity]

I

I once shot a big bull moose on the 10th of October up in the Peace River country. It was unseasonably warm and the flies came out. I had laid the quarters on an open frame of wood to allow air to circulate around them, but the flies were all over the meat. I decided to build another frame above the meat and place the hide over this to keep the flies out. I hiked out but didn't return till two days later with the tractor to haul out the meat. Normally I'd cut it up myself, but as it was warm Dad took it into Dawson Creek to a butcher who wouldn't touch it, saying that the heat had spoiled it.
To this day, I do everything I can to cool the meat as fast as possible. The hide comes off first, starting within minutes of death, then the guts. Then open the quarters and air.

Any time I’ve lost meat on account of my inattention to detail it has really gotten to me. Just feels wrong.

I was crossing a ditch to retrieve a squirrel this season and found it sitting as pretty as could be where I’d just stepped. Felt a little stiff but I didn’t think much of it until I started pulling squirrels out of my vest a couple hours later. The one I had found on the ditch bank had fallen out of my vest and I never saw the one I’d actually hit.

I generally hunt where I can get the animal in the truck within half an hour so have little need for middle-of-nowhere butchery. I’ve read that a large can of black pepper will keep flies off of a carcass. Won’t do anything for temperature but curious if anyone has tried this.

 

[Ryan]

JimP
View attachment 339295
My Grohman.
Bob.

The original Grohman is a bit large to me but the bird and trout is a favorite of mine. Great design.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

Ryan
I do like the trout and bird knife but I find the slightly bigger belt knife better for my boofy big hands. It's more a general purpose Skinner.
It was designed in 1958 by D H Russell, the Savage 110 was designed in 1958

The original Grohman is a bit large to me but the bird and trout is a favorite of mine. Great design.

 

[Rick Cox]

Any time I’ve lost meat on account of my inattention to detail it has really gotten to me. Just feels wrong.

I was crossing a ditch to retrieve a squirrel this season and found it sitting as pretty as could be where I’d just stepped. Felt a little stiff but I didn’t think much of it until I started pulling squirrels out of my vest a couple hours later. The one I had found on the ditch bank had fallen out of my vest and I never saw the one I’d actually hit.

I generally hunt where I can get the animal in the truck within half an hour so have little need for middle-of-nowhere butchery. I’ve read that a large can of black pepper will keep flies off of a carcass. Won’t do anything for temperature but curious if anyone has tried this.

Yes, pepper is in common usage in the North for this purpose.

 

[Ryan]

Ryan
I do like the trout and bird knife but I find the slightly bigger belt knife better for my boofy big hands. It's more a general purpose Skinner.
It was designed in 1958 by D H Russell, the Savage 110 was designed in 1958

A good friend grew up in Canada, so he has a couple. I tried them both and then picked up their kit and put some spalted box elder scales and mosaic pins on one. And I have a 110 in 7mm-08. Also a great one.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

Interesting comment on the strop. While i dont actually know the difference i would have thought a strop could work on a softer steel. I also might have thought strsight razors of yesteryesr may have been in the softer range being a fine blade and to assist getting that razor edge on a fine blade from touching it up on a bit of leather. Straight razor blades would vary and ive seen them in a damascus steel.too.
If your chrap little pocket knife is a cjeap they dont respond to much. You can get an edge but domething about cheap stainless doesnt get a keen edge. Its maybe its just hard and doesn't hone so well.

@CBH
Chris
If you want a cheap knife that hold a brilliant edge for a long time try an Opinel. The are made in France from high carbon steel, take an edge easily and holds an edge. For 30 bucks you can't go wrong.

 

[Mauser78]

In SA this is probably the most used sharpener, and recommended by knifemakers for everyday use.

 

[bruce moulds]

since getting my lanski I have sharpened a lot of knives, my own, friends, and neighbours, trying to get a handle on what is really required.
I would like a microscope to look at edges, but don't have one.
what I can do is feel the edge from both sides, and sometimes they feel sharper from one side than the other.
this could suggest some burring bent in one direction, suggesting more sharpness from one direction.
after finishing with the lansky, I have taken to using a strop, rough side up, impregnated with stropping compound.
a stoned knife can easily shave hair.
a stropped one shaves hair better.
the strop works by drawing the blade backward, and clearly removes metal, as the little scratch marks left by the stone can be completely polished away.
goung backwards will also encourage the forming of a burr or feather, albeit a small one.
this is where you can still feel that greater sharpness on one side of the blade.
here is where the steel comes in.
carefully steeling the edge seems to go just that little bit sharper again, and more evenly sharp when felt from either side.
and you can see where it has honed the edge.
some diamond rods are promoted as honers, but they are not, as they are metal removers.
true honing is not metal removing.
for brst results the strop seems to work on a slightly steeper angle than the stone - far easier said than done.
then the steel seems to work best at a slightly greater angle again.
again, almost humanly impossible.
bruce.

 

[Standard Velocity]

@CBH
Chris
If you want a cheap knife that hold a brilliant edge for a long time try an Opinel. The are made in France from high carbon steel, take an edge easily and holds an edge. For 30 bucks you can't go wrong.
View attachment 353663

Opinel also makes carbon steel pairing knives. I have many different chefs knives, some of which are pretty expensive, and the cheap Opinel are my favorite. They used to come two to a pack for like $15. The stainless steel knives they make are not great but the carbon steel are really great.

 

[Standard Velocity]

since getting my lanski I have sharpened a lot of knives, my own, friends, and neighbours, trying to get a handle on what is really required.
I would like a microscope to look at edges, but don't have one.
what I can do is feel the edge from both sides, and sometimes they feel sharper from one side than the other.
this could suggest some burring bent in one direction, suggesting more sharpness from one direction.
after finishing with the lansky, I have taken to using a strop, rough side up, impregnated with stropping compound.
a stoned knife can easily shave hair.
a stropped one shaves hair better.
the strop works by drawing the blade backward, and clearly removes metal, as the little scratch marks left by the stone can be completely polished away.
goung backwards will also encourage the forming of a burr or feather, albeit a small one.
this is where you can still feel that greater sharpness on one side of the blade.
here is where the steel comes in.
carefully steeling the edge seems to go just that little bit sharper again, and more evenly sharp when felt from either side.
and you can see where it has honed the edge.
some diamond rods are promoted as honers, but they are not, as they are metal removers.
true honing is not metal removing.
for brst results the strop seems to work on a slightly steeper angle than the stone - far easier said than done.
then the steel seems to work best at a slightly greater angle again.
again, almost humanly impossible.
bruce.

One set of water stones I bought came with a jewelers loop and a block of felt. I’ve never used the loop but the felt block can remove the burr after stroping.

Rather than a leather strop I use hard cardboard like that backing legal pads. Paper has some silica in it which is abrasive but it is still pretty gentle. You’ll never get a scratch free mirror but definitely a utilitarian edge. You can even use cardstock or notebook paper. Just need to make sure it’s on a flat clean surface. Even a crumb on a counter top will cause a Princess and the Pea lump in the paper that acts like a pebble.

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

@Mauser78 , The Warhog V-Sharp looks interesting!

 

[Standard Velocity]

@Mauser78 , The Warhog V-Sharp looks interesting!

I know a custom knife maker who finishes his knives with the Warthog. He just sits in front of the TV with a pile of knives to put the edge on them. I own three of his knives and they have as consistent of an edge as you could want.

Must be good stuff.

 

[jeanes]

I know a custom knife maker who finishes his knives with the Warthog. He just sits in front of the TV with a pile of knives to put the edge on them. I own three of his knives and they have as consistent of an edge as you could want.
Must be good stuff.

I bought one of these at DSC in 2019. It has worked well for me. Gave one to my son and another to a friend last Christmas. They both like it.

 

[bruce moulds]

so the university of sharpening knives continues.
my parameters are that I am using a lanski, and am unlikely to change for better or worse.
there is no suggestion that this is the best, but rather it is what I have .
all my knives and many other peoples have been sharpened at 20 degrees or 25 degrees, some work having gone into creating the bevel angles, mostly with the coarse diamond, then working up to the fine diamond which is 600 grit.
at this stage they feel pretty sharp.
then they are stropped using the roughout side of the leather loaded with compound.
this will remove the scratching marks of the stones. (diamonds)
sometimes the lapping seemed to blunten the edges.
the abrasives definitely leave a burr, size depending on how much work is done and how hard you press.
pressing lighter and going side to side for each stroke will minimize this burring.
following the strop a steel was used, and this brought the stropped edges up to full sharpness, even the ones which felt bluntened.
this suggested that the steel was doing something necessary, and the most logical thing was removing a burr, because the difference in sharpness was pronounced.
added to which, garry's little steel which is smooth does a far better job than commercial steels with flutes in them.
at about this time I took delivery of a 2000 grit polishing stone from lansky, and one of their little strops to try.
this was intended to do these jobs at the same angle as the metal removal.
here was exposed a weakness of lansky like products.
although going from 600 to 2000 grit seemed excessive, I was prepared to take the time.
however nothing much was happening, which turned out to be that those wire rods are virtually impossible to get the same straightness as each other in relation to the sharpening surface.
with coarser abrasive, 1/2 degree makes no difference as self correction takes place, but superfine cannot do this in a reasonable time.
the little strop was forgiving in this respect as the smooth out surface flexes somewhat, exposing a less than perfect alignment to the cutting edge.
using stropping compound produced after much work an almost transparent feather edge of great flexibility.
of course this limited sharpness.
the steel removed that feather.
putting this in perspective made me wonder some things.
I now believe that the bevel on a knife is actually the knife builders job, unless the owner decides to change it.
this bevel for a slicing blade is best kept low, say 20 degrees.
the very cutting edge then becomes the owner's responsibility.
my observance of heavily stropped knives is that the bevel actually becomes convex rather than straight, slightly increasing the edge angle to who knows what.
this might get rid of the feather produced by the abrasive stones, but will develop on of its own, particularly as you are going backward rather than slicing into the strop.
a hand strop, rather than a guided strop seems to work better at this, actually making a faster convex.
this gave me the idea that there might be another way.
taking one of my proudly sharpened 20 degree blades, I gave it a few wipes each side at 25 degrees with the 2000 grit, then a light stropping alternating sides for each side with virtually no pressure.
voila, sharpness to a new level, but garry's little steel took it to another level again.
I would like a guide that could include 20 and 22.5 for this, but can live with 20 and 25.
garry's little steel was not used as he recommended, but not in the traditional way where you take the edge toward yourself for obvious safety reasons.
I held the back of the blade to my hand and worked short sections of the blade as if slicing bits off the steel moving the steel and not the blade.
this takes time, as you have to do a bit and feel the blade and do some more.
this would not worry me on a hillside, as I might need a little spell by the time a good knife needs a hone anway.
which brings us to the term HONE.
so many products are now sold as honing devices, only to be described as diamond and suchlike.
these things do not hone, but remove metal, and that is the difference.
honing might smooth metal, but does not remove it.
garry's steel is a honer, and as should be recognized as such.
he recommends using it backward like a strop, in part to remove tissue from the blade edge.
when I get to cutting meat and skin I intend to try my method against garry's, as I have an open mind.
and thus the learning experience goes on.
luckily, while sharpening knives can be a bore, it can also be quite therapeutic.
and learning anything is never wasted.
with regard feather edges, I have read the suggestion that dragging the edge through a piece of wood might remove it.
I don't know, and if it does, might not it tear pieces of steel from the edge?
bruce.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

so the university of sharpening knives continues.
my parameters are that I am using a lanski, and am unlikely to change for better or worse.
there is no suggestion that this is the best, but rather it is what I have .
all my knives and many other peoples have been sharpened at 20 degrees or 25 degrees, some work having gone into creating the bevel angles, mostly with the coarse diamond, then working up to the fine diamond which is 600 grit.
at this stage they feel pretty sharp.
then they are stropped using the roughout side of the leather loaded with compound.
this will remove the scratching marks of the stones. (diamonds)
sometimes the lapping seemed to blunten the edges.
the abrasives definitely leave a burr, size depending on how much work is done and how hard you press.
pressing lighter and going side to side for each stroke will minimize this burring.
following the strop a steel was used, and this brought the stropped edges up to full sharpness, even the ones which felt bluntened.
this suggested that the steel was doing something necessary, and the most logical thing was removing a burr, because the difference in sharpness was pronounced.
added to which, garry's little steel which is smooth does a far better job than commercial steels with flutes in them.
at about this time I took delivery of a 2000 grit polishing stone from lansky, and one of their little strops to try.
this was intended to do these jobs at the same angle as the metal removal.
here was exposed a weakness of lansky like products.
although going from 600 to 2000 grit seemed excessive, I was prepared to take the time.
however nothing much was happening, which turned out to be that those wire rods are virtually impossible to get the same straightness as each other in relation to the sharpening surface.
with coarser abrasive, 1/2 degree makes no difference as self correction takes place, but superfine cannot do this in a reasonable time.
the little strop was forgiving in this respect as the smooth out surface flexes somewhat, exposing a less than perfect alignment to the cutting edge.
using stropping compound produced after much work an almost transparent feather edge of great flexibility.
of course this limited sharpness.
the steel removed that feather.
putting this in perspective made me wonder some things.
I now believe that the bevel on a knife is actually the knife builders job, unless the owner decides to change it.
this bevel for a slicing blade is best kept low, say 20 degrees.
the very cutting edge then becomes the owner's responsibility.
my observance of heavily stropped knives is that the bevel actually becomes convex rather than straight, slightly increasing the edge angle to who knows what.
this might get rid of the feather produced by the abrasive stones, but will develop on of its own, particularly as you are going backward rather than slicing into the strop.
a hand strop, rather than a guided strop seems to work better at this, actually making a faster convex.
this gave me the idea that there might be another way.
taking one of my proudly sharpened 20 degree blades, I gave it a few wipes each side at 25 degrees with the 2000 grit, then a light stropping alternating sides for each side with virtually no pressure.
voila, sharpness to a new level, but garry's little steel took it to another level again.
I would like a guide that could include 20 and 22.5 for this, but can live with 20 and 25.
garry's little steel was not used as he recommended, but not in the traditional way where you take the edge toward yourself for obvious safety reasons.
I held the back of the blade to my hand and worked short sections of the blade as if slicing bits off the steel moving the steel and not the blade.
this takes time, as you have to do a bit and feel the blade and do some more.
this would not worry me on a hillside, as I might need a little spell by the time a good knife needs a hone anway.
which brings us to the term HONE.
so many products are now sold as honing devices, only to be described as diamond and suchlike.
these things do not hone, but remove metal, and that is the difference.
honing might smooth metal, but does not remove it.
garry's steel is a honer, and as should be recognized as such.
he recommends using it backward like a strop, in part to remove tissue from the blade edge.
when I get to cutting meat and skin I intend to try my method against garry's, as I have an open mind.
and thus the learning experience goes on.
luckily, while sharpening knives can be a bore, it can also be quite therapeutic.
and learning anything is never wasted.
with regard feather edges, I have read the suggestion that dragging the edge through a piece of wood might remove it.
I don't know, and if it does, might not it tear pieces of steel from the edge?
bruce.

@bruce moulds
Maastricht bite the bullet and spend 120 bucks and get the Ken Onion knife sharpener. It will sharpen a knife to stupidly sharp including honing it in less time than it took you to write what you do.
They are piss easy to use and remove very little metal. It is a small version of what pro knife makers use.
Bob