Knife Sharpening

[Mortblanc]

I have always sharpened "free-hand" generally using natural stones so I do not know what angles or grits I have used over the past 65 years of knife carrying.

I do know that the big breakthrough in my sharpening ability came when I discovered natural Arkansas soft and hard stones (novaculite) and stropping with leather. That was around age 10.

If I remember correctly Ragnor at Ragweed Forge used to sell a green novaculite stone drilled to hang around one's neck like the vikings did.

Found that sucker scroll down about 1/3 the page.

https://www.ragweedforge.com/SharpeningCatalog.html

I do not know the grits of my stones, don't care. Don't know the angle of attack don't care. Don't know the hardness of the steel, don't care about that either as long as it does the job and is easy to resharpen in the field.

Each blade and each use will require a different edge applied to different standards.

99% of the time that "good enough" edge will accomplish the task at hand. I carry a 3 blade "stockman" pattern knife daily and only one of the blades is kept at a razor edge and that one is not used frequently.

LAC the numbers on the grits you are specifying are astronomically fine! I do have a diamond hone with 4 sides and the fine side is 600 grit and will bring up a razor edge with no problem. I do use diamond hones on some of my very hard blades, which are soon useless without those devices.

Sometimes the "best knife you own" is also a knife that is impossible to sharpen without complex technology. What is the difference between a "custom bushcraft knife" and a Mora?...You can sharpen the Mora to a "good enough" edge on a flat rock you fished out of the creek!

One of the pieces of my EDC kit is a small sliver of metal 2cm x 4cm and coated with diamond compound. It will bring anything available up to a "good enough" edge in a few minutes from flat edged blunt. Credit card, metal trim, old door hinge, butter knife....

That small light token replaced the 2cm x 4cm hard novaculite stone I had carried in my pocket for decades. Yep there was a time when men carried not only a knife, but a stone to sharpen it!