Sharpener for your knife what do you use.

[John Sheridan]

Have been looking around for a light weight Sharpener, I have NO idea whats good for a knife like a leatherman or typical camping knife, ceramic,diamond ???


If you can give me and us some help and point me to a place to buy a nice one that would be cool.

Cheers.

[Strider]

Fallkniven DC4!

A couple of tip:

1. Soak in warm water to separate the two halves and reattach with some decent glue. The factory stuff doesn't like getting wet.
2. Unstitch the pouch and restitch inside-out. Gives a nice grippy surface to sit the stone on when sharpening.

Ebay is your friend here. I got mine for about $23 delivered.

Last edited by Strider on Mon 12 Mar, 2012 11:48 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Franco]

At home I sharpen my kitchen knives using a honing steel because I learned that as a kid in a butcher shop .
However because I am a gear tragic I have a few other gadgets to do that.

If you want to use one in the bush, I would suggest the Smith type or with some basic skill the DC4 recommended above, or similar.
Oddly sharpening with a steel is a "natural" thing for me but I am not good at all with other ways of doing it.
(note : guys that are really into knives will run away screaming at the sight of the Smiths types...)
Franco

[ninjapuppet]

I got my leatherman sharpened at king of knives because i found some of the other tools too tricky to do myself. From memory it wasnt all that much and they did a pro job.

Fallkniven DC4!

... and yet another swedish product! why does this tiny country pump out so much "best in it class" type of outdoor products?
I just picked up a bahco laplander and a gransfors forest axe. Simply really amazed at its quality over my other tools... not to mention other brands like mora, etc etc

And Franco, thats a serious bit of kit you have there...

[Nuts]

Spyderco sharpmaker is a really good system for around the house.Stands the rods upright and its a more natural motion to keep the knife vertical than try to keep the knife itself at the correct angle. It will sharpen knifes at a set angle (that at which many knifes seem to come from the factory..(abt 30 degrees iirc)) must be a similar angle to that yellow one franco has as i use one of them to keep the edge and it works well. If you don't want the hassle, the go is to Keep the angle, with a regular touch up with one of those mini ceramic sharpeners something like a leatherman can be kept sharp (so long as not damaged or left to go too blunt).

[Strider]

If you want to use one in the bush, I would suggest the Smith type or with some basic skill the DC4 recommended above, or similar.

Yeah that was the assumption I was working on.

If looking for an all purpose kit, look at the Lanksky/Gatco/DMT systems as Franco covered.

[sailfish]

If you want to get a knife truly sharp, use fine wet and dry paper over a foam rubber pad, like a mouse pad.
Do each side on alternate strokes with light pressure.
Rather than a flat sharpening surface, you get a curved one (wells) that ensures contact right to the edge so no burr forms. Once you establish the wells, go to finer grades as fine as you can get or want. It can take a while to shape the wells first time up but the edge will last really long and will resharpen quickly after that. This is a technique used for fine hand crafted knives and can get you a true stropped razer sharp edge you can shave with if you go to a fine enough grit, 1200 or finer but 400 is well fine enough for most practical purposes.

Regards,
Ken

[jacko1956]

I get another one when the first one gets blunt....

[climbingone]

The best and lightest solution is a sheet of very fine 320 to 600 grit sandpaper
lay it flat in say a book or sheet of glass you can get a shaving sharp edge in no time check out youtube lots of stuff there
cheer
Climbingone

[John Sheridan]

I suppose you could make a foldly thing out of two pieces of plastic and put the different grits on the top and bottom and fold it to do the sharpening, if you know what i mean.

\/ Like that

Just glue down the sandpaper on the top and bottom, nice and easy to make and cheap.

Cheers.

[highlander chris]

Hi John

I do a bit of bow hunting and find the Smith Style sharpeners (Small Black sharpener dipicted in Franco's picture) to be the best for a lightweight and compact option,I regularly use it to sharpen my arrowheads, knives etc and swear by it.

It has Carbon, Ceramic and steel sharpening options and will put a good cutting edge on any blade including serated edges with the use of the steel. I have tried and tested many different sharpeners and stones, but for ease of use and great lightweight / compact tool you can't beat it.

You can pick them up from "rays outdoors" for about $10 I think

good luck
Chris

[John Sheridan]

I think the one your saying is the Smith's Pocket Pal Knife Sharpener, could be wrong

http://www.fusiongear.com.au/smiths-smi ... p-584.html

It looks OK, got to see some youtube reviews and find a place in Australia to buy it and find out how much it weighs

Cheers.

[Strider]

I think the one your saying is the Smith's Pocket Pal Knife Sharpener, could be wrong

http://www.fusiongear.com.au/smiths-smi ... p-584.html

It looks OK, got to see some youtube reviews and find a place in Australia to buy it and find out how much it weighs

Cheers.

These things make me cringe...but here we go.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Smiths-PP1-P ... 157wt_1185

[Strider]

I think the one your saying is the Smith's Pocket Pal Knife Sharpener, could be wrong

http://www.fusiongear.com.au/smiths-smi ... p-584.html

It looks OK, got to see some youtube reviews and find a place in Australia to buy it and find out how much it weighs

Cheers.

These things make me cringe...but here we go.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Smiths-PP1-P ... 157wt_1185

[John Sheridan]

Yeah kind of getting many mixed reviews from the Yutubes, some say it's horrible some say it's OK, none are really saying it's excellent though, they for a noob it seems to be a compromise that works.

Cheers.

[Strider]

Yeah kind of getting many mixed reviews from the Yutubes, some say it's horrible some say it's OK, none are really saying it's excellent though, they for a noob it seems to be a compromise that works.

Cheers.

In the <$25 price bracket:

If you can use a stone, go the DC4.

If you can't use a stone, this looks to be a good option.