Sharpening Stone/Tool for Field of Hard use Blades

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waveone

Joined
Jan 12, 2014
Messages
244
Gents,

Looking for recommendations on sharpening tools for field use of steels such as

3v
M390
and D2

All of which I have for either bush craft , game processing and/or camp chores

Any thoughts on stropping for these metals?

All of these clearly hold an edge but there are times I simply do not check before taking them out and frankly my Spyderco set needs new stones and ceramic rods.

thanks to all
 
Put SiC grit on a hardwood board will help you. I did the same and stropped my s90v blade on it. Which does improve it when not very dull. I worked it into the wood with mineral oil. DM
 
I can vouch for one use case in particular. If you're going to sharpen "hard" steels like those you name in the field, the Arctic Fox stones will definitely cut those. I have the 400-grit bench stone and it does fine on 2 hard steels I've tried it with: S30v on a Benchmade folder, and CPM20CV on a Spyderco Mule. It doesn't for me cut as quickly as my DMT stones in similar grits, but as you learn how to use it dry (which would be probably most convenient field usage versus having to soak the stone and keep wetting it in the field), it can be effective as I've used it both wet and dry at home to cut hard steels. Though I don't own the AF field stone version, it simply adds a coarser grit option to the 400-grit option, which should make it cut even faster and be more all-purpose to use in the field.

As for what I'd recommend: I don't know yet, I'm working on that myself. :D The AF field stone is 1 of 3 top field stone options I am looking at. The second one is the forthcoming Spyderco Double Stuff 2, which will improve their Gen 1 double stuff because 1 side will use Cubic Boron Nitride which will basically give you coarse diamond-like performance, and then a fine ceramic on the other side. That actually sounds VERY appealing to me, plus the design of the stone has some additional useful features, problem is it's not available yet. The third option I'm considering, which I also have some firsthand experience with, is the DMT folding 2-side sharpeners. I have one in coarse/fine, and have used it many many times backpacking, and for sharpening things like axes around home when I didn't want to take the time to go back to the house and my bench sharpening setup, etc. If I end up sticking with the DMT as my field sharpener though, I am going to get 2 of them giving me extra grits and a better coarse option. Their "coarse" is really more like medium and doesn't cut very fast. If you go DMT, I'd recommend what I'm considering: get their 2-side folding Extra-coarse/coarse sharpener, and then add the Fine/Extra-fine version. You'll have 2 of them, but they're small, and now it gives you 4 useful grits and the EC gives you the ability to cut MUCH faster and do better edge repair in the field without it taking all day.
 
maximus83 said:
I can vouch for one use case in particular. If you're going to sharpen "hard" steels like those you name in the field, the Arctic Fox stones will definitely cut those. I have the 400-grit bench stone and it does fine on 2 hard steels I've tried it with: S30v on a Benchmade folder, and CPM20CV on a Spyderco Mule. It doesn't for me cut as quickly as my DMT stones in similar grits, but as you learn how to use it dry (which would be probably most convenient field usage versus having to soak the stone and keep wetting it in the field), it can be effective as I've used it both wet and dry at home to cut hard steels. Though I don't own the AF field stone version, it simply adds a coarser grit option to the 400-grit option, which should make it cut even faster and be more all-purpose to use in the field.

As for what I'd recommend: I don't know yet, I'm working on that myself. :D The AF field stone is 1 of 3 top field stone options I am looking at. The second one is the forthcoming Spyderco Double Stuff 2, which will improve their Gen 1 double stuff because 1 side will use Cubic Boron Nitride which will basically give you coarse diamond-like performance, and then a fine ceramic on the other side. That actually sounds VERY appealing to me, plus the design of the stone has some additional useful features, problem is it's not available yet. The third option I'm considering, which I also have some firsthand experience with, is the DMT folding 2-side sharpeners. I have one in coarse/fine, and have used it many many times backpacking, and for sharpening things like axes around home when I didn't want to take the time to go back to the house and my bench sharpening setup, etc. If I end up sticking with the DMT as my field sharpener though, I am going to get 2 of them giving me extra grits and a better coarse option. Their "coarse" is really more like medium and doesn't cut very fast. If you go DMT, I'd recommend what I'm considering: get their 2-side folding Extra-coarse/coarse sharpener, and then add the Fine/Extra-fine version. You'll have 2 of them, but they're small, and now it gives you 4 useful grits and the EC gives you the ability to cut MUCH faster and do better edge repair in the field without it taking all day.
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This is why this site is awesome. The knowledge and experience here is exceptional.
Thank you gentlemen.

Excellent advice maximus, I'll look into it.

David- I have to admit I'm a bit lost on your advise in terms of what SiC silicone is and placing it on hw but it sounds cool. Care to elaborate? I'm a bit of a novice on field sharpening but learning quickly.

Cool website. Which one or ones do you recommend? LOL- the one that's named "fieldstone"right ....??
 
SiC is an abbreviation for silicon carbide, which is one of the two most commonly used abrasive grains worldwide. The other is aluminum oxide. SiC is the harder and sharper of the two, but also more brittle.
 
wave, excuse me as I didn't know. You can obtain silicon carbide from Home Depot just loose grit. You can scrap it off sandpaper of the grit you'd want. I reuse mine when I clean my stone after a sharpening session. It is friable and will be ground
finer during use as it tumbles. The grit size is not so important because of the use characteristics. My slurry was 200-250 grit when I applied it. Now, it looks finer than 300 grit. But it works to remove burrs on hard vanadium steels. A key use because
these steels tend to burr during hard use. Pruning hardwood limbs or malleting the blade thru bone. Like when cutting up a chicken or cleaning a fish. When cutting rope or leather I don't notice this. These burrs you can easily feel. DM
 
Another :thumbsup: for the Artic Fox Field and or Pocket Stones ...

DMT has some options but for me I prefer the feedback I get from the Artic Fox Stones over diamond stones ... just my personal preference.

If you are keeping your knives sharp and are just needing touch ups I use Ceramic Hones and they will bring the crispness back out if you arent repairing rolls or something ... and using those regularly save alot of time.

If you prefer to strop ... try a piece of hardwood and denim and use CBN Emulsion or Diamond spray ... or you can if you use the Artic Fox Stone to repair the edge wrap denim or even paper around the stone and apply the compound ... the firm backing will work great and won't convex your edges if you don't want them convexed.
 
Typically this is the case= keeping them sharp, yet I prefer hair cutting sharp even for hard- use blades employed for camp chores or almost whatever is necessary.
Stropping is something that interests me a great deal but have little experience in. All I've used to "strop" is both smooth and rough sides of a 2" belt.

Applied Pressure plays a significant part in any application and something I'm literally feeling my way through. Blade Angles are the same issue. The last thing I want to do is "defile" the blade because of poor technique

I'll tell you - the resourcefulness of all of you gentlemen in your various techniques is awesome. Denim and hardwood- who'd a thought... That would make a great video

Thank you
 
I got those 3 Gritomatic dual sided 6x1 inch bonded diamond stones, so 6 different grit size in a convenient handhold stone size. Recommended use with water. I only have limited experience yet with a small stainless steel kitchen pairing knife. I used the coarse doubled sided stone only. The feel is different than new DMT stones, better feedback I would say (although my well used coarse DMT "waterstone" has good feedback now too). The coarsest side feels less coarse compared to equivalent DMT grit size. The size of the stone is very convenient for "field sharpening technique" (one hand holds stone, one hand holds knife). I can't really talk about performance, burring, loading, dulling etc. yet. Time will show.

Meanwhile, I like the ArticFox field stone more and more and I understand the different properties of more/less pressure, waterfilm or dry etc. better too. I used the coarse side on (again) a cheapo stainless steel kitchen knife yesterday. I deliberately cut off the edge/apex (so cut into the stone) to have a clear starting point. I used quite a bit of pressure, about 1000g. Not really any grit release, the surface of the stone remains very smooth (again, this is the coarse side of the field stone). I expected a bit faster abrasion, it did took some time to regain an apex. Maybe I should have used even more pressure? Anyway, going forward, once on the fine side, first with water on surface, less and less pressure, edge leading only, then dry - I was able to obtain a burr free edge, as far as I was able to see and feel. Cutting kitchen paper towel did not reveal any burr either. It shaves but did not catch any hair above skin near wrist.
 
waveone said:
This is why this site is awesome. The knowledge and experience here is exceptional.
Thank you gentlemen.

Excellent advice maximus, I'll look into it.
Click to expand...


OP: For what it's worth, I've made my own conclusion and will buy FortyTwoBlades FortyTwoBlades Arctic Fox field stone. As discussed above and in other threads recently where I've been learning to use the Arctic Fox bench stone, there is no free lunch, there is no perfect stone. All involve trade-offs. The trade-offs I've found in the AF bench stone, and presumably this would apply to the field stone when using the same grit, is it does not cut quite as fast as my DMT bench stones that are close to the same grit (the 325 or the 600), nor quite as easily on hard modern steels. Also, the AF can be a bit more finicky (or to put it more positively, requires more finesse and hands-on "management" of the stone while sharpening) than my DMT interrupted surface stones do, in order to keep it sharpening consistently. That is nothing wrong with the stone, it's just inherent to the materials in the stone and any similar stone would work the same way. In a home bench stone environment where I have the luxury of being able to use a progression of grits and multiple stones, working my way thru 3 or 4 grits of the DMT bench stones definitely gives me faster, and highly refined edge results, and requires less messing with the stones while using them. Yet that is an apples-to-oranges comparison, because of course the DMT are multiple grits. I still see a place for both: a highly refined set of diamond stones that let you really work up an edge in a home/bench sharpening environment, AND a place for a single do-it-all stone that you can take and use anywhere on almost any steel. I will get both. :p

When you're looking for a single do-it-all stone that can sharpen all the steels you have, cover a range of sharpening tasks from light edge repair and even light profiling all the way to apexing and polishing your finished edge: here's why I decided for the AF field stone.
  1. Can cut all the steels I have, even if with some, it takes a little longer.
  2. The 400-grit AF is actually pretty nice as a do-it-all grit when your goal is to have a single stone. I've done light profiling on my AF bench stone (so I know it can handle that level of cutting), AND it can do a pretty decent job of finish/polishing an edge if you make a lot of light pressure passes to refine. Then when you figure the field stone is giving you an additional more coarse 240 grit, it extends its usefulness even more. I have a hard time believing the new Spyderco DoubleStuff Gen2 version will be able to beat this. It will offer CBN surface that should be equivalent to the coarse performance on one side, so that'll be useful I'm sure. But the ceramic side will just be your standard Spyderco fine ceramic, and for many reasons discussed ad nauseum in the forums, this "works" at some level, but is not a great all-purpose sharpening solution.
  3. Doesn't require oil, which is really nice (required, IMHO) in a field stone. No messy hassle trying to carry it, or to bring oil along to oil it during field usage. This is one of the key advantages of the AF over similar 2-grit field stone offerings by Norton, others, that require oil. Also FWIW, I have the Norton economy stones and the sharpening experience and results on those, for me, is nowhere near as nice as what I can get from the AF.
  4. Gives nicer feedback than the DMT interrupted folding sharpeners. And I mean a LOT nicer. I have the DMT. They work quite well. But I hate the way they feel. It's entirely subjective, but I like the feeling and control of a real stone with a smooth continuous surface.
  5. The field stone is extremely cost effective: $18. I don't know where you're going to get better sharpening versatility and performance in a single field stone for this price. The DMT C/F single folding sharpener is OK, but will not be as coarse as the AF, therefore not as good at field repairing significant edge damage quickly. If you do what I suggested earlier--get TWO DMT folding sharpeners in a variety of grits from EC/C to F/EF--that addresses the problem there, but now you have TWO sharpeners, and the combined cost is over $60. Really hard to beat the AF in that regard. Similarly, even if you were willing to wait for the not-yet-released Spyderco DoubleStuff Gen 2, and you aren't worried about the issues trying to use their fine ceramic as your primary all-purpose sharpening grit, it'll still be approx 2.5x the cost of the AF field stone.
Hope that helps, that was my thinking process to selecting the AF field stone.
 
Yes, absolutely, it does. Thank you for your time maximus.

The direction is concise and clear. Another excellent post., and I'm excited.
This is a skill that requires time, trial, error and a lot of effort, just as any skill.

Awesome stuff gentlemen
 
awestib said:
I got those 3 Gritomatic dual sided 6x1 inch bonded diamond stones, so 6 different grit size in a convenient handhold stone size. Recommended use with water. I only have limited experience yet with a small stainless steel kitchen pairing knife. I used the coarse doubled sided stone only. The feel is different than new DMT stones, better feedback I would say (although my well used coarse DMT "waterstone" has good feedback now too). The coarsest side feels less coarse compared to equivalent DMT grit size. The size of the stone is very convenient for "field sharpening technique" (one hand holds stone, one hand holds knife). I can't really talk about performance, burring, loading, dulling etc. yet. Time will show.

Meanwhile, I like the ArticFox field stone more and more and I understand the different properties of more/less pressure, waterfilm or dry etc. better too. I used the coarse side on (again) a cheapo stainless steel kitchen knife yesterday. I deliberately cut off the edge/apex (so cut into the stone) to have a clear starting point. I used quite a bit of pressure, about 1000g. Not really any grit release, the surface of the stone remains very smooth (again, this is the coarse side of the field stone). I expected a bit faster abrasion, it did took some time to regain an apex. Maybe I should have used even more pressure? Anyway, going forward, once on the fine side, first with water on surface, less and less pressure, edge leading only, then dry - I was able to obtain a burr free edge, as far as I was able to see and feel. Cutting kitchen paper towel did not reveal any burr either. It shaves but did not catch any hair above skin near wrist.
Click to expand...

Totally with you on using the AF. As I said above, I just ordered the field stone, and have already been using the AF bench stone and doing a LOT of practice sharpening with it the last month. You definitely have to learn to work with the attributes of this stone. It is EXTREMELY versatile and can do a lot of different things pretty well. On the single (400) grit AF bench stone, I have done everything from profiling an edge (yes that took more pressure, created quite a slurry, and took a little while :-)) to ordinary sharpening passes, to extremely light passes to polish, and even "backhoning" as a way to kind of replace stropping. Where the goal is to have one do-it-all (or at least, "do-it-most") versatile stone. Jack of many trades, versatility. Clearly using one stone that has different wet/dry properties like this and operates very differently in those different conditions--wet/dry, slurry/none, pressure/not, etc--means you have to get some experience using it based on what kind of results you are trying to get. I am learning the different things that work, or don't, with this stone. Also it reacts VERY differently to various steels than my DMT, not necessarily better or worse, just different, and you have to get used to that too. What I would love to do is work closely with Benjamin as a relative newbie to this stone, and document what kinds of sharpening techniques to use with the stone based on what kind of results you're trying to get, and maybe put this in a forum sticky or something. "Using one sharpening stone as a versatile do-it-all sharpening solution." Or something like that. :-) All things considered, in cases (like backpacking) where I want a single do-it-all stone, the AF IMHO is the best thing going and what I will use.
 
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