Beginners knife care & sharpening

[thorpey0]

Hi,

First post folks so go steady!

I have just bought my first proper bushcraft knife, an Enzo Trapper in 01, and wanted some advice on looking after it properly and also sharpening it.

What's best to clean the blade with after each outing? Should I oil it after use and if so what with? Am I right in thinking it's best not to sharpen too often but when will I know the time is right?

Last of all I have read my knife may have a secondary bevel, does this change the way I sharpen and what is the best thing to use to sharpen, a £5 DIY kit, a Fallkniven DC4 or something else?

Thanks in advance

Jay

 

[EarthToSimon]

With my knifes to protect them I Give them a wipe with sunflower oil after use, stick to food safe oils if you plan to use the knife for food prep.
For sharpening I found the DC4 a bit small so use a £5 sharpening kit and a little strop from longstrider (tried making my own but I don't get on well with contact adhesive).
Someone will be round in a bit with some better advice

 

[ged]

Welcome to the forum!

Carbon steels like O1 react with water and air to form (predominantly) iron oxides. There are several oxides, the most important of which as far as you're concerned are magnetite and rust. Magnetite is hard, and it sticks well to the steel surface to form a semi-protective coating which we call a patina. Some people think it looks nice. Rust is soft and crumbly, it encourages more rust, and it wrecks sharp edges very quickly although that's generally recoverable with some work. Everybody thinks it's ugly.

The choice is yours whether you want a patina or a shiny blade but you don't want a rusty one. Not being a great fan of patina I clean and oil my carbon steel blades for storage. (Most of my blades are stainless -- I do the same to them). You can patinate a blade with something like vinegar or lemon juice if you want to accelerate the process.

There's a great deal of sharpening advice already on the forum, so my advice is to spend some quality time with a search engine. Something like

sharpening site:bushcraftuk.com

in your favourite search engine's search box will give you thousands of hits.

IMHO there's far too much emphasis on sharpening, I'd guess it will be a while before you need to worry about it.

 

[EarthToSimon]

I covered my mora in mustard to force a patina, it actually looks quite nice. But smells of mustard.

 

[Dartmoor navigator]

My advice would be - don't! Well not straight away. I, like you, am new to this knife sharpening thing and have found that wreck every edge that I touch

Lots of advice is available, that's true, I followed it and still manage to cock things up. The 2 fundamental bits of advice that worked for me are:

1. Practice on your kitchen knives and leave your bushcraft knife alone until you know you can do it.

2. Not everyones cup of tea but there is a Spyderco Triangle Sharpmaker for sale in the classifieds. Buy it, watch the DVD and use it to maintain a good edge - it will keep things razor sharp provided you follow point 1 above.

The next bit of advice I discovered myself.

3. Sharpen once then leave it; if you tinker and fiddle to make it better you will make it worse. So sharpen and put it away!


I know sod all about knives, steel and sharpening stones. I am an ignoramus when it comes to sharpening but those 3 rules now work consistently for me.

 

[KevinH]

This is all you need bud!

The oil lasts for ages just need to get some practice in on the water stones. Ooh and a Dc4 in the field!!

http://www.raymears.com/Bushcraft_Product/624-Ice-Bear-Camellia-Oil-240-ml/

http://www.raymears.com/Bushcraft_Product/875-Ice-Bear-Japanese-Waterstone-Sharpening-Kit/

http://www.raymears.com/Bushcraft_Product/876-Ice-Bear-Medium-Japanese-Waterstone-1200-Grit/

Shop around for prices just linked these for speed but tbh I bought mine from uncle Ray as I didnt find stuff much cheaper anywhere else.

Practice on a Mora as if you knacker a £10 knife it doesnt lead to tears lmao!!

Have fun

 

[thorpey0]

Many thanks for the replies so far. I guess I will know when my knife needs to be sharpened but I will take the advice of not rushing to do so. I would love to buy the waterstones Kev but all that kit you have listed costs the same as my knife did. I have used a damp green scourer to clean the blade and then oiled with olive oil, wiping off the excess so far, is there really a need to buy specific oil? Will a cheaper set of stones do or is the Spyderco the way forward?

I have a Mora and will practice on that before letting myself loose on the Enzo but are there any other care tips, I read somewhere about not storing my knife in the leather sheath?

Cheers

 

[ged]

Many thanks for the replies so far. I guess I will know when my knife needs to be sharpened but I will take the advice of not rushing to do so. I would love to buy the waterstones Kev but all that kit you have listed costs the same as my knife did.

You don't need to spend a lot of money.

I have used a damp green scourer to clean the blade

Watch out for those things, they're a lot more aggressive than you might think.

and then oiled with olive oil, wiping off the excess so far, is there really a need to buy specific oil?

No need to buy any specific oil, all you're doing with oil is keeping the water and to some extent oxygen away from the steel so the chemical reactions of corrosion are slowed down considerably. If you're going to use the knife for food prep then an edible oil isn't a bad idea but some of them can get a bit gooey if left on there for a long time.

Will a cheaper set of stones do or is the Spyderco the way forward?

You don't need to spend a lot of money! Take your time. Some of the sharpeners that are available give little or no flexibility for edge geometries and I'd include the Spyderco Triangle amongst those. I'm not a fan.

I have a Mora and will practice on that before letting myself loose on the Enzo but are there any other care tips, I read somewhere about not storing my knife in the leather sheath?

Good plan on a cheap Mora, especially if it's carbon steel. Don't bother with things like 18/8 (304) stainless kitchen knives, the steel is completely different and it won't tell you anything about your Enzo, but if you can find other cheap knives with carbon steel blades by all means have a go.

The thing about storage is to keep the blade dry and free of contaminants which can (a) absorb moisture and/or (b) promote chemical reactions. A leather sheath will always contain moisture, and it will probably also contain salts which can be both corrosive and hygroscopic. Think of sweat for example, leather is just an animal's skin treated with goodness only knows what. This can add up to a fairly corrosive micro-environment inside the sheath which can damage even stainless blades if left in there for long periods, especially in a wider environment which contains much moisture.

 

[Elines]

Sorry - Ged posted while I was drafting mine and I hadn't seen it so there is repetition of some of his stuff.

Having already been through the process you are just starting my comments are:
.

• reading loads of stuff gave me a lot of new knowledge but tended to leave me very confused and I still couldn't sharpen my knives well
• the big turning point for me was when someone (Luckylee - thanks again Lee) spent about 10 minutes showing me A way to sharpen my Mora using the stuff I had with me (DC4 and the leather belt I was wearing)
• this then allowed me to develop my own way of sharpening knives based on Lee's advice and picking and choosing bits from all the advice (sometimes conflicting) on the internet
• I can get my knives sharp enough for me - razor sharp if I want - and I now sharpen the kitchen knives of family members (problem is they keep cutting themselves with them)

.
Other comments are:
.

• yes - practise on a cheap knife until you get the hang of it before working on a more expensive/cherished one
• start off with the cheapest kit you can - the £5 one works very well (it's what I use) but depending on the grades of wet and dry you use/ where you get them from it could cost you a bit more than £5 to get a good mix.
• you might find that the £5 kit does all you want and so save yourself a load of money
• you might be better off starting with a micro mesh set (found on Ebay) instead of wet and dry although I still haven't yet tried the micro mesh I bought - because I am still using my wet and dry set
• re when to sharpen - I think the general line is that once you get your knife sharp you will then usually only have to strop it to get it back to how you want - and NOT have to 're-sharpen' it every time you have been out

Incidentally - whether or not to use a paste of some kind on your strop is just one of the many things that people seem to have different views about - including knifemakers

 

[Elines]

Another cheap knife (at £7.28) but apparently good knife - as per Amazon reviews - is

Hultafors