You are more than welcome. You should have enough there to make yourself a nice container too if you wish.
:thumbup:
touched by nature
:thumbup:
touched by nature
So, something like this?THOaken,
A file might work but often the knife spine can be harder than the file teeth!
If you can file it, make sure you don't file a curve onto the spine, so keep the file perfectly flat with the knife clamped low in a vice.
You could also use a sharpening stone and hold the knife inverted and perfectly upright to get a 90 degree corner on it - careful of your fingers!
I would suggest that if your filing or abrading raises a burr, leave it and use that to bite into the firesteel.
You could try making a handle for the striker as another project, but many people rely on a knife spine rather than a short supplied striker!
ATB
Ogri the trog
Yes that's it, just keep the file, whetstone at 90 degrees to the spine in a horizontal plane too!
Ogri the trog
But the vice will hold it straight up, and as the file isn't going to cut you and has a handle it should be easier to manipulate.
I like the idea of modding my mora because then I wouldn't need to carry an extra knife as a striker. Isn't that what Bushcraft is all about, Marco? Efficiency? Anyway, it's a cheap Mora Companion MG Clipper, so if it goes wrong, which I doubt it will as it doesn't seem like a particularly difficult process, I could just buy another one.I carry an old number 8 Opinel knife that has seen better days. I use this as my striker instead of using my main knife. Casts plenty of sparks and still comfortable to grip. So instead of altering your main knife, could you not dig out an old carbon bladed pocket knife instead?
Turns out it was the striker all along. I went into the kitchen in search of a knife with a good edge and to use as an example for my Mora modding. Without any force at all I got a proper shower of sparks.
Looking at this stone, could anyone tell me if it might require oil or water before I attempt to work the spine?
... bought it quite a while ago and it's just been lying around.
Great news! Sorry I've not been around much, looks like you've had a pretty torrid time. But now you have a result. I think I suggested trying different strikers back in March.
This should really be in another thread. Mods?
It looks like an aluminium oxide 'stone' which is a man-made agglomerate of small bits of hard material. It doesn't really need anything but you can use oil with it. The idea of the oil is to wash away particles of metal but you can get rid of them without using oil and that can be a little less messy. Water stones are a lot softer and I wouldn't use water with your stone. It looks like you've left it somewhere damp and steel particles that it's collected in its surface have turned to rust particles. That's not good news but it isn't serious, clean them off as best you can with a wire brush or something like that so they don't get impressed into whatever you work on next. By the way oil will tend to stop the particles rusting. You've also been using just the middle of the stone and that will eventually give you a depression there. Try to work all over the surface so it stays flatter, which is better when you sharpen longer straight blades.
Take better care of your tools, and they'll work better for you.
I'm not entirely convinced of that Ged, this whole thread has been about getting THOaken through his firelighting wall - use of the stone, files etc. has all been part of that journey. I will agree that generalised advice about sharpening stones belongs with cutting tools, but this, I believe, is something different.This should really be in another thread. Mods?