Sharpening a Puukko

[ScottC]

Firstly, I think I'm going to try out the diamond/ceramic DC4 as a few people have suggested it and agreed that its a good piece of kit. Thanks for all your opinions and suggestions though.


Secondly, I was wondering if using a leather belt had any important discrepancies for stropping compared with a specially designed leather strop?

 

[sargey]

not really. follow chad's tutorial, it's all there. the only issue with the strop is to use it on a flat surface. you could just hang the belt buckle on a broken branch and strop away, but you might find that that gives you an edge too rounded and it will effectively be blunt. the strop needs to be supported.

you could get on to http://www.starkiesharp.com/ they do a great little strop and stropping compound for about a fiver. if you have a belt, the little strop is already redundant. but the compound is well worth having.

failing that, check the contents of the garage or shed at home. experiment with any car polishes. T-Cut scratch remover, Autosol and the like make great stropping/lapping compounds. cut up a cornflake box and put a small dollop on the inside. use the cardboard on a mousemat for a strop.

cheers, and.

 

[Hoodoo]

Very nice Chad!

I tend to hold the hone in my left hand, lay the knife on top, and move the knife to sharpen--but not always. I generally find it easier to move the hone when I sharpen a hatchet. Six of one, half dozen of another. :-D

 

[chad234]

Thanks guys.
I usually lay the whole bevel on the strop, that time I was just polishing the very edge as it is quicker and I wanted to use the knife!!

Any piece of leather will work, I like very stiff leather as it tends not to round the edge as much.

I like the polishing paste from Lee Valley.

I have been wanting to try diamond paste on cardboard to do a fast job.

 

[Dave Barker]

I have recently started using a LANSKY crock stick.

It's about 6" long and i find it great for touching up edges whilst in the field.

I would agree with the other comments tho. Make sure the blade is sharp before you go out, the pocket rods ( ceramic) are great, and take very little material from the blade whilst maintaining the edge.

I tend to touch up the edge with the stone erery so often whilst out.

 

[gurushaun]

I second Sarge's recommendation of the Starkie Strop and paste (the compound comes in the form of a stick about the consistency of a wax crayon), easy and clean to use.

Cheers

Shaun

 

[Martyn]

For home, my first choice is waterstones. They are an elegant solution, producing a fine edge, but at home I have an unlimited supply of water, I can use a large stone on a benchtop, I dont have any time constraints and i have a belt/disk grinder to "dress" the stones when they need it.

I dont know why RM recommends them for field use. They are fragile, they need frequent re-dressing, you need plenty of water, they can be heavy by themselves and are certainly heavy when charged with water, they can take an age to dry - especially in cold conditions and if it freezes when it's wet, it will shatter.

As Adi has mentioned, either the DC3 or DC4 is the perfect field sharpener IMO. The diamond side will hog out metal at an alarming rate (even though it's a fine, 25 micron) so must be used with caution, but useful for repairing damaged or dinked edges and they work well with the (hard to sharpen) fancy alloy stainless steels like S30v as well as plain old carbon. A few careful strokes with the diamond side to bring back a good edge and then polish it in with the fine (and far more gentle) ceramic. For the most part, you can just use the ceramic side, reserving the diamond for more "demanding" sharpening. They wont wear out (OK actually they do wear, just very, very slowly), they maintain thier true flat profile so dont need dressing, they are very tough, they are very light and compact, they wont freeze and you dont need water. Perfect!

I agree you need to know what you're doing with them. You can bugger up an expensive knife pretty quickly with a diamond hone. But if you have a little experience and know when to use what, they are excellent.