Tactical Tuesday: Knife Sharpening

Welcome to Tactical Tuesday my friends. As I have currently started the school year, I apologize in a advance for a further scarcity of my posts, though I will do my best to keep them from ceasing completely.

That being said, for my topic today I've chosen the rather surrepticious topic of knife sharpening! While it may seem silly and pointless for what may to you be an easily accomplished task, I feel somewhat required to explain to those of you out there who weren't a tomboy and/or boy scout in their youth.

Now my father (yes, my daddy taught me how to sharpen a knife) always taught me that a knife is to be sharpened with oil. Not everyone agrees with this however; this of course filters into the sharpening stone manufacturing companies. This means that some stones are made to be used dry and some are made to be used with oil or spit or whatever (my daddy would KILL me if I spit on a stone, but post-apocalypse one may not have a choice). This doesn't really affect the procedure since the method is essentially the same but it does depend on the kind of stone you acquire.

Anyway.

The trick to this is angles. There are two angles you have to maintain while sharpening your blade: the angle of the blade and the stone and the angle of the blade against the surface of the stone.

Thats the 45 degree angle

1) Hold the medium grit stone in your non-dominant hand (as I say this I hear my Dad yelling at me so I have to tell you---please protect your hand; use a glove, wet rag whatever, just don't do this barehanded) and place the blade at a 45 degree angle with the stone. What I do is make a cross with the blade and the stone (like you were making a cross at Dracula) then shifting the blade halfway towards the hand holding the stone (half of 90 is 45).

2) With your finger along the spine of the blade (the non-sharp back part) raise the blade about 20 degrees off the stone (you should be able to just fit a finger between the side of the blade and the surface of the stone--do what you would naturally do as if you were trying to slice off a layer of your stone like it were bread or something).

Thats the 20 degree angle

3) Slowly and steadily draw the blade toward you while keeping the original angles (slowly! don't cut yourself!). Make sure to keep the blade in contact with the stone. Apply medium pressure as you draw the blade across the stone---remember you're not trying to CUT the stone, you're scraping a small amount of metal off the blade in order to make the blade sharp again. You're also not being a pansy--so don't just lightly drag it, press down just not too hard.

4) Flip it over and do the same thing to the otherside, only this time draw the knife away from yourself. It's good to not do 3 times on one side then 3 on the other or whatever. I suggest once on each side because your margin for error will be a lot smaller. But all in all the number of passes needed will really depend on the dullness of the blade you are sharpening; just make sure you stop and check as you go. A properly sharpened blade will not have any burrs or bent pieces of metal hanging off the blade. You can check this by running a finger down the side of the blade (if you were holding the blade outwards from yourself you'd be running your testing finger towards the floor---do not draw your finger along the edge, you WILL cut yourself). A properly sharpened edge should also catch very little light. If you hold the knife edge up and can't see see any light reflecting the blade is sharp (well, sharp-ish). A truely sharpened blade will slide through a sheet of paper like butter (as Dad would test our camp knife on...we always used junk mail...tee hee).

That glint halfway on the blade is a nick; burrs=bad. This is a dull blade

It should only take a couple of passes before the edge on the blade is sharpened. My daddy never used a strop (that leather thing you see barbers slide their straight razors on before shaving someone), mainly because they're a hassel to carry with you on a camp trip. That being said, they are useful because they help maintain the blade longer so you don't have to use the stone as often.

I hope this has been helpful! Enjoy and remember---use those blades only on those who are stealing your post-apocalyptic twinkie stash!