Stayin' Sharp

I have a k-bar marine knife, and for the life of me I cant get a good edge on it.  It isn't dull by any means, but I cant get that super fine edge on it.  The blade is so thick, I cant seem to figure out the degree of angle, everything I try either seems too steep of an angle, or too shallow.  How do you stay sharp?  Files, wet stones, oil stones, ceramic,  leather?  What's your technique?  Most of us use knives in our daily life and especially in fishing and hunting, I'd like to know your secrets!!!!

I am about 50/50 successful when I sharpen. I only have a simple whetstone and a touch up steel. They work great on soft steel knives, which I prefer for fish cleaning, but they don't work nearly as well on high quality steel blades.
I can get a nice edge on my cheap fillet knife, my dexter Russell, and my pocket gerber blade, but thats it so far.
I have a kukri I use as a work blade and I sharpen it with a dremel stone to keep the blade free of nicks-its basically a knife shaped hatchet.
I did learn that I have better luck reducing the blade angle to get a finer edge-I think i have a tendency to hold the blade too vertical.

I have a diamond stick from restaurant supply . Does great on all my knives. I have about a dozen knife sharpeners, tried everything . Went to sport-mans show and handed my already very sharp kershaw to guy selling knife sharpeners. When he was done with it he fillet the front page of a magazine with it. It cuts things now just by looking at them. 25.00 info at GF I'll send it to you.


Sent from my iPod touch because my computer is crap

Mil knives tend be rough because of the angles used.  I use a set of cross rods and they seem to get me a decent edge.  some times it just a lighter touch then a heavy.

The trick is to have the edge polished on both sides.

Look up Scary Sharp Method.

 
 I started using it for my woodworking tools, then tried it with my knives.

 You'll be using wet n dry sand paper to 3000 grit ( if you want to push it that far) and a piece of glass.

 

  I use a small sharpener I got at the Sportsmans expo, Don't remember it's name or brand, but it's orange in color, has 2 crossed diamond coated metal rods, and a removable thumb guard.  You drag the blade down between the rods.  It seems to put an even edge on, and I can feel rough areas on blades, and it fixes them.  The blades are plenty sharp for me.

  Sharpening blades is art form!  One which I've sadly not mastered yet.
   

IMO a traditional Ka-Bar is more of a blunt instrument than knife...  I have an original, a modern one, and a cheap Chinese copy and they are not very useful except for gardening.  I think they were designed to dig trenches and open cans and hand-to-hand combat rather than for actually cutting things.

  I think they were designed to dig trenches and open cans and hand-to-hand combat rather than for actually cutting things.

Yup

IMO a traditional Ka-Bar is more of a blunt instrument than knife...  I have an original, a modern one, and a cheap Chinese copy and they are not very useful except for gardening.  I think they were designed to dig trenches and open cans and hand-to-hand combat rather than for actually cutting things.

That's what I always thought, and always treated it as such, but the other day I was fartin around on YouTube and saw this....

WTF?

Oh, it CAN be sharpened, but as you noted the angles are tough.  It's all about how much time you have to spend on it.  I bet that guy has a lot of time.

Pause the video and you can see he totally redid the whole blade.

Hey Wilderneshunter, 

Can you please hook me up with the info as well?  I'm very interested.

Thanks,
Jason

I have a diamond stick from restaurant supply . Does great on all my knives. I have about a dozen knife sharpeners, tried everything . Went to sport-mans show and handed my already very sharp kershaw to guy selling knife sharpeners. When he was done with it he fillet the front page of a magazine with it. It cuts things now just by looking at them. 25.00 info at GF I'll send it to you.


Sent from my iPod touch because my computer is crap

Found it finally ( honer.com)


Sent from my iPod touch because my computer is crap

I have tried the diamond stick and the crossed sticks that my father in law swore by.  Problem always seemed to be holding a consistent angle through the sharpening stroke.  A few years ago I broke down and bought a Smith system of three stones that are on rods.  The rods slide into a clamp that attaches to your blade and makes it impossible to screw up the angle.  You also have two choices of angle, depending on whether you want an extremely fine edge or a more durable working edge.  This has been my best gadget so far, it is just a pain on larger blades if you have to go from coarse stone to the third fine stone.  I think Laskey makes a similar system.  Think I bought it at Cabela's.

 


  Thats the one I have!  Honer.com  It keeps my all my buck kinifes sharp, and all my kitchen knifes too.
 

  Thats the one I have!  Honer.com  It keeps my all my buck kinifes sharp, and all my kitchen knifes too.
 

+1 Im no expert, so use the honer, it gets um sharp enough for me plus its super easy to use. Im a simpleton though.