A knife with a dull cutting edge is of no use at all. So, no matter you’re a professional hunter or a passionate backpacker, you need to know how to sharpen a pocket knife that you always take with you.
As the pocket knives are after a million of purposes to us, the workload on these isn’t tiny at all. They cut up boxes, opens food packages carve woods and even poke an unidentified bug. So, while you have a pocket knife in use, no need to say, you have to get a sharpening kit in another pocket.
Worry no more, here we will describe two methods of sharpening pocket knives. Each of the methods is simplified into a few steps. Go through the guide and I hope you’ll need no more tutorials or suggestions on it.
How to Sharpen a Pocket Knife – Two Methods
Method 1: Sharpening with A Honding Rod
Honding rod is a utility tool used in workshops and metal structuring. But used in a slightly different way, they can be a great source to sharpen knives as well.
Here are the steps-
Step 1
Get a honding rod to start the work right away. There are many types of honding rod in the market. Once of which is called the steel honding rod, also called the sharpening steel. As the name suggests, this honding rod is a great tool sharpening items.
Step 2
Hold the rod with one hand. Now fix the back surface of it with something non-slippery. The rod’s tip should be on the counter.
Step 3
Finding the bevel angle is the next task to do. In case you don’t know- bevel angle is the angle that stays between the rod and the knife itself. In case of pocket knives, the bevel angles are like 25 to 30 degrees.
In case you’re not sure about the bevel angle, have a visit to local shop or mechanical workshop, they might help you out with that.
Step 4
Swipe the knife sharp edge along the rod. Use a light touch and a tiny amount of force at the beginning. Move the knife from heel to tip to bet the best grinding in the sharp edge of the knife.
Step 5
Once you are done with one side, go and do the same process for the second edge too. Just be careful about not overdoing any of the edges way more than another one. This may affect the performance of the knife negatively.
Method 2: Sharpening A Pocket Knife with A Stone
Well, if we come to the real adventures, there we can’t expect anything like a honding rod or something else. And if you’re unfortunate enough, you’ll not take any knife sharpener too. Soo the only option left is to take help from mother nature.
Here is the second method, we’ll learn how to pick up a right stone for sharpening the pocket knife and how to go with the process itself.
Here are the steps-
Step 1
The first task is quite a difficult one here. You have to find the right type of stone that actually works. Some names of stones are Whetstones, Ceramic stones, Diamond stones etc. Amon all of them, there is the difference in structure, pores, rigidity, roughness and lastly, availability.
Step 2
Lubricate the stone now. This is because you shouldn’t let the roughness of the stone harm the grind of the knife.
To make it a perfect lubrication, here are the lubes that should be used- water, mineral oil or olive oil. The sole purpose of using a lube is to prevent the pores of the stone from harming the fringes and his grit. Also, a good amount of heat is generated from the friction. Which are greatly reduced by the lubricants?
Step 3
Again, it’s about the bevel angle. You have to identify the angle and set it right away. Each of the knife types has their own bevel angle that suits the purpose. Usually, the bevel angle is happened to be 25 to 30 degrees.
Like I said before, take a help from an expert from a local shop. He will figure it out on behalf of you.
Step 4
Set the right position of the angle between the stone and knife. It’s like putting the knife’s blade in a position where the blade is moving away from you. Make sure they keep the knife at the bevel angle.
Keep in mind that this doesn’t work so simply in cases of curved blades.
Step 5
Now, this is the hardest technical part to do for anyone. This step is about gliding the shared edge of the knife along with the stone. Take the knife down on the stone and move it off and on the stone. Go until the end of the stone surface and do this process for 10-12 times from each side of the cutting edge.
This step is about perfection and practice. And this affects mostly on how accurate and long lasting your sharpening is. We suggest you to keep doing this and eventually you’ll master it.
The Bottom Line
Based on the situation, both of these methods are no worse than each other. But comparing the cost, the honding rod method is better. If you consider the complexity of tasks, our second method is better.
However, hope you’ll find your way out to a perfectly shaped and shiny knife.
Good luck!
