Improvised Knife Sharpener???

I noticed alot of you fine gentle men spend alot of time in the bush. Seeing how i live in the city and the nearest wooded area is a few hundered miles away , i don't camp or do any of that stuff to offten.

Well my question is this. Say your lost deep in the woods and all you have is a knife. Of course your gonna use your knife for alot of stuff and over a perioid of time its gonna get dule. Any sugestions on how to sharpen a knife with an improviesd sharpener?? lets say a rock or something else u can think of?

Hmm is it possible to use a rock?

I don't plan on using a rock to shapen my knifes just alittle knowlage would suite me just in cause this does happen.

Thanks in advance.

Yes, you can use a flat rock of the proper grit. You can even search around for different grit rocks. Another tip if you happen to have one with you, is the bottom of a ceramic cup or dish, where it’s not glazed.

Wow, Andy is good, thanks.

I'd look for a river rock of the appropriate size, shape, and "grit". Mother nature usually provides them in a variety of shapes and sizes and they're often clean and smooth. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />

Thanks alot guys. Thanks for the very interesting tip Andy. Have any of u had to field sharpen any of you knives before?

Not with natural materials. I keep a sharpener with my knife. Either a Lansky diamond pen sharpener, a dog bone ceramic, or a couple sheets of sandpaper. Sandpaper is good for when you’re short on space. It doesn’t last as long though.

The only knife I've had to field sharpen without using a sharpening stone was an old machete made out of some really terrible steel. I vaguely remember lapping it on some wet concrete, LOL. And it worked!

When I was a serious hiker/camper I always carried a small sharpening stone, despite the fact that I was packing a "rock". These days I think most folks use the diamond sharpeners which look much more lightweight.

natural sharpening stones... river worn pebbles are your friends <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Not useful when you are hiking, but I have used the edge of my truck window to sharpen my dog father!

hey

i sometimes find slate when hiking through the brecon beacons in wales... i've used it to put a usable edge onto a working knife .. and you might also come across voclanic glass which can do the same thing as Cold Ones window.. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

cheers

ug

Wow using glass to shappen a knife who whould of every guessed.

Please keep them coming. Anyother useful stuff that could be used to field shappen a knife?

Actally, there are plenty of man-made materials in the city where you are. A brick, a concrete block (improvised window shopping device), a sidwalk. All of the previous suggestions are good. Depending on how dull the blade is, glass can work very well. Glass and ceramic are harder than steel. Personally, I improvised by using a woodworking upright belt sander, removing some junk from it and I had a professional grade sharpener. But I seldom venture far from the extension cord or the beer frig.

In most cases you'd probably just need to strop your knife in which case you could do so on bark or a tree. You could even wet a stick and put sand on it and use it to sharpen.

It is slow, but you can even strop a knife on your jeans!

Any flat river rock will sharpen steel. I have done this many times with small knives and large knives. I have sharpenned small knives with small flat rocks by putting the edge at a steep angle and just moving the stone in a circular motion on the edge keeping the angle the same. I find I can keep the angle the same by moving the stone than moving the knife. On larger knives, I have used flat rocks and sharpened the blade by pulling away from the edge instead of cutting into it. The reason for this is that even the smoothest rocks have ledges and the edge will hang up and blunt in a second.

I have also used my clothing to sharpen knives. My Jeans, leather belt, canvas backpack will all strop a blade and keep it sharp longer than if you didn't do anything. I once even used sugar cane as a crock stick.

I dropped a CS Voyager and jacked the tip up on it, and reprofiled and sharpened it on some smooth concrete. Better than nothing!

idea, next time I'm out in the woods or such, I'm looking for a good rock/stone to try and sharpen with. won't hurt to practice for when I really need something!

ive tried the rock sharpening....i did worse that i normally do & the blade is scratched to hell

I jacked up a Buck knife I had practicing on a rock. I suppose it was sharper than when I started but it looked hell when I was done.

I figured it would do that, I plan on using an old cheapie or something I don't mind scratching the hell outta!

I'm sure we all have several of them <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

I have stroped my knife on my leather belt. I carry a small section of leather that is attached to my pack for this very purpose.

Once in the Wyoming mountains I field sharpened my knife on river stones and stroped it on my leather belt. Worked good enough to fix my dinner.

Of course now I carry a diamond rod and a small stone.

thanks for the tips everyone!