Who sharpens knives in the field?

[A. Cole]

With the relatively recent popularity of replaceable blades and the ever increasing edge retention of modern knives how many people sharpen knives in the field, and if you do, how long of a trip/how many animals before you sharpen again? I guess this would also depend on whether you bring your animal back home to process it or not.

[Dan-o]

I have a custom made knife built by a friend. Designed by him and me. 

He did an amazing job.   Its important to me.  It goes on every trip.    I sharpen it before every animal with one if those cheap little hand sharpeners. 

Idk if thats a good idea or not. 

But in the last 5 years I have gone to replaceable because they are so dang sharp.   

I still use my "real" knife for joints, etc, where replaceables aren't so good. 

[MIKEXRAY]

Replaceables here , I always sucked at sharpening anything lol. Especially in the field.

[Boss .300 winmag]

I have a custom made knife built by a friend. Designed by him and me. 

He did an amazing job.   Its important to me.  It goes on every trip.    I sharpen it before every animal with one if those cheap little hand sharpeners. 

Idk if thats a good idea or not. 

But in the last 5 years I have gone to replaceable because they are so dang sharp.   

I still use my "real" knife for joints, etc, where replaceables aren't so good.

Same deal here.👍

Love my custom wazuki knife.😉

[buckfvr]

I always have half a dozen fixed blades with me and use those for tough and lengthy purposes with the replaceables getting the majority of straight up skinning.  I also sharpen the replaceables and they return to razor sharp with a half dozen strokes.

[Katmai Guy]

Grew up packing a fixed blade knife and a folder along with a steel and stone in my fanny pack.  Tried the replaceable blade knives for a couple of years and was never comfortable changing blades in the woods.  Went back to my 30yr old Oldtimer folder and a fixed blade from R & N Blades and resharpen/touch up after each animal.

[Bob33]

I rarely sharpen in the field. My fixed blades have good enough steel to make it through an elk ok. I also supplement with replaceables on occasion.

[hunter399]

I rarely sharpen in the field. My fixed blades have good enough steel to make it through an elk ok. I also supplement with replaceables on occasion.

Run my fixed blades through that work sharp.
They will make it till I get home.
I don't use the knives replaceable blades.
Sometimes I carry two knives in pack,never had to break out the second one.

[CaNINE]

I have a fixed blade bench made and one of their small sharpeners. For many years I’ve used a replaceable blade but after several nicks and cuts I’m strongly considering abandoning them and using the fixed blade exclusively.  I processed a deer and antelope with the fixed blade last year and it did the job just fine. I touched up the blade a couple of times but I usually need a break to give my back a rest anyways. The blade sharpening is a good reason to stand up and stretch for a few minutes.

[Bullkllr]

All my knives are "old" I suppose. I carry an EZlap diamond steel for touchups when skinning & boning an elk. Otherwise I sharpen in between uses. Typically carry a Buck or OT. Really like my Forshners for boning, but leave it in my kill pack.

[Wanttohuntmore]

Depends what pack I grab.   The buck 110 gets sharpened in the field with a diamond stone ( can't think what it is called,  but grit on what looks like a plastic tongue depresser).  Or I use the havalon.

[Okanagan]

No, I don’t sharpen in the field but I carry a small Arkansas stone or one of those little triangular diamond rods in case I ever need to.  I prefer HARD steel that does not dull easily and does not need sharpening through a whole animal.  I don’t care for replaceable blades.

A friend and I were working on a freshly downed bull moose, he with a large fixed blade and me with my small Buck folder.  That Buck is almost brittle hard and it started literally razor sharp.  My friend had a large fairly coarse stone that he used to touch up his blade often. He kept wanting to sharpen my knife and I kept declining.  I did not want that coarse stone to touch my blade.   Near the end of gutting and skinning when he pushed me to sharpen my knife, I paused and shaved a large patch of hair from my forearm.

Good blade geometry, hard steel razor sharp, and avoid cutting dirt, stone, etc. and a blade will last through a basic field operation.  Unless forced to cut some kind of gritty material it will last through several deer.  Another factor is to NOT let it get dull, but touch it up with a fine hone etc. at the first sign of losing the razor edge.

For the above reason I usually carry two knives or blades:  one for cutting bone, gritty hide/hair etc. and the other to keep super sharp for all other cutting.

Added:  for the above reasons I also keep a cheap lock back folder handy to loan if someone wants to borrow my knife.   

[hunter399]

Just want to say.,if you feel you need to sharpen in the field .
I would if needed.Better than being dull and making the job harder than it is.

Since we are talking knives in this topic.
Anybody seen or has one of these.
Got it through a hand me down type deal.
Western w36 or something like that ,think they where pretty common a few years back.

[Scruffy]

I have a couple of these floating around here somewhere

Just want to say.,if you feel you need to sharpen in the field .
I would if needed.Better than being dull and making the job harder than it is.

Since we are talking knives in this topic.
Anybody seen or has one of these.
Got it through a hand me down type deal.
Western w36 or something like that ,think they where pretty common a few years back.

[A. Cole]

Very interesting, thanks for everyone's input!

I have one of those westerns in the house. It has a thumb ramp, trailing point, and leather stacked handle, but looks fairly similar.