There is no doubt about the fact that a survival knife is an extremely useful tool. The fact of the matter is that the survival night can keep you alive in some pretty tough situations. These are tools that can be used for hunting and foraging, digging for water, self-defense, building fires, building shelter, and so much more.
However, with that being said, what you need to realize is that there is nothing more dangerous than a dull knife. For this reason, what we are here to do today is to teach you how to sharpen a survival knife with a stone.
Using a Whetstone to Sharpen a Knife: Step by Step
What we want to do right now is to go over a step-by-step tutorial on exactly how to sharpen your survival knife using a whetstone. Before you can get started, you are obviously going to require a whetstone. For basic survival knife sharpening, we recommend getting a whetstone that has 6000 grit on one side and 1000 grit on the other side.
Step 1: Wet the Stone
In order to use a whetstone properly, it does need to be wet. What you need to do here is to soak the whetstone in water until no more air bubbles come out. Generally speaking, the longer you let the whetstone soak for the better off it will be. on a side note, make sure that you continuously wet the whetstone during the sharpening process.
Step 2: Determine the Angle
The next thing that you need to do here is to determine the angle to which you want to sharpen the blade too. If you have a good survival knife, it should be listed in the owner’s manual.
However, what you need to realize is that a very pointy and sharp edge is ideal for cutting things, but is not all that durable, and a much less pronounced edge is a lot more durable and better for heavy-duty tasks, but not as sharp or good for cutting things.
A great way to go about this is to put your knife on the whetstone, so that it is perpendicular to the stone, and then rotate it so it’s halfway between the horizontal and the vertical, and then rotate it once again, therefore creating an angle of 22.5 degrees. That said, the exact angle that you sharpen your survival knife too it’s up to you.
Step 3: Define the Edge
Once your wet stone has been soaked and you have determined the angle to which you want to sharpen the blade to, the next step is to actually redefine the edge of the blade. In order to redefine the edge of the blade, you will want to use the coarser side of the stone, which is the 1000 grit side.
What you want to do now is to put the knife on the whetstone, and then start pulling it back and forth.
Make sure that you only apply pressure when you pull the knife backwards, but not when you push into the blade. Remember that you are pointing the edge of the blade away from you during the process. You don’t want to put pressure on the blade during the forward stroke because this will damage both the blade and the whetstone.
Remember that you do need to apply a whole lot of pressure, which means that you might need to stand up and use your body weight. You will want to do about 10 to 15 strokes for each section of the blade.
Step 4: Polish the Edge
What you need to do now is to flip over the whetstone to the 6000 grit side, which it’s so much smoother side, and this is what you use to polish the blade. Just like you move the knife back and forth across the whetstone in the previous step, this is exactly what you are going to do here.
Do about 10 to 15 strokes for each section of the blade, and make sure to do so for both sides of the blade in order to get an even angle.
Sharpening a Survival Knife with a Real Stone or Rock
OK, so you might not have a whetstone with you at all times, in which case it is technically possible to use a normal stone, or in other words, just rock. What you are looking for here is a very fine-grained stone, specifically one that has been in water for quite some time. Once you have your stone, make sure that it is very wet.
All you want to do now is to hold the blade of your knife sideways against the stone and then use small circular motions to sharpen the blade. Getting the angle right here can be somewhat difficult, but as long as you get the angle anyway between 15 and 25 degrees, you should be fine.
Just remember that you are never going to be able to finely hone or Polish your blade using a normal rock.
Conclusion
Remember boats, whether you are using a whetstone, a normal stone, a ceramic sharpener, or even a diamond sharpener, the most important thing to remember view is that using a dull survival knife can be extremely dangerous. A sharp knife is always much safer than a dull knife.