Gear

Cant think why.

"I take it sharpening is removing burrs and knicks and honeing is finely grinding the edge to a razor edge?"

Well, sort of. They'd beat you up at britishblades.com for these definitions! Serious knife people, them.

IMHO, depending on how blunt/knacked your blade is, you use progressively finer stones, doubling the number of strokes for each step so you might do 6 strokes on a coarse stone and 12 on a fine stone, etc.

Honing is the second-to-last stage of 'sharpening' and can actually be done on the edge of a car window ("Sorry constable, I was honing my knife when the accident occurred"). Honing helps to get rid of the progressively smaller burr but the final stage is the strop ("No it bloody isn't!" - that was a joke. Hmm...). Use an old leather belt, a proper strop, or even your jeans trouser leg if nothing else is available, and do the thing you see barbers do with straight razors. Strop the blade backwards and forwards plenty of times and it's this bit which removes the burr. It's pretty important as, if you don't, the burr will come off when you use the knife, taking part of the blade edge with it and so it will blunt quickly. One of the best ways to prevent the burr from becoming big in the first place is to 'push' the blade, rather than 'pull' it across the stone.

Frankly, blade sharpening is an art and I'm still learning - I still can't shave the hairs off my arm with my knife when I've sharpened. So, more time-consuming practice is needed.

Try either the BritishBlades or BushcraftUK.co.uk sites for long (winded), in-depth, arguments over minute variations on the above.

Mind you, I'm not sure why I'd want to be shaving my arm...

I bought a pocket sharpener the other day as a sort of experiment - with tungsten carbide 'bits' - http://www.scoutgear.com/cg723.html - very convenient, yet utterly crap. I use a short yet strong bladed sheath knife, and found it entirely inadequate. i would give it a miss and go for a heavier, perhaps milti grain sharpening oil or wet stone.

Or Maybe even a multigrit one! For the gerber a fine grit one would seem to me to be the best bet.

You can't beat an Arkansas fine (soft) sharpening stone for general sharpening. They come in little leather wallets with instructions for use which, if followed, will help you produce and maintain a decent edge.
Make sure the blade has a really good edge before leaving home and just touch up after each use in the field.
Of course no stone will produce a half decent edge on a crap blade so be sure to spend a little more for your knife and get a good one.
Don't forget that you have to maintain the stone as well so wash it regularly giving it a gentle scrub with a nail brush rinsing it in running water.

Spyderco Sharpeners are the best I have used by far. The sharp maker kit is awesome for both plain edge and serrated.

If you want sharp blades get one of these.

Thanks

C

 Ok, if you have oil and stone with you, if you don't and out " in country", the smothist bit of rock you can get, spit, (stickier than water alone). If you can plunge blade into sand, fine grit to hone and take burrs off! H

get some plywood.
glue some 400 grit wet and dry paper to it.
instant whetstone.
Alternatively, glue an old mousemat to the plywood, then glue on the w&d. This is ideal for producing a convex edge which will be stronger and stay sharp longer.
on the other side of the plywood glue some leather (an old belt/salvaged leather from a charity shop handbag)strop on this with some autosol on it for a nice sharp edge.