I have a lansky sharpener system at home, been using it for last few months but I need something "portable" for backpack or EDC. I've had an eye on the blademedic knife sharpener from lansky and the "bear grylls" (gerber) sharpener, but to be honest I haven't had luck with gerber. Are either of these any good?
If not, what can you suggest for a simple, portable sharpener for both straight blades and serated?
Can any of them be used for larger blades like my kukri?

Thanks for visiting
Geo

I like the E-Z lap 2pc. diamond sticks with a hook groove. Wal-mart used to carry them, <$10.00 ea., this model:http://www.avidmaxoutfitters.com/p-4673-ez-lap-eze-lap-hook-sharpener.aspx?catargetid=1391382591&cagpspn=pla&gclid=CI6J-u__k7MCFe57QgodG10ALw
Not the best sharpener but good nuff for a knife pocket and it is small enough to touch up most serrated edge's.

I'm a little dubious as to the notion of "sharpening" knives in the field. How long do you plan to be out? A knife made of modern high quality steel should stay sharp enough for typical outings. Perhaps if you're doing a month long hike of the AT or something you might need to sharpen but you shouldn't need to on a typical hunting trip. I view sharpening as something done at home or in the shop with the proper equipment, good lighting and a solid, steady surface.

In my mind a small ceramic hone is a good implement for doing touch ups in the field. A few licks will bring back the edge most of the time.

The Lansky or Gatco can do a very good job if you're patient, but they have limitations. It's very time consuming and annoying to do longer blades with them since you have to unclamp and move the device frequently.

Small diamond plates such as the DMT DiaSharp line are good for situations where you have to do actual sharpening or repairs (chip removal, reprofiling, etc.). All you need is a spritz of water and you're good to go. Small oil stones are messy and not very effective on modern PM & crucible steels (eg. VG-10, 154CM, S30V, M390, M4, etc.). Water stones work great but are a bit fragile and need to be soaked (generally, not always- Shapton Pro and Shapton GlassStones, for example, just need a splash and are good to go).

I'd rather make sure my knives are sharp at home, done on water stones and/or my Kalamazoo belt grinder, then do light touch ups in the field. Of course, always have more than one knife along- problem solved!

I always recommend a DMT Diafold sharpener. It's great for a quick and dirty field sharpening, regardless of steel type. Just a splash of water, or spit on it and its ready to eat steel.

I carry a Gatco Tri-Ceps, it is chear, very fine and effective. Works great on a SAK.

My favorite is a Gerber Pocket Steel, unfortunately now discontinued. It is a 4" flat bar sharpened at one end to a good chisel edge and coated with medium and fine diamond dust. It makes a great knife sharpener as well as a good digging tool for fossils and the like. If you run across one, grab it!

I would now purchase a DMT steel...

I use a Gerber Pocket Sharpener. It's not the best but it works for me:

http://www.amazon.com/Gerber-04307-Pocket-Sharpener/dp/B0001WOTEU

I used to carry a small, medium grit, diamond hone (see link), but more recently I optimized and carry a Leatherman Juice XE6 in my kit which has a small diamond file among a variety of other useful tools. It wouldn't be optimal, but it could get the job done.

Diamond hones are nice for this kind of task because the diamond coating is fast, lends itself to small, light sharpeners (since it is only a coating) and is very long lasting with the light use that you might see in a kit.

Phaedrus, I agree that it is much better to sharpen at home, but I do think there is a use case for a sharpener. Basically if you are forced to use your blade in a way that damages or significantly dulls the blade, you want something better (faster) than trying to use a rock to repair it.

As long as it doesn't take much weight/space, why not?

FWIW, I feel the groove type sharpers not only don't do a great job, but can be harmful to the blade and try to avoid them unless I have no other options (in other words, never :-)

-john


Leatherman Juice XE6 (small but complete multi-tool)
http://www.leatherman.com/product/Juice_Xe6

Eze-Lap Diamond Hones (small, lightweight diamond hones)
http://www.amazon.com/Eze-Lap-Diamond-Hone-Kit-Sharpeners/dp/B000HDXDDG

This.

There are a couple of sizes and although I don't edc mine, I've had it with me on extended trips and used it touch up everything from my edc knife to an axe. Works great.

i've carried a $10 SpeedySharp in my EDC kit for years.

its carbide scraper puts an instant sharp edge on just about anything, but isn't for someone interested if a finely honed polished edge.

i've used it on tiny swiss knives up thru machetes. even works on many serrated blades (if you follow instructions).

very small, lightweight, tough, never wears out and pretty safe to use (compared to some sharpeners).

http://www.speedysharp.net/

I don't want to be a downer on those using the slot style but I tried one a week or two back, and it ruined the blade. Luckily it was a backup swiss army but I think I'm done with quick and easy. I'll try my hand at sharpening by hand. A few days later I bought a DMT dia-fold, for both regular blade and serated, online. The serated seemed to work well on my leatherman.. I'm still waiting for the reg blade style.

I might buy the speedy sharp for an old machete. Its dull as all heck, and it was only $10.... Always good to have a backup machete when the zombies rise.. yes, kidding

some multitool knife blades are chisel ground and can't be sharpened this way. I really do not like chisel ground blades.

the other thing is that if the blade was not sharpened at the same angle as the sharpener, it won't work either.

I have never been a fan of carbide sharpeners, but I have a smiths sharpener and it works pretty well. it has carbide, ceramice, and a rat tail type file.

I had eyed the smith's sharpener, but none were available locally..

This. Hands down.

It's a carbide sharpener sold under this name and a few others (like Corona), and not only can you touch up edges but it's an absolutely wicked firesteel striker, you have to try it to believe it. You can even take the rubberized sleeve off the handle and cut it down to fit into a psk tin.

I have a Smith's for around the house, but keep a pull-through style one in my SHTF bag.

This small Buck diamond sharpener works perfectly to keep a very sharp edge on my Cold Steel kukri machete. It stores well inside the sheath:

I have a smith's pocket pal. Weighs one ounce and can sharpen straight and serrated edges and it's $8. That's my EDC sharpener. It will put a quick edge back on a knife in 5 seconds. I use a Lansky setup for home and a strop to finish it off.

I have this one, and there is another version that has a ceramic sharper that can do the serrated. it is a little bigger and heavier, but I do like the ceramic blade for daily "after use" maintenance.

I never field sharpen my knife. It just doesn't dull that fast.

I do carry a sharpener, but thats because people just don't sharpen there knife and I end up sharpening there knives. I just carry a Fallkniven DC3 or a generic diamond rod.

Oops, answered in the old thread. But my answer is more appropriate here I think.

I'm using this one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/251813416755 in my knife's handle (see the 3D printing thread) with the pen shell removed. Ultra compact! This one http://www.ebay.com/itm/262137581988 is my pocket EDC. They are good enough for maintaining the edge as well as for fixing it if broken. It's essentially a diamond file which has much more uses than just a knife sharpener (especially the conic one). Some knife sharpening skills are strongly advised, it's not a self-guiding type.

If you browse eBay you can find them even cheaper.

I bought this one back in summer 2012. I'm thinking maybe one of these days I'll get around to actually using it.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000UVN...ailpage_o06_s00

For all the use I've made of mine, I could have gotten by significantly cheaper with one of those from eBay that Alex recommended. At the time I guess I was thinking I might need to sharpen a knife on the trail sometime. But I've never even remotely needed to do that. So I guess this sharpener is a high quality brass handled paperweight for me. But it's a nice paperweight. I keep it in my bug out bag. That bug out bag is a pretty nice paper weight in-and-of-itself too. Maybe I'll bug out someday (I'm still waiting for those zombies to show up!) But at least I can sharpen my knife while on the lam.

I did use mine actually "in the field" twice to work on knives, once I needed to precise cut some plastic sheeting but found the tip of my LM squirt too dull for a smooth job; another time I broke the very tip of my folder and spent some spare time filing out the new one (not that I was really needing it right away, but for an aesthetic reasons). But I can recall much more cases of using it as a metal and glass file.

I would add another recommendation for the Fällkniven DC3 or DC4. Either model works great as a combo stone. The diamond side is high quality and lasts a long time (low-cost diamond sharpeners tend to have a pretty short service life). The ceramic side is fine enough to give the edge that smooth, shaving sharp final polish.

I own a bunch of sharpening tools, stones, jigs and power tools (including a belt grinder) but I keep coming back to the DC3 all the time - it just works really well and it's so versatile it can be used on anything from a knife to an axe or machete.

My Gerber sharpener is still working great. I also picked up a little Rapala 2-stage sharpener, that's very similar to my Gerber one. They were both under $5 and work great for touch-ups in the field.

http://www.rapala.com/rapala/knives/knif...p-fine/SH2.html

I have got a ton of these (at least a half dozen or more):

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/886556/gerber-pocket-sharpener-ceramic



Never actually used one. I have no idea if they work well or not. I add them to my orders from Midway because they are one of the cheapests item they have with free shipping. So when I add one to my regular order that normally would have, say, $15 shipping charge, the addition of this item lowers the overall shipping charge to something like $5. So I save $10 by adding a $2.99 item, for a net savings of $7. Can't beat that. I'll bet Midway is wondering why I order so many knife sharpeners! They're all sitting in my man-cave, still in their packaging. I could probably return them for a refund to increase my savings, but that would be unethical in my mind, so I just keep them. I guess I could use them for stocking stuffers at Christmas (but I think everyone in my family already has a handful of 'em!)

The ceramic side is good for maintaining an edge, but the carbide side will take a lot of steel off of you knife.

Both sides are ceramic
both are fixed at 18 degrees per side or 36 degrees inclusive

For the same price or cheaper you can buy a sharpening stone at your local asian grocery store

if you use too much pressure, it wears one or both rods, which then produces a horribly shaped edge, if it can produce one at all. so use it for touching-up, not for a making an edge on a very dull blade.

Actually no, those are small diamond rods, one pair coarse and one pair fine.

I have one of those Gerber pocket sharpeners, it's ok for what it is but I don't use it much. It only really works for smaller, thinner blades sharpened with a secondary bevel. Like Montanero said, the coarse side is too coarse and removes material too quickly, so it's a bit difficult to control. The fine side isn't all that fine either, less than ideal even for a quick touch up if you want a proper hair popping edge.

Also, Wileycoyote is right, the diamond rods wear our pretty quickly if any serious pressure is applied at sharpening. But realistically, that's to be expected from a $5 product.

Personally, I prefer a combo stone instead, followed by stropping on a leather belt with a polishing compound. You can get much better results with freehand sharpening. It's a skill well worth mastering IMHO. You can use a combo stone to sharpen just about any kind of blade, even an axe or machete. Fixed angle pocket sharpeners and jigs are not particularly versatile and don't work at all for scandi grinds, which could be a problem for many people.

You see how its white in the picture, and not silver? That means its ceramic (aluminum oxide).
gerbergear itself says its ceramic.




Its not really related to price,
electroplated diamonds will get dislodged with high pressure
the surface area on those crock sticks is very small, the pressure is going to be very high, you need the lightest force possible to sharpen with, as in under 100 grams

The rods on mine are definitely diamond. It stated so on the package, too. Like this:
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/414633/...-fine-grit-rods
http://nicnac.net/contents/en-us/p1497_G..._22-107815.html



Heavy pressure is definitely a problem. That said, I have a couple of heavily used DMT diamond stones, still perform "as new". The diamond side on my DC4 has lasted many years of regular use too, even though it's now showing wear.

I also bought several sets of cheap diamond files and no-name diamond stones and sharpening cards. With only one or two minor exceptions, all lost their "bite" within minutes of first remotely serious use. YMMV.

I don't doubt they exist and I believe you own some, but we were talking about what haertig owns/linked



I don't doubt your experience.

My cheap diamonds are from harbor freight, 4 plate turnbox, they can be bought from $6 to $20,
I've damaged mine a little but they still have years of life left.
They definitely last more than minutes.

There are actually fake diamond stones/plates/cards made from diamond sandpaper (plastic) glued to a backing, those could be damaged easily going edge leading.