Hi everyone, here is my strategy for sharpening and maintenance for Mora knives. I'm planning on adding more sturdy knives later. Like a Grohmann knife or a Katz or the like.

Doug R. wrote "Always sharpen a production knife by hand before putting it in your kit or taking it into the field."
Does this apply to Mora knives? It seems they are already easy to sharpen though, thanks to their wide bevel.

Ragnar of Ragweed Forge wrote that he carries a thin diamond plate the size of a credit card in his wallet backed with a 7-micron abrasive film for a strop and that it's all he really need to maintain his knives indefinitely. Do you find it a good idea to carry an abrasive film in your wallet (and maybe use a flat surface when you need it like an altoid tin to spread the film)? It sounds like a good idea to me. As for the diamond plate, I bought a DMT mini-sharp fine.

As Chris K. told me, you may want to "steel" your knife most of the time with a fine ceramic rod (it's not removing material). I've found out that Fine ceramic rods are usually white and have a 600 or 700 grit. I was wondering why not use a smooth steel for that purpose but as I understand it, smooth steels work with kitchen knives because they have a lower HRC (Hardness Rockwell C-scale). Mora knives, with their HRC 58-61, need a slightly more "agressive" grit to do something. I guess one of Lansky's Crock Stick models would be a good choice.
Question: when you steel a wide bevel knife with a rod do you give it a slight angle or do you lay the whole wide bevel flat against the rod? I guess that if you give a micro second bevel as Ragnar suggests on his site you would follow that bevel angle when steeling.

I'm also looking for oil to prevent rust.
question: would it be a good idea to use a petroleum jelly saturated cotton ball (intended for fire making) to oil your carbon steel blade for rust prevention in the field? Also, the Japanese use Camellia oil and the advantage is that it's edible. The drawback is that it becomes rancid with time. Is it an issue for a survival knife to be protected with edible oil (since you could use it to skin a animal for exemple)? Is Sentry Solution Tuf-Cloth's dry micro-bonding crystal barrier "edible" or rather suitable for food use?

That's a lot of questions, I know. Thanks for reading me. Here is the lyrics of a song from Hedningarna, a Swedish folkmusic band. I was listening to this while browsing the Ragweedforge site watching all the wonderful Viking and Celtic jewelry.

UKKONEN (THUNDER GOD)

Ukkonen, you highest master
mighty old man of the heaven
now pull out your sword of fire
stained with blood of the black viper
pull it from its fiery scabbard

strike a fire, father of winds
send out lightning, Väinämöinen,
over the boundless open waters
over the waves of wide and high seas

The master of death, he did strike fire
sent out lightning, the wise old man,
the flame in fright struck up in the hearth
in alarm the sparks flew yonder
burned the knee-caps of a young boy
burned the breasts of a young maiden