Listen, I've been EDCing a large Griptilian for over three months now. It's a 440C blade, and it astonished me.
It hasn't been to a sharpening stone once. I've been able to keep a shaving edge on it by stropping it on the palm of my hand, and on a leather strop loaded with green cutting compound.
It takes very little leather stropping, provided I'm faithful about stropping on my palm after each use.
DISCLAIMER: You should not cut yourself while stropping a knife on your palm. If you do, my discussion of palm stropping becomes purely theroetical, and intended for entertainment purposes only.
Oh, I lied. I did steel it once, to work out a couple of little bobbles I got when I hit a staple while opening a box.
The knife whittles found twigs and branches every day when I take the dogs to the dog park. It opens all my boxes and mail at work.
It really is an amazing experience, one that confirms my suspicion that I've been sharpening too much. I've been sharpening when I should have been steeling and stropping.
Bear
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No fire, no steel.