Okay, first things first here, this is not rocket science, but it does take practice and some finesse. Especially using stones and a strop the old fashioned way. I also want to add buying a Lansky kit can save a lot of time because they come with jigs for proper angles. I do not have one at this time so I am not going to discuss them beyond this point in this post. I am going to explain the way to sharpen using a double sided wet/dry stone. I prefer those because I can use them on the fly without trying to screw around with water. On the chance I need to sharpen in camp I use my leg as a support and water simply does not work in this situation. But I prefer my little travel sharpener nowadays. And finally, I want to add, the average camper won't need to sharpen their knife often. They aren't using the knife for hard use.
So you have a knife, and that knife will at some point need to be sharpened. Lets take a look at some knives.
As you can see from the above image knives come in different shapes and edge grinds. Above are a Scandinavian grind (top), a full flat grind (middle) and a full convex (bottom). Do each of these need to be sharpened a different way? Yes. Yet once you grasp how to sharpen the answer will be not really. Let me explain a little further.
Sharpeners come in a lot of varieties as well. In the image below we have to more common variations from a couple leather strops I made from old belts, to some strops made by friends using sand paper and compound, and sharpeners ranging from basic pocket stones (stone and diamond) to two sided stones, two sided diamond stones, round diamond rods, ceramic flat stone, and my favorite a travel sharpener with coarse and fine ceramic rods. It doesn't really matter which you prefer as they all have the same goal. But for this exercise I'm using a two sided wet/dry stone and a strop and then my travel sharpener.
The first thing you need to do us lay the blade flat against the rough side of the stone.
Now you want to pivot or tip the blade to find the proper angle for the edge. This takes some time to learn but you can feel the difference where the blade angle goes into edge angle.
Once you have that you slide the knife forward trying to hold the angle. Going first forward then in reverse as in the GIF's below.
Do this for both sides of the knife until you feel the edge is sharp enough for you. Then flip the stone and repeat on the fine side. This is another personal preference. Some want to shave the hair off a hair while others just want the knife sharp enough to cut some food and maybe whittle a little bit.
I like to run my knives on a strop after using a stone like this. For stropping you simply set the knife on the strop, find your angle and run the edge along the strop from spine to edge.
I like to use the little plastic travel sharpener more and more these days. All you need to do is set the sharpener on a stable surface, set the knife in the slot so it's centered and draw the knife back.
After pictures:
The other thing I really like with the little travel sharpener is how fast and easily it sharpens my trackers. I just set the knife in and draw it back to the quarter round and pivot the knife up then into the chopping area by pivoting it down.
Using the stone and strop method takes practice, patience, and time to learn. But at the end of the day once you start to develop the feel for your edges it won't matter if it's a scandi, flat, convex, or any other edge geometry.
I suggest getting one of the double mini ceramic rod style sharpeners. Especially for beginners. It will sharpen your blades up very effectively and efficiently. The ones I have even make quick work of harder steels like D2.
So that's it. No fuss, no frills.
