knife sharping
 

is there a way to no if your knife is sharp enough to field dress, skin and quarter a deer

like a sure fire way to know "yep thats sharp enough" usually i just feel the edge, like run it across my arm longways like im trying the shave my arm hair and if it feels rough and tugs on the hair then its sharp but if its smooth and glides right across and doesnt cut any hair then its dull

is there any better way or way i could no my knife is sharp?

For field dressing, it only needs to be sharp enough to cut a thin layer off of your finger nail (scrape blade at angle across your nail). If your blade feels jagged, you need to sharpen it with an extra coarse sharpener until you lose the jagged edge. Then move to sharpening with coarse, fine, extra fine. I would recommend the DMT Diafold sharpeners with blade guide. Use the blade guide on either of the sharpeners when you are using them.



Here is the extra coarse/coarse sharpener: http://theconsumerlink.com/DiamondMa...ail/TCL+FWCX/0

And then the fine/extra fine that comes with the guide: http://theconsumerlink.com/DiamondMa...il/TCL+DMGEF/0

Here's all the diafold stuff: http://dmtsharp.com/products/diafold.htm

You may be able to find it cheaper; this is just for your reference.

By the way, I find that when I'm skinning and quartering that I need to touch up the blade a few times during the process. And when I'm all-out butchering, LOTS of touching up is needed. For that I just use a sharpening steel.

Those "10 second" sharpeners work wonders I keep one in my gear bag as well as takle box, and the kitchen $6-10 depending where you go.

yea thats what i use is just those sharpers you run your blade through

and thanks nato, i just tryed the finger nail trick and they seem to be sharp and felt smooth i tryed them on a pork chop and they ran through it like it wasnt even there, but then i made sure i cleaned them really well so its not cross contaminating

I know what you're talking about, but at that point, it's ALMOST sharp. A saw blade is rough and will tug on hair, but I'm sure you wouldn't call that "sharp".
A truly sharp blade will be extremely smooth because the two beveled edges will meet to make a perfectly smooth line. There will be zero roughness or drag, just a perfect edge that will slice through anything with barely any resistance. That's how a scalpel is sharpened.
When I get my knife to the rough, almost sharp stage, I switch to an Arkansas fine stone to put the final touch on it.
If you have good steel (probably not made in China), it should hold an edge through the entire field dressing process.
I also agree that a lightweight, inexpensive sharpener is a great asset to have in the field just in case you dull your blade somehow. It won't put a perfect edge on it, but it will be good enough to continue your work.

when i say tug like on your arm hair you no how like when your shaving it pulls a little, thats what i mean, but i think you got that, and yea, i was thinking, why dont people use like box cutters to cut open there deer, there sharp as crap, haha just a thought

A really sharp knife will shave your arm if you hold it at the right angle. But that's too sharp for field dressing; you're likely to cut the crap out of yourself if you make a little mistake. Plus, a knife with that fine of an edge won't hold out well for cutting through thick skin, ligaments, sinew, etc. A knife that sharp is reserved for the actual butchering, IMO.

And people don't use box cutters because they don't come in camo or with leather-wrapped, steel-knobbed handles!

oh is that why? what if you put that camo duct tape on there?:biggrin:

Then you could park outside of Walmart and sell those box cutters for triple out of the trunk of your car!