[Bill Harsey]

Originally Posted by Jeff Randall

Here's another good primitive technique that requires no rocks, glass, commercial hones, etc. Find a small hardwood sapling about 2 inches in diameter and split it in two with your knife. Smooth the heartwood side down until you have a good flat surface. Take the point of your knife and make multiple small holes in the flat surface, then grind in a pasty mixture of sand and water. These improvised hones are slow but eventually become saturated with the gritty material and provide a decent pocket hone capable of touching up the edge of your blade. One thing to remember with this process is to stroke away from the blade so you don't gouge the wood. Any wire edges produced can be removed on a strop or smooth rock. These sharpening devices take some time to wear in but are really useful when nothing else is available. As a side note to this technique, primitive cultures used the same principle to drill holes in stone by using a fibrous stalk dipped in a paste of sand and water. Constantly adding grit to the hand drill and having a sincere amount of patience eventually punctured the rock.

Jeff

This is good stuff. Thank you Jeff!