Not really OT -- Sharpening a knife blade while not at home

Recently while I was traveling in a foreign country (Italy if it matters), I had occasion to need to make the 1-1/2" knife blade on my pocket knife as sharp as possible -- ideally "scalpel sharp". It's night-time (about 10 pm local time) in an urban area and we're heading back to our lodging. There are no nearby open stores. [Note: there was an open pharmacy but it's just that -- they don't carry razor blades there].

I finally decided to use a stone, brick, concrete, or similar surface as a sharpening stone -- and I didn't have any facility for either flattening whatever I choose or even measuring flatness except by eye or feel. I finally found a small area on the corner of a stone building that felt smooth and flat enough and I used some available moisture to perform a honing operation until the blade felt smooth and sharp enough -- measured totally qualitatively by running it across the surface of my thumb-nail.

We went back to the lodging, boiled water which we used to "sterilize" the blade and performed our makeshift surgery fairly successfully -- the blade was, in fact, sharp enough that there was no pain when used to create a 1/2" long, ~1/8" deep incision into a section of calloused skin and the underlying healthy tissue.

Enough of the medical saga and onto the real question: Are there any suggestions for sharpening a blade under these conditions that would have been either easier or better than what I did?

TIA Norm

Reply to
Norm Dresner
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Sharpen the blade at home before you leave on the trip? Then be sure to put the knife in your checked baggage, of course. Sounds like you did a pretty good job.

On a side note, a good friend and fellow modeler is a Captain with Delta, who used to fly with a full toolbox to work on things in his hotel room at night. He's now not allowed to fly with the dangerous #11 Xatco blades, etc.

Reply to
Brian Paul Ehni

Fortunately the blade was reasonably sharp before we left on the trip and I had no expectation of ever needing to do that sort of thing by myself or I would have at least packed a single-edge razor blade or two into the checked luggage.

Norm

Reply to
Norm Dresner

Just think what might happen it he took control of the aircraft!

Kevin Gallimore

Reply to
axolotl

If that's the case, the first thing that comes to mind is using a leather belt as a razor strop ... that was the way we touched up our pocket knives to skin all those rabbits and squirrels as a kid. It's worked for a multitude of barbers to this day.

Reply to
Swingman

"Norm Dresner" wrote: (clip) Are there any suggestions for sharpening a blade under these conditions that would have been either easier or better than what I did? ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Possibly finding another building with an even smoother stone to finish up. ;-) Actually, you might have been able to improve things slightly by stropping the blade on a leather belt or shoe. Or stroking it on the side of a glass tumbler.

Reply to
Leo Lichtman

The bottom rim of many ceramic things - coffee cups come to mind, are similar to ceramic crock sticks. A stroke or two on the inside rim of a glass and a honing stroke on a belt of leather boot top should get you "operating".

(top posted for your convenience) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Keep the whole world singing . . . . DanG (remove the sevens) snipped-for-privacy@7cox.net

Reply to
DanG

I often use the top edge of a car window to touch up my knives . The milled edge makes an *excellent* finish hone ...

Reply to
Snag

After your sharpening, I would have stropped it on a leather belt or boot.

Reply to
Andy Asberry

And remember not to skip a grit! :-)

Now where did I put that 220 building......

Reply to
Bruce Barnett

The unglazed bottom ring of a porceline coffee cup is one of my old standbys

Gunner

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner

Reply to
Gunner Asch

har har.

my dad was denied access to his airplane because his keys >

Reply to
Jon Grimm

Inside of a toilet tank? Or the cover?

Doug White

Reply to
Doug White

In a pinch, freshly broken glass can provide a cutting edge. Grandfather used to use a piece of glass to finish wooden handles, also to remove the glaze and improve the grip after much use. Gerry :-)} London, Canada

Reply to
Gerald Miller

Works best if you mount the knife on linear bearings...

Reply to
Tom Gardner

I have a sandstone (figured naturally) water catcher to put my cups on - shop and house. I sharpen and clean the bottoms of the cups that way for the medium work and then to the ceramic rods. Those are only in the shop.

Martin Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH, NRA Life NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder

Gunner Asch wrote:

Reply to
Martin H. Eastburn

If you want to be hardcore you could learn how to knap a blade out of a bottle .

Reply to
J. Clarke

Gerald Miller

My dad used several different shaped peices of broken glass to scrape gun stocks prior to refinishing them. This was about

60 yrs ago. ...lew...
Reply to
Lew Hartswick

On Fri, 25 Nov 2005 16:21:48 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, "Norm Dresner" quickly quoth:

Out of curiosity, what was your reason for intentionally cutting through calloused skin into healthy tissue with your knife, Norm? (I've accidentally done that removing callouses, but never on purpose.)

Your sharpening method was fine, BTW. Whatever works, BUT, you might want to include a 1200 grit diamond plate on your next trip. Diamond removes metal quickly (for chip removal) and sharpens VERY fast.

I own both DMT and EzeLap plates, preferring the pricier DMTs. A Grizzly diamond cone comes in handy for edge tools.

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DMT sells some handy pocket-sized hones. Minsharp and Diafold.

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I have 2 600 grit 2x6" diamond plates for home and shop use, with which I start any knife or cutter edge. 600 will do in a pinch on the road and for most non-surgical uses. It's perfect for kitchen knives.

Alternatively, carry a pack of Scary Sharp(tm) paper with you and use any flat surface under it.

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- In nature's infinite book of secrecy a little I can read. -Shakespeare ------

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Reply to
Larry Jaques

I had an infected "hangnail" that was spreading to the adjacent fingertip and the only way to treat it is to drain the infected area. It's exactly what a surgeon did in an ER for me at home a few years ago.

Actually, I just realized that there's probably a diamond "emery" board in my wife's cosmetic bag!

I'm not going to change what I carry because of a very unusual occurrence. If we all did that, the plane would never get off the ground.

Norm

Reply to
Norm Dresner

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