What’s The Best Way To Sharpen A Pocket Knife?

Do you have an old pocket knife that’s blade has seen better days?  Maybe you just want to sharpen up your new pocket knife blade to make it as sharp as possible.  Well, you came to the right place.  Today we will explore the best way to sharpen a pocket knife.  These methods will apply to more than just pocket knives but because this is a camping website we are going to focus on pocket knives.

Blade Sharpening

If you want to keep your blade as sharp as possible you would want to invest in a sharpening stone and learn how to sharpen your pocket knife blades if you don’t know how to already do that.  

Over time your blade will start to dull down after use, a sharpening stone allows you to sharpen the blade of your pocket knife to keep it as sharp as the day that you get it.  Some people even go to the extent to sharpen their brand new pocket knives to make sure that they have as sharp of a blade as possible.

The most common way to sharpen your pocket knives is going to be through the use of a sharpening stone but you can also use a sharpening rod or honing steel can also help you maintain your knife edge.  

Honing steel is designed to help recenter the edge of the blade as it will get bent in different directions after using the knife. Honing steel is meant to realign the blade, it doesn’t do much in the way of sharpening the pocket knife blade.

To check out a sharpening blade on Amazon that I would recommend click here.

Using a Sharpening Stone

Sharpening stones can then be used after honing steel to sharpen the edge of the blade or can just be used by themselves.  Sharpening stones typically come in different grits you can buy the stones individually or you can buy one that comes with two different grits on each side of the stone.  

A lower grit sharpening stone will work to more aggressively correct any edge problems on the knife that you are sharpening. The higher grit sharpening stone would then work to finish off the edge of the pocket knife blade and make the edge smooth.  

You should always work from low grit to high grit to get a smooth edge.  If you are interested in checking out a sharpening stone that I would recommend on Amazon click here.

Using Different Grit Sharpening Stones

This sharpening stone comes with two different grit sides.  One side is 1000 grit and is designed to take down larger imperfections in the blade.  The other side is a 6000 grit side and is designed to smooth out the blade edge after taking down any larger imperfections.

You can smooth out larger imperfections with a 6000 grit sharpening stone but it would take you longer than if you were using a 1000 grit sharpening stone.  This dual-sided sharpening stone also comes with a base to keep the sharpening stone in place and an angle guide to help keep your blade at the correct angle while sharpening your pocket knives.

To check out a 600/1000 grit sharpening stone on Amazon click here.  If you were looking to take a bit more off the edges of your blade you could also look at going with this double-sided sharpening stone.

This sharpening stone has two sides one with 600 grit and one with 1000 grit. The 600 grit side would be suitable for taking down large blade edge problems.

You could then use your 1000 grit side to finish smoothing the blade edge out.  I’ve included a youtube video instructing you on how to use the sharpening stone as this process is best shown on video.

How To Maintain Your Pocket Knife

If you are going through the trouble of sharpening the blade of your pocket knife then you likely will want the blade to maintain its sharp edge as long as possible.  Lucky for you there are steps that you can take to make sure your new pocket knife or freshly sharpened pocket knife will maintain it’s sharp blade edge.

The best preventive measure you can take to keep your knife looking it’s best is to clean your knife blade after every use.  You can also look at applying blade oil to your knives to make sure that they resist rusting.

Applying blade oil is especially important for carbon knife blades as they don’t have built-in rust resistance like stainless steel knife blades.

Cleaning

It’s important with knives that you clean them and make sure that they are dry after using them.  This ensures that they keep their finish and resist rusting and corrosion for as long as possible.  

Stainless steel bladed knives are made to help resist corrosion and rusting but should still be cleaned after use.  They are rust and corrosion resistant, not rust and corrosion-proof. This is especially important with carbon steel bladed knives as they will be more prone to rusting and corrosion as they don’t contain chromium to help resist rust.

Blade Oil

Another way that you can protect your knife blade is to regularly oil your blade.  Oiling your blade regularly will help protect the blade against rust and corrosion by creating a barrier between your blade and what you are cutting.  

Blade oil makes it so that water will be less likely to soak into the knife blade creating rust. This also leaves the knife blade with a pristine look.  All you need to do is drop a couple of drops of oil onto both sides of the blade and then buff the oil into the knife blade to make sure that the oil absorbs into the knife blade.  

This oil I’ve linked is also food safe so you don’t need to worry about using it on any knives that you would be used for food prep. That also means that you could use it for your kitchen knives as well to help them resist rusting.

To check out the knife and blade oil that I would recommend on Amazon click here.

How To Sharpen A Pocket Knife – In Conclusion

If you are looking for the best way to sharpen a pocket knife then you are going to want to invest in a whetstone.  Using a whetstone will allow you to sharpen the edge of your blade pretty much anywhere.  You could even take a whetstone along with you to your campsite if you wanted to sharpen your pocket knife blades at your campsite.

If you are in the market for a new camping pocket knife then you may be interested in checking out my other article about the best-fixed blade camping knives.