Tips On: Sharpening Stones "To Go"
It struck me that sometimes the little things might be useful to my fellow outdoor enhusiasts that are just starting out in the world bushcraft. So I thought I would add, from time-to-time, the odd quick post focusing on an item of kit or technique that may be second nature to o'timers. In this post I introduce the light-weight travelling sharpening stone kit (photo below). Full-weight sharpening stones are quite heavy and cumbersome, so whilst you'll take them with you for a base camp you are not likely to lug them around on a tramp. The stones below are of three varieties, from left to right: (a) A metal coarse stone, plus screws to keep it in place on a log, (b) a diamond fine stone and (c) a ceramic finishing stone. I use the leather belt that I wear in the wilds to strop the blade after sharpening. On the far right is a leather pouch for keeping them all together.
Of course, if you didn't have these with you, you could easily improvise with a variety of smooth natural stones such as river boulders and pebbles. My best advice here is to try and find natural stones that are about 20-30cm long and as flat as possible so that your blade is sharpened equally along its length as best as possible. Otherwise it's more tricky to ensure that the blade doesn't start getting worn more in one place than others.
Here is another interesting idea.... especially if you like to convex your edge with sandpaper.
I find a chunk of an old leather belt and some polishing compound to be all I need, ocassionally I will touch them up at home on a stone. In saying this I still have not had a chip in my mora yet, so may find this is not enough at some point.
Fantastic post (love the picture), I have had great use out of my diamond sharpener. I find it great for quick touch ups in the field but prefer to use a full sized stone at home easier to achieve the right sharpening angle. A discussion of different angles for different knifes/purposes would be a good idea.