If you’re going to have one weapon to protect yourself and your home, it should be a double-action knife. Their durability makes them able to withstand constant use and no other knife can quite match their sharpness.
OTF knives aren’t only good for protecting yourself against threats. You can also take them camping. They can slice through meat like butter and handle any ropes that you throw their way.
Your knife can’t do all these things if you allow it to get too dull, however. You’ll have to sharpen it before it sees any use again. Here is a guide that will walk you through the proper steps.
1. How Often Should You Sharpen Your OTF Knife?
The first step in a long line of knife maintenance tips is knowing how often should you sharpen it? The answer all depends on how much you use it. If you’re constantly cutting things with it, you should run it over a sharpening stone at least once a week. This will stop it from becoming too dull to function.
2. Check the Blade for Damage
Before you start sharpening, it’s good to know how much damage you’re working with. This will tell you if the instrument actually needs to be worked on or not.
Hold the knife up in the air and observe it from all angles. If you see any chips or scratches, it’s time to grab your sharpening stone and give your device a little TLC.
3. Loosen the Metal
Like an onion, OTF knives have layers. When the top bit of steel becomes dull, all you have to do is press it against a sharpening stone to reveal the fresh metal below the surface. Once you do this, it’s time to start the actual sharpening process.
4. Sharpen at the Right Angle
One of the most important parts of sharpening a knife is finding the right angle. For knives that see a lot of abuse, you’ll want to sharpen at a 30-degree angle, at least.
The question is, how do you find a 30-degree angle? The answer is folding a corner of a piece of paper. This will give you a 90-degree angle.
If you fold the corner even further into two-thirds, it will give you the 30-degree angle that you need.
5. Using the Stone
Hold the full-length of the edge of the knife against the course stone. Start making your strokes. You want to use as much of the surface of the stone as possible when you’re doing this.
Be sure not to let the tip of the blade run off of the stone. If you do, you may round it on accident.
As you sharpen the tip, it will form something known as a burr. You can get rid of it by running the knife through a block of wood.
Double-Action Knife Sharpening
Having a double-action knife is handy for protecting yourself, camping, and general everyday use. That is unless you allow your instrument to become dull.
The good news is that sharpening isn’t that hard. Once you have the right angle down and learn how to use a stone, you’ll have a knife that can cut through pretty much anything.
Having an OFT knife in your Safari or camping first aid kit could come in handy. Check out this post to find out what else you might need.
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