What Did We Learn? | Survival Knife Sharpening (with rocks) Series Overview

Can you sharpen knives with a rock? What kinds of stones should you look for and where? Do different kinds of steel respond better?
These are the questions we set out to research several episodes ago.
After testing KaBar Becker's 1095 CroVan, Spyderco H1, Benchmade CPM S30V, 8Cr13MoV, Opinel XC90, ESEE 1095, Zero Tolerance Vanadis 4E, vs REK Knives MagnaCut, Kizylar Supreme's Lohman PGK, Arno Bernard S35VN, Charles Jones 3V, Blank Blades 10V, and Jensen Knives Nitro V...
And using sharpening materials from bark to stones, crystals, shale, pumice, lava rock, sedimentary stones, and oysters & shells...
I think we have some hypotheses worth drawing.
Also check out my tutorials on dual grit sharpening.
What's a dual grit edge, you may ask?
Think: high performance aggressive knife edge!!! This method for versatile razor sharp knives is fast, easy, and leads to edge retention increases of up to 50% in some tasks! Watch my tutorials to quickly learn innovative hand sharpening techniques with whetstone, diamond plate, & honing strop.
The dual grit method is a specific method for sharpening one side of the edge coarse and the other fine - an updated tutorial is below:
• CPM MagnaCut Dual Grit...
And the results have been observed by independent testing:
• You Won't Believe How ...
If you're curious about the science behind the edge mechanics, check out this scienceofsharp.com article in which Dr. Todd Simpson analyzes the effect:
scienceofsharp.com/2021/06/15...
Please consider supporting me on Patreon if this helps you,
www.patreon.com/thehomeslice?...
Whether your passion is bushcraft knives, survival blades, hunting & fishing knives, edc knives, or kitchen knives - this method could revolutionize the way you sharpen your knives and make your edge last longer!!!
#thehomeslicesharpening #dualgritedge #dualgrittest

[@nandayane]

It’s joyful to see Gabe doing knife science, and putting this topic of intense internet discussion to the test in the real world. I don’t see 63+ HRC Nitro V, AEBL, or 14C28N available from anybody but custom makers though sadly.

[@homeslicesharpening]

Yeah - that's a good point. I am going to re-test later this year and try SK5, 1095 CroVan, and 80CrV2 - I should try to get ahold of a fixed blade in one of those steels at normal manufactured hardness to see whether it still performs well!

[@latinodeathjazz]

If this series of videos has taught me one thing about survival sharpening, it is that a knife and sharpener should always be carried together when out in the woods. Kudos to you Gabe for going to these lengths to find an answer to this often bandied question 👍🏻 This series has motivated me to try something similar with SE knives, although somewhat less ambitious in scope. I find them brutally effective for outdoors work and drastically easier to keep a working edge on than PE blades throughout the day. Right, I'm off to bulk buy some more CBN Spyderco double stuffs in case of emergency 🤪

[@homeslicesharpening]

I think that's probably the most sensible course of action, lol!

[@JohnDoe-zb7dz]

I swear jagged rocks are flatter than my grandfathers Norton India stones and boat stones, and he got amazing edges. The Norton India stones came flat but where never meant to stay that way. He stayed in one area of the stone and mostly edge trailed. India's are high pressure high angle stones. Kind of the way you wanna use a "survival" stone. Great info here. Thanks for your time consuming contributions!

[@homeslicesharpening]

Thanks! I have used a Norton India Fine and I really liked it. I also have a Norton Crystolon Silicon Carbide stone... Super gritty to use but effective edges come off of it! Cheers bro.

[@michaelwaldeck7081]

It would have been interesting to see if also clay or something smeared over wood might give you some honing ability after rock sharpening.

[@homeslicesharpening]

Yeah, I tried that in the second or third video - I remember not being too impressed with the results, but I am sure with the right clay and flat enough wood it might do great! I always feel like stropping the edge of a chopping knife on my canvas pants after they are dusted with soil (from work) keeps life in the edge for just a bit longer.

[@alphaomegasurvivalsupply6548]

I am curious about the Eafengrow claims because that first happened years ago and has been remedied since from what I understand, I havent seen any recent testing to confirm that either way but I sure would like to lol. It's wrong for a company to do that, if its still true, but if that isn't the case anymore then people should know that and it's good for the company in my book. I have a couple Eafengrow knives and they've been great for me with no complaints really, the one that I have in "D2" doesn't act like 3cr in my experience. However, I haven't done a bunch of testing on it to see it's just mainly been real world usage. Thanks for all the testing you do as well as the time and effort you put in, it's greatly appreciated!

[@michaelwaldeck7081]

I have three Eafengrow and they seem to be inline with what they should be. Their tarnished name is hard for them to overcome. They are excellent value for the money.

[@alphaomegasurvivalsupply6548]

@@michaelwaldeck7081 agreed 👍

[@homeslicesharpening]

My apologies guys, the one I bought was indeed years ago (probably 5.5 years ago I bought it) I have since sold it and cannot do corrosion resistance testing to confirm. Thanks for the information, I was not aware that the problem was resolved - it's more a case of me being out of the loop than anything. Thanks guys!

[@alphaomegasurvivalsupply6548]

@homeslicesharpening you did nothing wrong lol, I am still curious to know if that's still the deal, which I don't think it is but you never know

[@homeslicesharpening]

I think the original research was done by LuvThemKnives channel. Jared talks about it in this video kzbin.info/www/bejne/rGamqYekfZl_jpo There is an updated video by LuvThemKnives and he tests a bunch of new Eafengrow and it's genuinely D2 - so I learned something here!

[@danielbottner7700]

This is the first video of this series I have had the opportunity to watch so you may have covered this. Did you attempt to use river sand or any other sand or dirt as a media to assist in flattening the rocks ?

[@homeslicesharpening]

I have used dirt in flat bark as a strop, rock "slurry" to flatten other rocks and attempt to deburr, ground pumice as an abrasive, and in the final video I grind a piece of crystal on a flat piece of shale to put a fine slurry of rock with uniform crystal size - that's how all the final knives were sharpened and how NitroV came up shaving arm hair.

[@danielbottner7700]

​@@homeslicesharpening That seems old school but a real alternative to modern methods. There is a video of a circulating that shows " One of the Best " Japanese sharpeners. He is stropping with two different strops . . . about 3 strokes per side at a high angle. Only the video at this point but more details are likely to be shared in upcoming videos. I would like to figure out what he is using for strops. Sharing more soon.

[@homeslicesharpening]

Got your email, thanks.

[@SummitScene]

What a wonderfully in-depth, informative and interesting video - I subscribed! Also, as I am someone who lives close to Depoe Bay ("Depot" Bay is a misspelling) in Oregon, USA, how did you come by a rock from that area? Were you visiting the Oregon coast to do some whale watching?

[@homeslicesharpening]

My family lives in Washington State. We visited the Oregon Coast and stayed at the WorldMark resort in Depoe Bay 2 years ago. I found the rock on a walk around the coast. I love the Oregon Coast! Cannon Beach is among my favorite places, and my wife and I got married there. Sorry for the misspelling, it was either the auto-correct in my computer or the one in my fingers, but I actually did know it was spelled "Depoe Bay" I still have a beanie/hat I wear that is from that "Pirate Coffee" place knitted by the granny over there!

[@SummitScene]

@@homeslicesharpening Very cool!

[@JamesGMunn]

Are we sure that the sharpening wasn't more like chipping the edge on the very hard steels? The softer steels that did not chip would stay more dull. Using a microscope to examine the edges would be educational.

[@homeslicesharpening]

I do a little microscope work, you can see the video for yourself here kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y2qbnp6Le5J2Y8k

[@homeslicesharpening]

I don't detect any large-scale chipping, but all sharpening is a balance of flexing, breaking, shearing, and micro-chipping, so I am sure the rocks are "chipping" the edge, I guess the question is "are they doing that in a beneficial way, like a good whetstone would, or are they overly widening and damaging the cutting edge?"