What grit finish for a hunting/fishing knife?

[TkoK83Spy]

I have a guy at work that knows I'm a knife guy and have fixed/sharpened plenty of peoples knives around here. He asked if I could sharpen his hunting/fishing folder. He's tried to free hand it, and well...that's not a strong trait of his haha! Secondary bevels, very uneven. He said it was catching and not cutting cleanly after his last day out fishing.

Since I unfortunately am not a hunter/fisherman, I was wondering what kind of grit finish would work best on his knife for those kinds of tasks?

[Coastal]

I really, really hope BBB and Surfgringo chime in on this one.

[petz462]

Rick, good subject matter. I recently bought a custom hunting knife in Nitro V steel, 60-61 HRC. It's a hollow ground fixed blade with a good amount of belly. I asked the maker about sharpening it for my main application, skinning whitetail deer. He suggested 800-1200 grit for general use, but maybe going down to 600 grit to make it more aggressive for hunting applications. Would be interested in other opinions as well, especially from experts in the sharpening field. Dave

[standy99]

As a butcher for over 20 years I have spent hundreds of hours sharpening for myself and others, mainly fishing and hunting knives.

For hunting knives I usually advise and recommend a 220-240 to 800-1000 double sided Stone (as being good enough for a hunting knife)

Meat and skinning I like a toothier 600-800 grit
Fish filleting I like a 1000 grit
Sooo….800 would be my advice

(Be mindful I sharpen quite regularly and a lot more than your usual person so these grits are my preference for a hunting fishing knife - a high carbon butchers knife I would probably go to 2000)

Sounds like anything is better than he’s way or grit…

[MFlovejp]

I cut up a fair few critters a year between salmon harvest, small game and hopefully a moose/caribou. I sharpen my fillet and hunting knives to 800-ish grit and just a little bit of stropping. The reason I do this is because 800 is coarse enough to give a bit of tooth, but fine enough to be forgiving if you’re just giving a few strokes of touch up in the field. Oh, and also my field sharpening stone is 800 grit. I feel like 600-800 grit is about ideal.

[Phil Wilson]

I like a courser edge with more bite. My testing on manila rope shows 320 600 to be in the range depending on what is cut. This range also maximizes the edge holding in my experience. Phil

[skeeg11]

And there you have it, folks.

[Wandering_About]

The 800-1000 grit range works fine for me. I have gone finer in the past but a little more tooth is nice especially for skinning. A polished edge looses it's aggression pretty quick on a hunting knife. This is where erring toward a lower grit is a good idea.

[Evil D]

I'd go with whatever your field sharpening options are. In other words if someone said the best edge would be a highly polished 16k grit edge taken through a grit progression and stropped, that would be way more gear than you'd want to tote along with you on a fishing or hunting trip. If you're doing field sharpening and touch ups and especially if you find yourself needing to fix edge damage, you'll want something low grit that cuts fast and can repair an edge quickly. I would probably choose the upcoming CBN Webfoot or a double sided stone if you're good at freehand.

[bearfacedkiller]

If he isn’t a knife guy then he will probably appreciate the coarser edge.

I harvested a turkey with my bow this afternoon. We are allowed to take one in October here. I filled that tag with just a couple days left. Winner winner, turkey dinner.

Broke it down with the sprig.

[cycleguy]

As a butcher for over 20 years I have spent hundreds of hours sharpening for myself and others, mainly fishing and hunting knives.

For hunting knives I usually advise and recommend a 220-240 to 800-1000 double sided Stone (as being good enough for a hunting knife)

Meat and skinning I like a toothier 600-800 grit
Fish filleting I like a 1000 grit
Sooo….800 would be my advice

(Be mindful I sharpen quite regularly and a lot more than your usual person so these grits are my preference for a hunting fishing knife - a high carbon butchers knife I would probably go to 2000)

Sounds like anything is better than he’s way or grit…

Great thread!

I like what this guy says .... but will add my .02

This is coming from a guy that has hunted and fished for a lifetime and never could sharpen a knife well until a couple years ago:

You may hear many refer to it as a toothier edge (think a ultra micro microscopic saw blade) and is what I would suggest as an all around use - so 600 grit and 800 grit is good.

For filleting fish I would be using a different knife than the one I would use to gut and skin harvested big game animals. It would be much more flexible and I would prefer a finer edge on it as well - I'll go with 1200 or 1000. (Fish I fillet are 2 to 3 pound range - land locked Kokanee - so not the bigger fish most are likely filleting).

I did skin a few pheasants one time with a Boker ceramic which was described as surgical sharp ... it was freakin" awesome for the task.

Hope this helps,

CG

[BIGSTRETCH]

I like a courser edge with more bite. My testing on manila rope shows 320 600 to be in the range depending on what is cut. This range also maximizes the edge holding in my experience. Phil

The Sprig is by far my favorite fixed blade. Now I know how the man himself would sharpen it! 320-600 it is. I gotta ask though, what abrasive/stone type do you like for the s90v?

[Soanso McMasters]

For skinning/processing game I would go 600 to 800. For cleaning fish I would go from 1200 all the way to 2000 with my own preference being at 1200.

[skeeg11]

350-600 works for me. I do, however, prefer a polished push cutting apex for going around fish rib cages. For skinning fish fillets, grit doesn't matter so much to me as long as it isn't too sharp. Yes, IMHO there is a place for a not so sharp knife. Then again, most people expect to use only one knife to clean or fillet fish. Different cuts, so I do a cleaner job with 3.

[arty]

“Grit value” has a different meaning depending on the type of stone. For diamond stones, a 600 grit stone is described as fine, but produces a much coarser edge then a fine India, which is perhaps 320 grit. A 1200 grit diamond stone is not as fine as a fine Spyderco Ceramic. I won’t touch my woodworking blades with any diamond stone, because the edges are too coarse.

For a knife for fishing, I prefer a 1200 grit finish or even finer. For a general purpose finish, a 1200 grit finish is fine - using a diamond stone. I use a strop with 1200 grit silicon carbide powder when I want a finer finish on a blade, but don’t go that route for pocket knives anymore.

The steel matters as well. I have an old Gerber 440C kitchen knife that won’t sharpen properly unless I use a 600 grit diamond stone on it. I usually stop at this for that particular knife.

When you ask about grit value, it is important to specify the type of sharpener. I like very fine finishes for some purposes, but not others. It depends on what you are cutting. I agree with Leonard Lee who suggested that a kitchen knife will benefit from a 1000 grit water stone. However, if you are making sushi, then a very fine finish might be better.

[Bill1170]

600 grit off a diamond plate has outperformed 1200 for me. My favorite plate these days is the 400/800 CBN from Spyderco. The toothier 400 is my preference for general utility.

[Phil Wilson]

BIGSTRETCH I have used the fine and medium Norton SC Crystolon stones to good result on CPM S90V. Diamond plates and the diamond and the CBN rods from Spyderco work very nice as well. Lately I have learned from BBB (Shawn) and obtained from him CBN and diamond vitrified stones that are very quick to cut have a nice feel and leave a clean aggressive edge. I like to use windex for a lube on all of these stones. The diamond rods in fine are great for a quick tune up in the kitchen and field. Phil

[Manifestgtr]

For cleaning trout, I prefer a polished edge…

For a general fishing knife, I ALWAYS carry my sheepsfoot caribbean sharpened to 2000 grit or so…hacks right through braided fishing line, fly leaders, branches, weeds, whatever you got…

For animal dressing, you wanna go coarser than that. Anything above 1000 seems unnecessary and possibly even counterproductive, depending on the situation

[TkoK83Spy]

Thanks everyone for the feedback! Since he said he doesn't use it for any particular situation, I decided to clean up the bevels on my DMT Duosharp stone. Then to pretty it up a bit I hooked it up to the Precision Adjust. Looks like I fixed up the wonky bevels to about 18dps. Decided to take it up to 800 grit. Quite sharp, very slightly toothy. Excited to see what he thinks!

[MFlovejp]

Thanks everyone for the feedback! Since he said he doesn't use it for any particular situation, I decided to clean up the bevels on my DMT Duosharp stone. Then to pretty it up a bit I hooked it up to the Precision Adjust. Looks like I fixed up the wonky bevels to about 18dps. Decided to take it up to 800 grit. Quite sharp, very slightly toothy. Excited to see what he thinks!

I use that same grit duosharp in the field. I think he’s gonna be very happy with that edge.