Work Sharp Guided Field Sharpener

Something that puzzles me is otherwise-capable outdoorsmen who can't sharpen a knife. Granted, sharpening a knife freehand can be challenging, especially if it's large, but being able to sharpen one's pocket knife should be considered a core skill.

There are a million different tools and gadgets for knife sharpening. One that I've used for several years and highly recommend is the Work Sharp Guided Field Sharpener. It includes several useful features:

• A coarse diamond plate (220 grit)
• A fine diamond plate (600 grit)
• A ceramic rod with grooves that can be used to sharped knives or fish hooks
• A small ceramic rod for sharpening serrations
• A leather strop

It weighs 5.6 oz. and is 6.75" long.

Side view, showing the fine diamond plate:

Top view, showing the ceramic rods:

And the bottom-mounted leather strop:

Ideally, you'll touch up the edge on your knife before it gets too dull, so that you only need to use the ceramic rod and then remove the burr using the strop.

Unfortunately, Work Sharp does not include a case with the unit. I bought the case separately. I don't see the specific one I bought but here's an assortment of cases that are currently available.

You'll also need to get some stropping compound for the leather. I am using some green stropping compound from Eastwood, or pick one of these.

For the past year my EDC pocketknife most days has been a Spyderco Endura 4 with a pretty hard VG-10 blade. It has excellent edge retention but if you let it get too dull can be a bitch to resharpen. It needed attention because while it still cut well it no longer was shaving sharp. After about 5 minutes of work on the ceramic rod and strop it was back to shaving sharp.

If you don't know how learn to sharpen a knife and get sharpening tools you like. I'm a big fan of the Work Sharp Guided Field Sharpener.