5 Minute Bushcraft Trick — Stropping Or Honing Your Knife
Two years ago, I went through the first two levels of the Texas Survival School.
I took the classes for two reasons:
To meet people
To refresh my skills
The final level of the Texas Survival School is the “knife only” course. You go into the woods with the instructors for a week with only your knife.
That’s how important a quality bushcraft knife is to survival, as long as you have a knife, you can survive.
To get the most out of your knife, you need to keep it sharp. A sharp knife is a safe knife because you don’t need to use as much force to cut.
While you should sharpen your knives on an annual basis (for the average person if you’re using your knife more frequently then you need to sharpen it more frequently), you should hone or strop it before every use.
The difference between sharpening and honing is that sharpening produces a new edge while honing keeps the edge sharp.
You can use a honing rod or even a leather belt to strop the blade.
You can use a natural material, including fungus too.
Here’s a video of Coalcracker Bushcraft using a fungus from a tree to strop his knife:
If you enjoyed this article, you should check out my favorite outdoor survival resources.
I’m Mark Wilcox and I once backpacked 100 miles in 90 days. After 25 years in IT, I wanted more adventure in my life. I want to inspire you to add more adventure too.
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