How to Sharpen a Knife: A Hunter’s Complete Guide

Sharp knives cut cleaner, work faster, and are safer to use than dull ones. Anyone can learn how to sharpen a knife at home with a whetstone in about 10 minutes: hold a steady angle, raise a burr on each side, then strop to finish.

Below is the method we use at Montana Knife Company, plus guidance on how to pick the right sharpening tool for the blade in your hand.

How to Sharpen a Knife: Pick the Right Sharpening Method

Different blades and different skill levels call for different sharpening tools. The best way to sharpen a knife depends on its edge, its steel, and how much control you want over the finish.

For hunting knives with premium steels like MagnaCut or 52100, we reach for a good whetstone or a guided system. Pull-through sharpeners can chew up hard steel and strip more material than you want.

How to Tell if Your Knife Is Dull

Before you sharpen a knife, confirm your edge actually needs work. These three quick tests help determine what your blade needs:

The light test. Hold the blade under a bright light, edge up, and look straight down at it. A sharp edge reflects no light. Any bright spots you see are flattened or rolled sections of the edge.

The paper test. Hold a sheet of printer paper vertically and slice down through it. A sharp knife will glide through in one clean pass from heel to tip. A dull one will catch, tear, or fold the paper.

The fingernail test. Rest the blade’s edge lightly on your thumbnail at about a 45-degree angle. A sharp blade will bite in and stay put. A dull one will slide right off.

Sharpening vs. Honing: Know the Difference

Sharpening and honing often get lumped together, but they yield very different results.

Sharpening removes steel from the blade to rebuild the cutting edge. You do it once every few months on a hunting knife, or when the edge stops performing under real use.

Honing realigns an existing edge without stripping much material. Between hunts or after heavy kitchen use, a few strokes on a honing rod straighten out microscopic bends in the steel and sharpen fast. 

How to Sharpen a Knife: Choose Your Sharpening Angle

The angle at which you hold the blade against the stone controls how sharp the edge feels and how long it lasts. Lower angles cut better. Higher angles hold up longer.

Here are some ideal sharpening angles by knife type:

For most MKC hunting knives, 20 degrees is our sweet spot. It gives you an edge that grabs hair and bites through hide, but holds up through a full field dress.

The Five-Step Method for How to Sharpen Any Knife

We teach the following sharpening process in the MKC shop. Practice on an inexpensive blade first if you’re new to it.

Step 1: Set Up and Mark the Bevel

Place your whetstone on a damp towel so it can’t slide, with a short side facing you. Then grab a black permanent marker and color your knife’s bevel from heel to tip on both sides. This marker trick will save you a lot of guesswork on the correct angle.

Step 2: Find Your Angle

Set the blade on the stone at your target angle from the chart above. Make a few light passes, then check the bevel.

If the marker is gone in the middle of the bevel, your angle is close. Marker left near the edge means you’re too high. Marker left up on the shoulder means you’re too low.

Adjust and try again until you match the factory bevel.

Step 3: Raise a Burr on Side One

Draw the full length of the edge backward along the stone toward you, one pass at a time. Push firmly for the first 10 passes, then check the opposite side of the edge with your fingernail.

When you feel a rough lip along the whole length of the blade, you have a burr. That means you’ve removed enough steel to reset the edge.

If the burr forms on part of the edge but not the full length, focus your passes on the burrless spot until it catches up.

Step 4: Repeat on Side Two, Then Alternate

Flip the knife and repeat until you raise a burr along the full length of the other side. Then work both sides with alternating strokes, easing off the pressure with each pass. You’ll feel the stone give you cleaner, smoother feedback as the edge refines.

Step 5: Strop and Test

Move to a leather strop (a belt or a buffing wheel also works) and pull the blade backward across it, edge-trailing, 10–15 times per side. Stropping removes the burr and polishes out microscopic tears in the edge.

Test it on paper. A clean slice from heel to tip means you’re done. If the blade catches at any spot, hit that spot on the strop, or drop back to the stone for a few more passes.

How to Sharpen Different Knife Steels

The steel in your blade controls how fast you can sharpen it and how fine the edge goes. Most MKC blades use one of three steels:

MagnaCut. This steel is tough, corrosion-resistant, and holds an edge for a long time. It takes a keen edge, though a diamond or ceramic stone tends to bite better than a soft water stone once you get past the initial burr. Most of our knives here at MKC are MagnaCut.

52100 ball bearing steel. A high-carbon steel that sharpens fast on almost any stone and takes a wickedly fine edge. You’ll find it in the Beartooth, the Marshall Bushcraft Knife, the MKC Chopper, the 52100 versions of the Speedgoat, Blackfoot, Stonewall Skinner, and more. Wipe your 52100 steel knives down after use to keep them looking sharp.

440C. A high-chromium stainless steel that sharpens easily on any standard whetstone and resists corrosion well. We run it in our MKC Steak Knives. This steel won’t fight you on the stone the way harder steels can, so it’s a great blade to practice your technique on before moving to hunting knives. 

If your first pass at sharpening feels like no material is coming off, your stone may be too fine for the steel or too soft for the hardness. Step down to a coarser or harder stone.

Common Knife Sharpening Mistakes

We see the same handful of errors come through our shop over and over. Most of them are easy to fix once you know what to look for.

Chasing exact degrees before you can hold a steady angle. Repeatable movement matters more than perfection. Get your motion locked in, then worry about the last degree or two.

Skipping the burr check. If you haven’t raised a burr along the full length of the edge, you haven’t finished the sharpening step. Testing on paper at that point is useless.

Using the wrong grit. For most hunting knives, 600–1,000 grit is ideal. Fine kitchen edges call for 1,000–8,000 grit. Save 220–320 grit for reprofiling a badly damaged blade.

Too much pressure at the end. Heavy pressure on a fine edge tears it up. Lighten your touch as the edge refines.

How to Field Sharpen Your Hunting Knife

The steps above work great at home on a flat surface, but sharpening in the field is completely different. In camp or on the mountain, you want a pocket-sized diamond stone or a portable sharpener, and you’ll trade the paper test for a fingernail check. 

Every MKC Blade Comes With a Sharpening Promise

Every MKC knife ships from the shop scary sharp, ground with an edge geometry made for real sharpening at home. And through the MKC Generations® program, any MKC knife owner can send their blade back to our facility at any point in the blade’s life for free resharpening, even if that outlasts yours.

Sharpening at home extends the life of a great edge, but MKC Generations® is always there when you need a deep reset.

Frequently Asked Questions About How to Sharpen a Knife

What is the best angle to sharpen a hunting knife?

Twenty degrees per side works well for most fixed-blade hunting knives. It balances a sharp bite against hair and hide with an edge tough enough to survive bone contact and hard field use.

How often do I need to sharpen my knife?

For a hunting knife, once or twice a year is typical, plus a strop or hone between hunts.

Kitchen knives in daily use need to be honed weekly and fully sharpened once or twice a year.

Bushcraft knives like the Marshall Bushcraft Knife and camp choppers like the Hellgate Hatchet dull faster under heavy use and benefit from a quick touch-up on a coarse stone between outings. 

Can I sharpen a MagnaCut knife at home?

Yes. MagnaCut sharpens well on diamond stones, ceramic stones, and quality water stones. Skip cheap pull-through sharpeners, which can chip a hard, thin edge.

What grit whetstone do I need to start?

A combination stone with 600- and 1,000-grit sides covers most hunting knife maintenance. Add a 3,000+ grit stone if you also work on kitchen knives.

Can I ruin my knife by sharpening it wrong?

You can round the edge or thicken the shoulder with a bad angle, but a stone will fix both mistakes. Real damage happens with power tools that overheat the steel and pull the hardness out of the blade. Take your time on a stone, and you’ll be safe.

by Josh Smith, Master Bladesmith and Founder of Montana Knife Company