Last November I sat in a dark on a boat off a Kodiak island.

Visiting, telling stories, swapping tales about the days hunt with friends.

We were up there hunting sick of black-tailed deer and having just

a bang-up time in the longest extended period of serious cold of the past 30 to 50 years.

At the time I was sharpening a knife and somebody said,

hey, walk me through what you're doing there.

And so as I worked over this knife that belonged to a friend and he brutalized it on multiple

deer through that day and it just needed touching up.

Anyway, I thought out loud as I sharpened this knife and

it's funny but the boat operator and his family that were serving his crew there

are podcast listeners and one of them at the ends of man you

should have been recording that because that was the best description of

sharpening a blade that I've ever heard. So this podcast is going to be a mix of

tips on keeping body and mind sharp in the backcountry as well as some equipment so I confess I do love a play on words.

The focus topic today is knife sharpening.

Without a sharp knife you'll work harder you'll do a poorer job and you'll be more likely to injure yourself than if you keep your working blade razor sharp.

To understand how to sharpen a knife, you need to understand metal as a material, I learned about metal when I was 13 and working for a custom saddlemaker.

I wasn't earning any money. He was working on a couple projects for my dad and my dad said

all right look I'll pay you extra if you'll take this kid on as an apprentice and

teach him some things about working with leather. So I did my best and

made some fun projects, but the thing that really stuck with me was how to sharpen a blade, right? There's some types of special leather working knives

that have to be absolutely razor sharp to do their job. And I learned about how steel reacts to a stone and to pressure

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