BARYONYX “Arctic Fox” Sharpening Stone

This stone is a key part of Phil’s Blade Maintenance and Repair Kit

Phil favours the Artic Fox due to it’s combination of fast action yet fine finish.

The blue synthetic sapphire crystals are harder than the silicon abrasives in most other stones. This means they are capable of removing harder metal, so the stones works well on harder tempered blades (eg Falci blades).

He uses it in place of a carborundum stone between jig peening and any other kind of peening (eg freehand edge peening); or after jig peening and before final field sharpening. Whilst the standard carborundum stone is cheaper, the edge usually requires follow up with a finer stone before the next stage of work. This is not needed with the Arctic Fox, simplifying and speeding up the process.

He uses it as an intermediate step between a file and peening anvil when smoothing out damage to the blade edge. For minor damage he can go straight to the Arctic fox, as the stone removes meatal fast enough to obviate the need for the file first.

In general, it is not suitable for field use because it will eat away a fine peened edge too quickly. It may be useful for field use on the harder steel of traditional English scythe blades.