Smith's

Smith's is an American company specialising in knife sharpeners and edge tools, known first for the natural Arkansas stone quarried around Hot Springs, Arkansas, where it began in 1886. That stone is a fine grained siliceous rock: it takes metal away quietly and leaves a smooth, steady edge, still the favourite of anyone who sharpens by hand rather than by machine.

Alongside the natural stone it makes diamond grit sharpeners on a metal base, fast on hard steel and right for high hardness blades, and combination stones with two faces, coarse for shaping and repairing a damaged edge, fine for finishing. It also makes fixed angle pull through sharpeners in carbide and ceramic, which bring an edge back in minutes for anyone who cannot hold the angle by hand.

Al Huwaila is an authorised Smith's agent. In the hunting knives section: an 8 inch dual grit combination stone, an 8 inch diamond stone, a 4 inch natural Arkansas stone with a pouch and a 6 inch medium one, the EDGE EATER, and the EDGESPORT game dressing set with the JIFFY-PRO sharpener. They suit the hunter getting his knife ready before a trip, the butcher who needs a clean edge, and the camper or cook whose knives must cut first time.