Smith’s Diamond retractable sharpener review - really handy little hook and knife sharpener, around £12.00
Hardly very sexy or exciting like a lovely shiny lure rod or reel, but blunt hooks aren’t going to get us very far, and it’s especially noticeable when there aren’t a whole lot of fish around and connecting with far less hits feels more important than ever. When I was out the other day and caught my first bass of January 2024, I was fishing around a load of boulders and deliberately fishing my SG Sandeel V2 right in amongst them. You can feel the lure bumping off rocks a lot of the time, so it’s only natural that your hookpoint can lose its edge…………..
Which is why for me it’s so handy to have a little hook sharpener that lives in my waders or my lure bag and is easy to hand. I don’t want to be going back to a rucksack every time I feel my hookpoint and know that it could do with a bit of a touch up. That Savage Gear Diamond Dust Hook File sharpener I have talked about before is okay, but it’s a bit bigger than I like or need, and over time it’s rusted pretty badly via living in my lure bag. I don’t think this stops it sharpening hooks properly, but a while ago I found a smaller sharpener which I prefer and which lives in the pocket of my BCWs.
This little Smith’s Diamond retractable sharpener is about the same dimensions as a biro, and the actual sharpening bit is a diamond coated steel rod which retracts inside the aluminium housing when you don’t need it. One side of half of the diamond-coated rod is flat which I believe is for sharpening knives, then the other side has a groove which is perfect for our single and treble hooks. Turn the little locking screw, pull the diamond-coated rod out half way, then lock the screw in place and sharpen your hook. You can also pull the rod right out, turn it around, and then get at the round profile on the other half which I guess is more for serrated knife blades. It might sound complicated but it’s not at all, this is a very easy product to use.
And it works really well. Nice and easy to get a proper point back on your hook(s). Make sure to sharpen your hooks the opposite way to how you might initially think to do - in the direction of the red arrow above if you are pulling the hook towards you, then obviously the other way if you are pushing the hookpoint away from you down the groove. I think it’s a good thing to be slightly obsessed about sharp hook points, indeed I refer back to this blog post I wrote a while ago and nothing has changed when I say that I don’t see anglers checking or sharpening their hook points. I accept that some lure fishing isn’t going to hammer hook points very much, but bounce those lures around a load of rocks and I would suggest that however good your hooks might be, they are going to lose a good bit of sticking power. Combine this with a reluctance from most anglers to fight their hooked fish anywhere near hard and to me you have a perfect combination of factors for fish coming off. I grabbed these details from the Smith’s website:
“Smith's Diamond Retractable Sharpener features an unbreakable, diamond coated steel rod, which is specially designed to sharpen all types of knives, including serrated. Multiple layers of medium grit, mono-crystalline diamonds makes sharpening quick and easy, while still giving you that razor sharp edge on your knives, tools, or hooks. The rod is reversible and can be adjusted to variable lengths. It has a sharpening groove for hooks and a shirt pocket slip for easy storage. The unit is light, compact, and durable.
Tapered diamond coated rod sharpens serrations
Half-round diamond coated rod sharpens straight edges
Sharpening Groove for fishing hooks
Aluminum housing protects the sharpening rod
Pocket clip for easy storage
Reversible rod stores in handle
Grit: Medium - Diamond 400 Grit”
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