A-2 STEEL

[ms]

How hard is it to sharpen ?  I'm looking at a Bark River knife. 

[Empty Quiver]

It is fairly hard to sharpen. You won't need to very often, an occasional touch up with a steel, or crock sticks. When it really does need it though you will have to work.
 
A friend carries a Benchmade folder in A-2. He claimed it was well over a year before it needed sharpened, which by his estimation was four times as long as a previous good quality knife. Every other year he sends it back to Benchmade, he says he can do all right by himself but the factory edge is superior.

[drdougrx]

Which Bark River are you looking at?? Just bought a Gunny.

[houndrunner]

Classic drop point hunter. aka ms 

[Keith1]

Bark Rivers and A 2 are very easy to sharpen but as you probably know they are convex so you will have to do a little learning.
I think that on the Knives Ship Free web site there is a good instructional video. [at least there was one] Anyway it's a simple process. The secret to sharpening a convex blade is "TO USE VERY LITTLE DOWNWARD PRESSURE". After you learn the light pressure bit it's very easy.
I have several Bark Rivers and they have served me very well.
Regards, Keith

[drdougrx]

That's whare I bought mine.  I really like the Bark Rivers.  I had a Classic Hunter Lite but found that it was too lite in weight to be comfortable so I exchanged it for a Gunny and I'm very happy with it. 
 
If  you like Bark Rivers...have a look at virtuovice on yutube.

[keith44]

A-2 is an air cooled tool steel, with 5% chrome content.  If hardened and annealed correctly it makes a fine blade.  Expect some slight warping with thinner blades, but the manufacturer won't release those to the public.  A-2 can be polished to a mirror finish if you decide you want to make it shine.