A Smooth Edge

A

Anderson

Joined
Jan 17, 2004
Messages
11
I recently purchased a fixed blade from an American knife maker.
I like everything about this knife except that it isn't what I would even call sharp.No line on my finger nail when drawn across,takes a real effort to even
slice a chip out of my finger nail.

When I asked the maker about this he said one that he puts on a SMOOTH EDGE and it might fool me,well it doesn't.
So what is a smooth edge?

I asked what angle he sharpens the blades at and he replied that doesn't know since he sharpens freehand.
How can you sharpen a blade without knowning the angle you are holding the
blade to the stone?

Thanks in advance
Anderson
 
I dont pay attention to angles either. I sharpen freehand and can just look at the stone and the edge, and how they come together. My eye can just see whats going on and what needs to be done. It's frustrating to me to see all these people on the forums put so much emphasis on exact angles. I just read the knife, the stone, and the edge, and everything turns out the way it's supposed to.

I have no clue what angles I'm using at all, but for nearly 20 years my knives have always been razor sharp, and the bevels are always straight and even.

Sounds like the knifemaker is using a highly polished edge. Some polished edges act a bit differently when using the ol' thumb test. They dont feel aggressive at all, just smooth. These edges will readily shave and push cut materials with ease though, and like he said, they will fool you. It's not always the best kind of edge, especially for a hard use knife. More aggressive and toothy edges respond well to the thumb pad/nail test, but fail at push cutting and other tests.
 
Smooth edges definitely exist, though I don't know if that's their real name. Smooth edges are when the edge is perfectly polished, so that the microscopic "tooth" you rely on for sharpness testing are gone. Some go even further to making the edge very convex as well. This results in an edge that is very difficult to cut into compressible materials, like skin, but can still easily cut hard materials like paper.

Many factory grinds of thick knives come like that; I laughed at one the first time, and couldn't believe it would cut anything because I couldn't get it to cut me. It push-cut paper fine.
 
Can you shave with it?
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I took a peice of 3/4 minila rope sharpened my commander with a fine diamond oval and tried to free hang cut it, it failed and was very dull after. I sharpened and polished the same knife repeated the test and cut the rope 14 times before it lost its shaving edge. That proved to me that a polished edge is better IMO.

I also never pay attention to angles just feel for it
 
Get yourself a composition notebook or old phonebook, and just press ont eh blade if it cuts through the paper its sharp.
 
Anderson said:
When I asked the maker about this he said one that he puts on a SMOOTH EDGE and it might fool me,well it doesn't.
Click to expand...

Ask him for a sharp edge next time. It isn't a big problem you were going to have to sharpen it eventually anyway.

-Cliff
 
Thank you for posting this. I thought I was doing something wrong. I freehand sharpen mostly and recently took to stropping. After stropping, the edge just didn't feel sharp but I could shave arm hair with it. I thought I was doing something wrong. I'll dig the strop out of the box I threw it in.
 
Thanks for the replies
The knife isn't sharp enough to shave the arm hairs.
Whe looking at the edge from the side,the marks,look as though a finishing stone was every used,let alone ever have been stropped.
It doesn't even pass any of the paper cutting test.

He is willing to let me send it back so that he can look at.
 
stropping it on hard clean leather may bring the edge back I have had this happen on some different steels
 
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