Bark river original edge

N

nlewman

Joined
Dec 26, 2015
Messages
595
Hey yall. I have a bit of a worry today.

I bought a knife off the exchange, listed as new, never used. Now, the knife looks unused. No scratches or anything. What worries me is the edge. Or rather, lack of one. I can run the knife across my palm with quite a bit of force, and you can't even tell afterwards. There is nothing on the edge to even indicate a grind. It looks like a knife that never had an edge on it.

Are all bark rivers like this, or did I get a dud
 
Bark Rivers do come with convex edges...but they are usually at least reasonably sharp, in my experience.
 
Yes it is supposed to be sharp. Try skinning an animal with it - if it does the job, it's sharp. If not, well....
 
Something is wrong. Bark River knives come very sharp from their retailers. You certainly wouldn't want to run the edge down the palm of your hand and expect not to have a bloody mess afterwards.
 
Try push cutting a piece of paper with it and see what happens. I had a Mini North Star like that years ago. You could run it across your finger with a fair amount of pressure and not cut it, but if you tried to push cut a sheet of printer paper, it'd go right through it as though it wasn't there. I think it had to do with the level of refinement of the edge from the factory: very clean apex but no real "teeth." As said above, these blades are full convex, so there should be no visible edge bevel.
 
According to the owner of Bark River, they test every knife for sharpness many times before they get boxed, up to 6 times. I've bought one new and 2 used. All of them came sharp, the new one was very sharp.
 
This edge is confusing me. Quite a bit.

I can slice an s in magazine paper. Not an easy task for such a thick blade. It cuts it smoother than my hair popping Manix xl.

But I can't cut myself. First time I've actually tried to do that I can't. And I can't shave. I could probably lick along the edge and have no problem, but I can cut paper super easy, and slice paranoid no problem. I've never had a convex edge, so I don't know if this is typical. Thanks to all for the replies.
 
Sounds like a "rounded" apex

Lacks bite but is a good push cutter.

You should just sharpen it yourself

What steel and model?
 
The person that sold you the knife most likely deceived you. New, unused whatsoever. That person should have atleast known if the knife of sharp or not.
 
I just got a Northwoods Iron River, made by Bark River, with a very similar edge. Didn't shave, but cut phone book paper pretty good. Definitely odd. Shaves now.
 
It's probably been used, this one looks like it has no edge too, but it's extremely sharp. Hair popping sharp and it would cut you open with ease.
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My barkriver mini-bushcrafter was like that to a degree, sharp, but not crazy sharp. But then again, I did use it for a few weeks before even thinking of sharpening it, a rare thing with my knives. I think its just getting used to how a convex edge works best.
 
"Don't feel right" is a definite bench mark for me, too. Not arguing about that. Got rid of it, problem solved. What I can't wrap my mind around is the "don't cut straight in my palm" but "cuts S in news paper".... Really ? That's some crazy stuff. Any (really) sharp edge presented at the right angle will send your arm hair flying, not even considering cutting straight into your hand. Granted, a convex edge may convey a different feeling than a beveled edge, but the end result is exactly the same : things will get cut in milliseconds. Bark River is famous for its convexed edges and I must admit I own several of their knives and one of them wins the award of "sharpest out of the box" hands down. Only stropped it so far, but I'm not heavy on my knives. Using lately a convex sharpening system, i must say this brings the game to a whole new level... Wall of text kept short : your problem is not with the grind or the brand...
 
herisson said:
"Don't feel right" is a definite bench mark for me, too. Not arguing about that. Got rid of it, problem solved. What I can't wrap my mind around is the "don't cut straight in my palm" but "cuts S in news paper".... Really ? That's some crazy stuff. Any (really) sharp edge presented at the right angle will send your arm hair flying, not even considering cutting straight into your hand. Granted, a convex edge may convey a different feeling than a beveled edge, but the end result is exactly the same : things will get cut in milliseconds. Bark River is famous for its convexed edges and I must admit I own several of their knives and one of them wins the award of "sharpest out of the box" hands down. Only stropped it so far, but I'm not heavy on my knives. Using lately a convex sharpening system, i must say this brings the game to a whole new level... Wall of text kept short : your problem is not with the grind or the brand...
Click to expand...
Yeah it was really weird. I could put quite a bit of pressure down on my finger and palm. I've got tough hands, but not that tough, haha.

I really don't get it. It doesn't matter anymore, but I'm still curious. It was sharp, but it wouldn't cut my hand. Could push cut paper, but couldn't push cut my hand. Strange.

So far I'm leaning towards one of the early responses, that it has something to do with how refined the edge is.
 
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