Best way to test sharpness on a knife?

I know it might not be the best way but if it can't shave arm hair, it doesn't suit me.
 
Cleanly push cutting a piece of paper is a good one. The quickest and easiest method however is just feeling the edge with your thumb:thumbup: I leave most of my knives with a coarse ~400 grit edge and this level of sharpness can be easily confirmed with the thumb test. When you get into 2000 grit+ polished edges, whittling a hair or cutting a free hanging hair is perhaps the ultimate test of sharpness.
 
Arm hair. But unless it's a complicated edge you should know it's sharp by following a sharpening procedure that works.

I've sharpened 154CM to shaving sharp but the edge would roll whenever I used it on something sturdy. I wasn't sharpening correctly and hair or paper won't reveal that.
 
Put the knife blade side up; then drop a hair on it. It the hair splits in two your good to go. If the hair bounces off the blade; then work on sharpening technique.
 
I find the best test is to attempt to cut what I need to cut. If my knife does that well, it is sharp. I must be strange, but I rarely, if ever, need to cut arm hair or paper.
 
KalEl said:
Cleanly push cutting a piece of paper is a good one. The quickest and easiest method however is just feeling the edge with your thumb:thumbup: I leave most of my knives with a coarse ~400 grit edge and this level of sharpness can be easily confirmed with the thumb test. When you get into 2000 grit+ polished edges, whittling a hair or cutting a free hanging hair is perhaps the ultimate test of sharpness.
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Exactly. :thumbup:

Except I can whittle hair with my 400 grit edges. :D
 
Arm hair. Anything after that is probably pointless in real life and is just being obsessive about the edge. Unless you cook a lot.
 
RedLynx said:
This seems the most logical.
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Agreed. I go with arm hair though because cutting what I need to would happen the next day after I touch up my knife the previous night. Wouldn't do to attempt to cut something only to find I have to run back home and sharpen up my new butter knife. :p
 
I try cutting newspaper or something like that. Heavier paper like typing paper or printer paper is too easy to cut.

I used to just feel of the edge with my thumb but I've found that it isn't as reliable as I would like.

I don't sharpen to the ultimate degree so I don't need a real accurate test.
 
RemyKaze said:
Agreed. I go with arm hair though because cutting what I need to would happen the next day after I touch up my knife the previous night. Wouldn't do to attempt to cut something only to find I have to run back home and sharpen up my new butter knife. :p
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Good point. To be perfectly honest I'm not great at actually cutting my arm hair. :P
 
Hair.


If i can shave my arms I'm good to go. Which is why I have patchy arms.



Also if I can push cut the thin receipt paper I'm happy
 
Slicing paper
Regular printing paper
Feel the ease of cut
Listen to the sound of the cut
Should not be loud
Can you curl the paper edge
 
Heroine addicts have track marks...knife junkies have these:

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Eventually the knife junkie moves to the leg...sorta like a heroine junkie.
 
Drag the blade across your bare chest until Predator comes.
That's how I usually do it anyway
 
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