Beyond Hair Whittling Sharp?

I tried to ignore your wacked out behaviour above, but you keep on like a 4 year old, so I'll reply. What part of the above statement do you not understand? Does arrogance and assumed self-superiority hinder reading comprehension?

Either shut the heck up in this thread about sharpness tests OTHER than cutting hair, or offer up some real reason why whittling a hair (very inconsistent media) is superior to demonstrations using more consistent media (paper), making them much more comparable from user to user.

Have you tried any of the sharpness demonstrations mentioned in this thread? Any at all?

It is not clear for me was you able to sharpen it or you have it from someone else. Can you give me a faivor and state it clear that you are able to sharpen it yourself. Is it too hard?

Thanks, Vassili.

P.S. There is another thread here where people announce their ability to whitle hair and you participated as well with same claims as here, but never sad you able to sharpen it youself.

So resolution of this is simple - do not be ignorant and tell straight that you was able to do this. But so far I did not see answers at all, or this "I have one" wich is not really clear, at least to me - sorry my English.
 
I have whittled my wife's hair with around 4 or 5 of my knives, & whittled blonde hair from a 4 yr old with a couple (and failed with some), and there was a huge difference in difficulty.

I agree that it requires a sharp knife to whittle a hair. Compared to an adult hair on the thick side, I think there are a number of sharpness demonstrations that require a sharper edge. Compared to a blonde hair from a child, there are very few demonstrations that require more sharpness.

Have you tried any of the other above mentioned sharpness "tests"?
 
I have whittled my wife's hair with around 4 or 5 of my knives, & whittled blonde hair from a 4 yr old with a couple (and failed with some), and there was a huge difference in difficulty.

I agree that it requires a sharp knife to whittle a hair. Compared to an adult hair on the thick side, I think there are a number of sharpness demonstrations that require a sharper edge. Compared to a blonde hair from a child, there are very few demonstrations that require more sharpness.

Have you tried any of the other above mentioned sharpness "tests"?

Did you sharpen it yourself? This is only my question - it is just unclear!

Thanks, Vassili.
 
Broos does his own sharpening. I made a knife for him and used my EdgePro to put my best-at-that-time edge on the blade and when he got it, he worked on the edge because it wasn't sharp enough.
 
Thanks, Thom! And I still use that little M2 cutter often! Still amazes me how that very thin edge holds up.

Vassili, I have been thinking about getting a personal assistant/right hand man (right after I strike it rich), but I can't find one that can sharpen up to my standards, so I am still sharpening my own knives for now. Have you tried any of the other "tests"?
 
Thanks, remember I am Russian - you need to use simple words like "yes" or "no".

I only do toilet paper cutting. I did not try yet paper pipe cutting - it looks too dangerous.

http://ru.youtube.com/watch?v=xLNt2VlaTmY

http://ru.youtube.com/watch?v=3B2fqdVS8J8

Best sharpness test so far I have is statistical thread cutting. Recently I modified it - now I have thread not under tension, blade strictly horizontal, so it will not move along the thread and I also apply pressure step by step moving from one point on the scale to another in about 3 seconds (I count to 5).

Best what I have now to test is M.D.Calldwell and it showed 5 oz. on postal spring scales. It whittle long shave on hair. The other one BM 710HS ырщцы 5.5 and did not shave but cut on touch and do whittling only if I do it very carefully - I think pressure for it to start cutting is to much and it rather go through hait then whittle it.

Thanks, Vassili.
 
Vassili,
As shown on your youtube videos, my blades can easily do the same with toilet paper and paper towels. Also, like in another of your videos, I can split free-hanging toilet paper. However, I am still unable to whittle hair. I like to think that's because of my clumsy hands and poor eyesight, but so far, dissecting flimsy paper is the best I can do. Maybe in time, with more practice.

Thanks for your contributions. I have learned much from them, also from some of your comments on non-knife related subjects.

Best regards,

Allen
 
Hair is like palm tree and has shells oriented from top to bottom. To whittle hair you should move your blade from top of the hair to root, then edge pick one shell and start whittling. It is like cleaning fish - you need to go opposite to the shells.

To my observation sharpest edge do not need to much push and so did not penetrate deep when goes under hair shell and produce long curvy shave.

"Duller" the edge - more push it needs and in result penetrates deeper producing shorter shave or do diagonal cut.

At some point initial push needed to penetrate under shell is too strong so edge goes through hair cutting it right away. To me it seems like duller then if you have long curvy shave.

You may notice hair start bouncing when is edge good enough to start bumping on hair shells.

Best sharpness I see on carbon steel so far and low grade stainless (like Russian Chirok 95X18 (440B?) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQPwHu4lxsQ ).

I think that hair whittling is easiest to do test on high sharpness and only statistical thread cutting test may detect better sharpness.

Thanks, Vassili.
 
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I have whittled my wife's hair with around 4 or 5 of my knives, & whittled blonde hair from a 4 yr old with a couple (and failed with some), and there was a huge difference in difficulty.

I agree that it requires a sharp knife to whittle a hair. Compared to an adult hair on the thick side, I think there are a number of sharpness demonstrations that require a sharper edge. Compared to a blonde hair from a child, there are very few demonstrations that require more sharpness.

Have you tried any of the other above mentioned sharpness "tests"?

I agree about the young blonde's hair being much more difficult to whittle than other hair. My near 4 year old (she'll be 4 on September 10th) has blonde hair and it takes a much sharper blade to whittle than using my own hair. I generally test whittling with my wife's hair, which is harder to whittle than mine but easier than my daughter's hair. I know when I can whittle my daughter's hair consistently that I did a real good job of sharpening.

Mike
 
I did it! I did it! I whittled me a hair!

Apparently, it was possible all along, except for bad technique, but when I took Vassili's tip and cut toward the root, I got that little curl.

It was not as long a strip as master sharpeners can get, but I feel as if at last I have achieved adult status. :D

(About time, too, as actually I am not too far from The End. :( )
 
Those are amazing tests I have push cut the paper and sliced toilet paper not pushing threw it though. But HAIRS!! thats awsome I can hardly see one. Let alone wittle one .I need to start practicing that under a magnifying glass.
 
I was a little surprised to hear that some think cutting a water bottle or paper tube requires much technique or is dangerous :eek:. I really don't think this requires much technique beyond hitting the bottle with the edge without spazzing out. Certainly safer than chopping with an axe or big knife, or using a chainsaw, and requires less technique than hitting a golf ball poorly.

I finally had a little time (though I'm up too late) to take a video of some water bottle cutting, in hopes of showing that while you do have to hit the bottle with the blade (can be tough depending on blade length), it doesn't require much technique. I did "tip" the fourth one and only cut it partway through. While cutting a water bottle may in some ways require less sharpness than whittling a blonde child's hair, it still requires a high level of sharpness, and has some other differences, like the sharpness must be developed along the entire edge. One rough patch will send the bottle flying uncut. And it is funner and might even win you a few bucks sometimes if you have some cocky buddies you can talk into betting you. :D

Knife is an S30V Spydie Military.

 
I was a little surprised to hear that some think cutting a water bottle or paper tube requires much technique or is dangerous :eek:. I really don't think this requires much technique beyond hitting the bottle with the edge without spazzing out.

You can imagine why I'm reticent to chop up empty bottles. :o Plus, I mainly drink 2l bottles.

I finally had a little time (though I'm up too late) to take a video of some water bottle cutting, in hopes of showing that while you do have to hit the bottle with the blade (can be tough depending on blade length), it doesn't require much technique. I did "tip" the fourth one and only cut it partway through.

Knife is an S30V Spydie Military.

The S90V version cuts five bottles! ;)
 
I tryed this and have to admit - this is fun!

I cut pepsi and water bottles with my Yuna (which is not really too sharp - I used it a little bit. It does not have enough length to cut it on two pieces but it make a clean cut.

Then I take this dead edge (killed by that wenge wood):

BulatWhittlingHair04.jpg


And use it on same bottles opposite side. Pepsi has scratch - not cut, but water bottle has cut, may be not as clean as Yuna made but still.

So I am not sure that this is really show high sharpness, because I made it with pretty bad edge.

Thanks, Vassili.
 
I tested another dead edge (killed by some wood for terrarium, which is softer then wenge):

random-432.jpg


It cut plastic bottle as well.

So to me this is fun but not sharpness test.

First dead edge is some experimental bulat and it has huge chips.
Second dead edge is INFI and it has no chips but rumpled, after few minutes of woodworking on that wood on the picture.

In both cases they cut bottle without too much troubles.

Thanks, Vassili.
 
I didn't see any water bottles. Did you cut the waterbottles yourself? Let's see the video. :D;)

Wasn't too dangerous, was it? Next some soda cans, then try some rolled up pieces of telephone book paper. Then try Oleyfermo's tests.
 
Just whip the knife through the air and measure the radioactivity in the path with a geiger counter.
The higher the radiation, the more atoms you've split.
If you notice a blue track in the air, leave quickly--you've reached the pinnacle. :D :p
Greg
 
I didn't see any water bottles. Did you cut the waterbottles yourself? Let's see the video. :D;)

Wasn't too dangerous, was it? Next some soda cans, then try some rolled up pieces of telephone book paper. Then try Oleyfermo's tests.

I did everything myself. It is dangerous to do in close space, I did this outside house, it is not hard at all and anybody who has nothing better to do may cut some bottles with any knife in any condition, but it does not test sharpness at all.

It will not be any video - do not see any reason to do this, because clearly this is not a sharpness test at all, just bottle cutting.

Here bottles and knives:

Yuna Hard3 - fairly sharp, not hair whittling, but shaving (hair popping):

random-435.jpg


Heavily chipped edge - experimental bulat one of the first Kirpichev's blade:

random-436.jpg


Heavily bended edge - INFI, Busse Game warden:

random-437.jpg


So fact that this is no sharpness test scientifically proven.

I do not see any reason to continue with this. It is fun to slash things around - like cans after bottle etc, but I am not in that age any more...

Thanks, Vassili.
 
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The demonstration involves cutting cleanly through the bottle. I thought that was pretty apparent in the video. So obviously those dull edges did not cut through the bottles cleanly - swinging your knife at the bottle, sending it flying through the air in one piece, and seeing you've cut a third of the way through a bottle, is not the same as zipping cleanly through them. So obviously to cleanly split the bottle requires a sharper edge then what you have shown in your post about how easy cutting a water bottle is (without actually cutting one in half) - and cutting a paper tube is harder.

I don't recall exactly what your point was, but maybe if you keep trying, someday you can successfully do some of these tests "beyond hair whittling". I probably could have saved you some time and told you it is easy to do them unsuccessfully! :D
 
The demonstration involves cutting cleanly through the bottle. I thought that was pretty apparent in the video. So obviously those dull edges did not cut through the bottles cleanly - swinging your knife at the bottle, sending it flying through the air in one piece, and seeing you've cut a third of the way through a bottle, is not the same as zipping cleanly through them. So obviously to cleanly split the bottle requires a sharper edge then what you have shown in your post about how easy cutting a water bottle is (without actually cutting one in half) - and cutting a paper tube is harder.

I don't recall exactly what your point was, but maybe if you keep trying, someday you can successfully do some of these tests "beyond hair whittling". I probably could have saved you some time and told you it is easy to do them unsuccessfully! :D
With a paper tube, I found that it more has to do with technique, if I hack at it with a horizontal cut, it won't cut all the way through it, if I cut diagonally downwards with a slash, it goes right through it.
 
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