I was thinking that it might be cool to set up some kind of peer review for edges. I mean, I don't know if others really care about getting things "as sharp as they can", but I suspect so. The other thing is that while I don't know about you guys, most people I know outside of Bladeforums wouldn't know the difference between a knife that push-cuts paper and one that would whittle hair. I mean, this seems like basically the only place where you can find a large group of peers that have the interest in taking an edge to those kinds of levels, and the experience and the know how to judge edges based on those levels.
SO what I was thinking is that we can set up "review rounds". Basically, we can get a list of people signed up that would like to have their knife "reviewed". The knives are all sent to one trustworthy party who records whose knife is whose with a number, and then sends that number back to the person whose knife it is. That way, when someone is reviewing a knife, all they see is a number, not, "Oh, this is knifenut's." We can avoid being partial in this way, and it also gives everyone both the opportunity to give their own peer review as well as get their knife reviewed. Each knife will then be shipped back to the trustworthy party, and then shipped to the next person until every knife has been reviewed by everyone in the peer group.
Now obviously there would be some shipping costs to consider here, and so I don't know how it would be organized, but I figured I would propose the idea and if enough people were on-board that would kind of fall in line. I haven't thought much about the criteria on which we would review either, but I think this is a good starting list:
Edge Symmetry (Is the angle consistent?"
Bevel Unfiormity (Is the width of the bevel consistent?")
Does it have a burr?
Does it push-cut paper?
Does it shave hair?
Does it whittle hair?
These criteria would just be listed on a score card along with the knife. We would have to use the honor system and not look at the card before conducting our own review, but once the person got their knife and the review card back, they should have this list of criteria and how their edge performed according to each peer. At the end of the day, you would have information such as, "Well, 3/5 peers could whittle hair with the edge, but 4/5 also detected a burr, so maybe I have a wire's edge." Or perhaps you send something that you think is really sharp and you wind up getting 0/5 on all three sharpening feat tests, then that will probably clue you in that something isn't right.
Anyway, I just thought it would be a neat way to expose our edges to others and get a real solid consensus on what is "sharp". I mean, I have gotten hairs to whittle... Is my technique the same as others though? If I had a peer review where 2/5 people could whittle hair, then I think that would support that it was technique; however if 4/5 or 5/5 people could whittle hair, then that would help confirm that my testing methods are at least sound enough to determine that this edge was sharper than the rest.
I don't really want to make it about competition or a contest, but just basically a way to get a real-world idea on how sharp your edges are based on the edges of other enthusiasts. I mean, I've had plenty of people I've sharpened knives for go on about how, "This is the sharpest edge I've ever seen!" but when is the last time they met someone that even tries to get things as sharp as they possibly can? Now if I heard the same thing from basically anyone here that I know puts in that same type of effort to see how sharp they can get things, then I know it really means something.
So, would anyone else here be interested in such a thing? I was thinking that as far as rules go, that it should just basically be between "regulars" since we're talking about sending knives back and forth and there's some trust required there, but I think it would be really neat to have a BladeForums member peer review as it would help to solidify more of a standard for what's sharp, help people discover things that they might not have about their edges, etc.
SO what I was thinking is that we can set up "review rounds". Basically, we can get a list of people signed up that would like to have their knife "reviewed". The knives are all sent to one trustworthy party who records whose knife is whose with a number, and then sends that number back to the person whose knife it is. That way, when someone is reviewing a knife, all they see is a number, not, "Oh, this is knifenut's." We can avoid being partial in this way, and it also gives everyone both the opportunity to give their own peer review as well as get their knife reviewed. Each knife will then be shipped back to the trustworthy party, and then shipped to the next person until every knife has been reviewed by everyone in the peer group.
Now obviously there would be some shipping costs to consider here, and so I don't know how it would be organized, but I figured I would propose the idea and if enough people were on-board that would kind of fall in line. I haven't thought much about the criteria on which we would review either, but I think this is a good starting list:
Edge Symmetry (Is the angle consistent?"
Bevel Unfiormity (Is the width of the bevel consistent?")
Does it have a burr?
Does it push-cut paper?
Does it shave hair?
Does it whittle hair?
These criteria would just be listed on a score card along with the knife. We would have to use the honor system and not look at the card before conducting our own review, but once the person got their knife and the review card back, they should have this list of criteria and how their edge performed according to each peer. At the end of the day, you would have information such as, "Well, 3/5 peers could whittle hair with the edge, but 4/5 also detected a burr, so maybe I have a wire's edge." Or perhaps you send something that you think is really sharp and you wind up getting 0/5 on all three sharpening feat tests, then that will probably clue you in that something isn't right.
Anyway, I just thought it would be a neat way to expose our edges to others and get a real solid consensus on what is "sharp". I mean, I have gotten hairs to whittle... Is my technique the same as others though? If I had a peer review where 2/5 people could whittle hair, then I think that would support that it was technique; however if 4/5 or 5/5 people could whittle hair, then that would help confirm that my testing methods are at least sound enough to determine that this edge was sharper than the rest.
I don't really want to make it about competition or a contest, but just basically a way to get a real-world idea on how sharp your edges are based on the edges of other enthusiasts. I mean, I've had plenty of people I've sharpened knives for go on about how, "This is the sharpest edge I've ever seen!" but when is the last time they met someone that even tries to get things as sharp as they possibly can? Now if I heard the same thing from basically anyone here that I know puts in that same type of effort to see how sharp they can get things, then I know it really means something.
So, would anyone else here be interested in such a thing? I was thinking that as far as rules go, that it should just basically be between "regulars" since we're talking about sending knives back and forth and there's some trust required there, but I think it would be really neat to have a BladeForums member peer review as it would help to solidify more of a standard for what's sharp, help people discover things that they might not have about their edges, etc.