Confirming Sharpness

JR88FAN said:
PB paper, and your fingers (after you've been sharpening for a while, and know what you're looking for, what an edge feels like to your finger tips is the best way to tell if you are where you want to be)
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finger testing is not always reliable. At one point because I used it so much that all my finger prints were gone, thus I no longer feel anything when rubbing the edge against my finger, even if the knives were actually already very sharp.:D
 
I have been doing paper cut tests for the longest time. But I am working on something which will put a number on sharpness for my testing.
 
Usually, slicing phone book paper, which is more than sharp enough for me.

Over the past year, I have reduced 'confirming sharpness' to knives sharpened from dull. My EDCs and kitchen knives are rarely permitted to get dull as I touch them up after use on my Sharpmaker or strops.
 
For my 'sharp' knife, I like to shave hair off, for my work sharp knife (for non knife people and cardboard) if it glides through printer paper, it should be good enough for me

And I have an opinel as a razor, so if that can whittle hair, that's all it needs to do. Rather that's the only thing it does.

Does anyone else miss sharpening completely dull knives because of constant touch-ups?
 
method_burger said:
For my 'sharp' knife, I like to shave hair off, for my work sharp knife (for non knife people and cardboard) if it glides through printer paper, it should be good enough for me

And I have an opinel as a razor, so if that can whittle hair, that's all it needs to do. Rather that's the only thing it does.

Does anyone else miss sharpening completely dull knives because of constant touch-ups?
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I have ocd regarding keeping my knives sharp, so they never become dull. I also find stropping to be kinda relaxing. However I always get guys from work bringing me their knives that couldn't cut butter for a fresh edge lol so don't get to miss sharpening dull knives.
 
For me it is SHAPE not just sharp. What I mean is if the area above the edge is too CHISEL shaped as opposed to delta shaped then I don't have much use for it and my sharpening has failed even though I can scrape hair off skin.
SO
one of my most critical tests is taking the edge to a bell pepper or tomato etc.
I slide the edge down the side of the item. If it bites and sinks in with a sickening ease THEN I have something I can cut stuff with. If it just slides down the side and I have to tilt the edge into the side then I have too much roundy roundy near the edge.
Roundy roundy comes from too much stropping by the way.
BEWARE THE ROUNDY ROUNDY



If I am at work and short on produce at arms reach I can pretty much tell the same thing by using my thumb nail. The edge should bite into my thumb nail when taken perpendicular to the edge (as if carving a curl off my nail or scraping some paint off etc.) across the wide flat face of my nail and should do this in BOTH directions to be sure the edge is not folded over/still has a wire edge.

Catching on my nail is one thing. Sinking into my nail in a sickening scary kind of way is another. Getting sinking in sickeningly scary is easy to achieve off a sharpening jig and these days specifically my Edge Pro. LOVE my jigs. The cure for roundy roundy.

 
Rhinoknives1 said:
Tomato's, paper, Cardboard , leather, rope or whatever you plan on using the knife for!:)
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Exactly. I get the thing I need to cut, and then see if the knife cuts it.

I've never needed to cut arm hair or phone book paper. Sounds like people need to though.
 
For sharpening I test with paper of any kind, mostly receipt since those are real hard to cut, and I usually do a shaving test along with it. For stropping I use my nail or just run my finger on the edge to feel if it's sharp enough and if there's any burr

-kevin
 
I let the weight of the blade fall on a finger. If the finger is completely severed off. the knife is sharp.
 
how do you even whittle hair?
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Put on a jeweler's magnification visor.


Take the edge to a single hair that is still in your arm. If you can shave little curls off a single hair . . .
THAT is sharp.
I rarely go to that test for a utility knife but that level of sharpness is routine off my wood working sharpening jig. That and taking the edge through grits like 2000, 5,000 and then 8,000 (after the normal stones like 300, 700 and 1000).

This we like to call extreme over kill. But it's fun. The down side is . . .
One time I was carrying a whole stack of sharpened plane blades back down a flight of stairs to my work shop after sharpening them in the kitchen.



I stumbled and dropped the blades down the stairs. By the time they had all come to rest the stairs were nothing more than a pile of little chips of wood and splinters. It was hard to explain to the land lord what had happened. :p

Yes one can skip some of those stones in the middle if the sharpening bevel is super narrow but I like to look at the pretty mirror so I make it wider.







 
I cut a piece of thin receipt paper to test whether the apex is good enough.

[Youtube]f_oO3JCn5SI[/Youtube]



Miso
 
CHISEL shaped as opposed to delta shaped
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When I said that I was thinking of what most laymen think of as chisel shaped which, I was thinking, would be like an old chisel laying around for bashing away ineffectively at some metal thing.

The "edge" is like the leading edge of an air plane wing. Which "cuts" through the air but that's is about all it cuts through.

Reading posts this morning I saw a knife dude's reference to chisel edge and they seem to be meaning a single bevel without a micro bevel. Huh . . . hummmm. I suppose I should go read that thread on chisel edges that popped up recently.

Speaking of single bevels or such like . . . when I was buying my Hold Out I . .. I considered getting the serrated but since I like to use all my knives at least some I determined that the bevel is on the "wrong side" for a right handed person attempting to slice bread or produce.

Am I right in thinking the bevel of the edge is on the side that it is on because most people are right handed and it is more natural for a right hander to hold the knife in the right hand when they are looking at the serrations and saying wow . . .

and that is WHY it is as it is

and that if the bevel was on the other side (in the more useful configuration), to admire it one would have to switch hands or put the knife down ? One could turn it edge upward but then the Cold Steel name on the pocket clip would be upside down in photos and we can't have that.

so . . . anyway . . . that's what I was thinking, . . . when I was thinking.
 
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Wowbagger said:
When I said that I was thinking of what most laymen think of as chisel shaped which, I was thinking, would be like an old chisel laying around for bashing away ineffectively at some metal thing.

The "edge" is like the leading edge of an air plane wing. Which "cuts" through the air but that's is about all it cuts through.

Reading posts this morning I saw a knife dude's reference to chisel edge and they seem to be meaning a single bevel without a micro bevel. Huh . . . hummmm. I suppose I should go read that thread on chisel edges that popped up recently.

Speaking of single bevels or such like . . . when I was buying my Hold Out I . .. I considered getting the serrated but since I like to use all my knives at least some I determined that the bevel is on the "wrong side" for a right handed person attempting to slice bread or produce.

Am I right in thinking the bevel of the edge is on the side that it is on because most people are right handed and it is more natural for a right hander to hold the knife in the right hand when they are looking at the serrations and saying wow . . .

and that is WHY it is as it is

and that if the bevel was on the other side (in the more useful configuration), to admire it one would have to switch hands or put the knife down ? One could turn it edge upward but then the Cold Steel name on the pocket clip would be upside down in photos and we can't have that.

so . . . anyway . . . that's what I was thinking, . . . when I was thinking.
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You should likely just stop thinking..you make more sense that way lol jk


It is a great mystery why so many knife companies produce serrations that are left handed. I use to have a few Gerbers an lmf2 and prodigy which I had to use the serrated edge left handed otherwise they were worthless. I guess it's one battle lefties won.
 
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