Dull knife from the factory poll

On a new knife purchase, it arrives dull from the factory. Do you care?

  • I sharpen my knives myself. NO, I do not care if the blade arrives dull.

    Votes: 20 17.4%

  • I sharpen my knives myself. YES, I do care if the blade arrives dull.

    Votes: 95 82.6%
  • Total voters
    115
DangerZone98 said:
Someone used this analogy before, so I’ll just share it here. If you bought a new car from the factory and it arrived with flat tires, would that be acceptable? We’ll “eventually” have to replace the tires again anyway.

I sharpen my knives myself, but I appreciate and consider necessary a good factory edge. If an el cheapo Cold Steel can have a killer edge out of the box, the same should be expected from premium knives.
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It isn't a good analogy,

I've had a cold steel come less than sharp from the factory.
 
DangerZone98 said:
Someone used this analogy before, so I’ll just share it here. If you bought a new car from the factory and it arrived with flat tires, would that be acceptable? We’ll “eventually” have to replace the tires again anyway.

I sharpen my knives myself, but I appreciate and consider necessary a good factory edge. If an el cheapo Cold Steel can have a killer edge out of the box, the same should be expected from premium knives.
Click to expand...

That analogy isn't horrible if I'm the guy who's going to turn the car into a high-performance car and replace the wheels. Still a bad analogy, though, comparing a product (wheels) with a service (sharpening a blade). Doesn't work.

Next poll question should be:

When you get a new knife, do you immediately sharpen it yourself?

Perhaps I'm on a quest to find other like-minded individuals here?
 
MBG said:
I can't really answer the poll. I do care. I just don't care that much.

Sometimes I think it would be nice to have an option where the bevel is started but not brought to the apex, that way the factory wouldn't burn your edge with the belt sander.
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I consider your answer to be choice #2 in the poll.
 
nevertakeadayoff said:
That analogy isn't horrible if I'm the guy who's going to turn the car into a high-performance car and replace the wheels. Still a bad analogy, though, comparing a product (wheels) with a service (sharpening a blade). Doesn't work.

Next poll question should be:

When you get a new knife, do you immediately sharpen it yourself?

Perhaps I'm on a quest to find other like-minded individuals here?
Click to expand...
It’s more like if you had to bring cables to the dealership and jump start the new car you just bought.
If the knife isn’t even sharp, what other details have been overlooked? Mistakes could happen with any company, but I wouldn’t be all warm and fuzzy if my new $200 knife couldn’t cut paper out of the box.
 
A dull edge isn’t that much of a problem. A messed up grind is. If the blade is ground well I’m alright with it one way or the other, but a dull edge from the factory is lazy, piss poor craftsmanship. They should cut out of the box. Most manufacturers these days have pretty good QC.
 
knarfeng said:
I expect a knife to be decently sharp out of the box. It's a knife. It's supposed be sharp.

However, that expectation does not prevent me from almost immediately putting my own edge on a new blade as a standard practice. Not possible for me to get a feel for the performance until I put my own edge on it.
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I started the other thread, so yes, it does annoy me. But I guess what *really* annoys me is having to drastically reprofile a new knife to get the 15-17 dps edge angle that it should have been to begin with. Kudos to Spyderco for bringing the shallow angles with many of their knives. Much easier to sharpen a meh factory edge than to have to take it from 20° to 15°.
 
It seems like a few years ago that knives from most major manufacturers all came hair popping sharp or very close to it (at least in my experience). Now, I’d say most of the time that is not the case. Recently I’ve purchased a Sebenza 31, Fällkniven A1 and S1, a couple Emersons, a Benchmade, and a Protech that were not all that sharp out of the box. It’s not a big deal to me regardless of the price. I always touch up the edge or do a reprofiling if I have to. It’s just kind of sad to see some of the big brands slipping a little
 
When I bought an Opinel #8 Outdoor Folder, and the edge had an average (of 5 measurements with an Edge-On-Up PT50A) BESS score of 553 out of the box (which indicates an edge "in need of maintenance & or repair") I figured there was no reason to ever buy another Opinel.

When I bought two Spartan Blades Enyos with average BESS scores of 359 and 433, I thought it prudent to buy from a company with better quality control.

When 4 out of 4 Paraforce knives at the feed store had BESS scores under 300, with good centering, solid lock-up, decent action, and adequate fit and finish, and the one I bought and used for a few weeks did not fall apart, I began recommending Paraforce to anybody who wanted a knife under $10.00.

When I found a Blackhills Trapper with scores of 1374 and 1400 for the two blades, I bought it for $15 just because it was so ridiculous.

When my wife said that my brand new Spyderco ARK was duller than her thumbnail, I tested it and got an average of 471. I thought this must be the dullest Spyderco ever, and such a rare find must be worth a lot of money. :)

When a Benchmade Pardue Spearpoint Auto had a score of 98, I was impressed, but I did not buy it because 154CM will not hold an edge that sharp for long.

67 out of the 120 blades I have tested in the past year have had average scores below 200.

 
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To be fair, no knife will hold a BESS score of 98 for long. But it should maintain a working edge for a long time, as opposed to other knives you mentioned that didn't even come with a working edge.
 
It depends on what "dull" means. To what degree?

If it's butter knife dull, that would definitely bother me. But if it's simply not as sharp as I would prefer, I couldn't care less. I've been sharpening knives for over 4 decades, it's not difficult for me to get the edge I want.

There are several other things that would REALLY bother me about a new knife (lock-play, warped blade, bad grind, dings in the edge, etc, etc), but a little dullness isn't one of them.

Learn to properly sharpen a knife and you'll never need to worry about a dull knife. At least not for long ;).
 
If it isn't sharp when you first by it, most likely a poor heat treatment and it'll never be sharp. But your mileage may vary.
 
I do sharpen my own knives, and have no problem with putting a hair-poppin' edge on them...
But if I get a blade that isn't really sharp out of the box: I view it as a possible quality control issue

What else might they have messed up?
 
Getting a brand new dull blade gives me that same feeling as a new gun that malfunctions right out of the box…… Super depressing.
 
I'll say in this day and age it is even easier to maintain and sharpen your own knives with things like the Lanksy and Worksharp adjustable sharpener.

The one thing I care about more is factory edge angle. When pocket knives come in with a 20 dps edge I just don't get it.
 
I very much dislike putting a new edge on a blade that is brand new :mad:. A waste of material and time and can turn out cosmetically disappointing. A touch up by hand even frustrates me but I guess it's acceptable. The guided sharpening systems like Lansky and DMT don't work that successful on every grind creating an edge that becomes wider/broader towards the tip of the blade. I've cosmetically wasted a couple of blades with a guided DMT system :confused:.

I expect a decent grind with a sharp, more or less equal edge straight from the factory. Some stropping should be enough. Fortunately QC have improved over the last 10 years or so :cool:.
 
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