Dullest Out of the Box

Petunia D. Feeble

Petunia D. Feeble

I sharpen things.
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Jun 30, 2016
Messages
4,694
I saw this post from Lionsteel today:

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Wishful thinking at best. I'm a Lionsteel fan, but they've had some of the worst factory edges I've experienced.

What's the worst you've seen? I think Queen Cutlery had the worst I've ever had. A lot if their knives were more chamfered than sharpened.
 
Dullest new out of the box I've experienced were knives from Benchmade and CRK. Sharpest out of the box were from Cold Steel and Medford Knife and Tool.
 
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Dullest factory edges for me has to be my early SOGs. Bought a Salute before I had any sharpeners and it was so dull I almost just threw it away...
 
Most of the Chinese-made Kershaws vary, at least when it comes to the tip of the blade. I have 2 models of the Kershaw Clash and one is pointy, the other is more like a butter knife. The USA models are very consistent though.
 
Its been a while since I bought a knife NIB, I mostly buy off the exchange. Trying to think back on the dullest "new" purchase. Probably one of the Benchmades I once had.
 
Schrade Sharpfinger. One BM710 I bought was pretty damn dull.
 
The dullest knives I've ever gotten NIB were my first CRK (a large regular back in 2002) and a Benchmade Stryker (from around the same time period). They were so dull I could have run my finger along the edge with pressure and not cut myself. I ended up reprofiling both of them. But IMO, you really shouldn't have to reprofile a new knife OOB. Especially from a higher-end maker.

All of my later CRKs came sharp OOB.

Jim
 
I'm of the opinion that most reputable OEMs who hand sharpen do a roughly equivalent job sharpening knives, which is to say that most brands can be astonishingly bad or really good from one knife to the next. All that matters is how well that individual person sharpening did that day when he decided to sharpen yours. The only consistent exceptions I've seen to that rule so far have been Microtech, who polishes their edges and seems to consistently do a good job of making their knives sharp (even if the edges aren't always very even), and Spyderco, who apparently uses a sharpening robot for some of their more popular knives. Microtech have probably been the sharpest out of the box on average in my experience.

Otherwise, I've seen a number of poor factory edges from ZT, CRK, Benchmade, Kershaw, Cold Steel, etc. What bothers me more than a dull edge is how uneven it is, due to how long it'll take me to correct it.
 
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Off hand from sharpest to dullest for me of knives I have owned

Maserin => Viper => Spyderco(Japan) => Lionsteel => Kershaw(China)

I have owned more but right now can't think where I would place them
 
I received a SG Spyder Monkey that somehow missed the sharpening bench. I could run the blade across my skin without even a scratch.

I think it was an aberration, as I understand generally they’re well regarded for out of the box sharpness.

The knife was otherwise perfect, so I put the final edge on it instead of sending it back for an exchange. I mean, sooner or later it was going to be wearing my edge anyway, right? I still dig my Spyder Monkey, BTW.

CRK comes up frequently in these discussions. Personally, I’ve always found them good to excellent. My Large Thuya is probably the third sharpest knife I’ve had out of the box.
 
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