Dullest Out of the Box

PirateSeulb said:
=> Kershaw(China)
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I will say I have totally ignored Kershaw until the last six months or so.
In that time I have ordered and received four knives and ALL OF THEM have been very decently sharp which means at least scrape hair sharp / pretty much shave sharp.
But
the edges held up very well while used for work knives and cut surprisingly well. I had zero complaints about the edges in use and I can't say that often.
Kershaw Emerson CQC 4KXL
Two Chills
and a Strobe
 
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I got an Olamic that was maybe the worst edge I've ever seen on a knife. Period. Very uneven grind from one side to the other. Quite surprising given the reputation of the brand. To be clear, the knife did come to me second hand, but all evidence suggested it was a factory edge. Also, to be clear, I don't particularly mind putting my own edge on a brand new knife. I usually sharpen them myself within a day or two of owning them - just part of my new-knife-routine. I did a full writeup about how I sorted it out over in the maintenance and tinkering sub-forum.

I've found the very best CRK edge to be "meh..." They are routinely pretty blah.

(Also, I must say that Eugene with Olamic saw a post I made about the knife and reached out to me personally to ask me to please send the knife back to him to correct the edge. We had several emails about it and the various options he gave me. I was quite frankly astounded at the level of interest and effort he expended to get the knife back. No better customer care, if you ask me.)
 
Wowbagger said:
Now for the very best edge out of the box . . . hahahahaha . . . are you ready ? This is going to hurt so brace yourself :
Cold Steel Kitchen Classic Paring knife. All of about $9 shipped to my door.
Came literally hair whittling sharp ALONG THE ENTIRE EDGE ! ! ! !
Want to know what was "worse" I ordered two more from different vendors months apart and ALL OF THEM were that sharp. No bur or wire edge JUST SHARP.

See kids it can be done. ;)
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I bought four CS Roach Belly knives when they were on sale for $10 as beater knives and every one of them was insanely sharp. I'm talking "make the hairs implode from fear before they can be shaved" level sharp.

I've bought a lot of CS knives, and I've never had one show up with a dull edge.
 
I think every SAK I have gotten have been butter knife dull and probably the dullest knives out of the box for me
 
I forgot to mention in an earlier post in this thread that I had a brand new Emerson Mini-Commander that was extremely dull OOB. It was a partially-serrated, black-coated blade. The serrated section was OK, but the plain-edge section of the blade was "sharpened" much more obtusely, and at such a steep/thick angle it was just short of a right angle. If a mountainside were at the same angle that edge bevel was ground at, it would have been a sheer cliff only a properly-equipped mountaineer could ascend. It definitely wouldn't cut anything, even a fingertip pressed against it moving lengthwise. This one was even worse than either the Sebenza or the Stryker I mentioned previously, due to its sheer thickness.

Jim
 
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Condor knives.. but they are ”budget” knives so I’ve been fine with that.
 
Most of knives I have bought, including CRKs and custom, came with dull edge.
The worst was Queen so far.
The factory edge was terrible.
 
T.L.E. Sharp said:
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.
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I agree that some Lionsteel knives are rather dull. IMO that especially goes for cheaper material versions of their high end knives. e.g. the Aluminum versions of the SR-1 and SR-11. On the other hand some of the titanium versions of the same knives were exceptionally sharp out of the box.
 
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My first Benchmade mini grip was the dullest that said they have fixed the problem. in the last 3 years I haven’t had a new dull knife from Benchmade.
 
I don’t recall ever receiving a dull knife with the exception of a cheap otf. I’ve found cold steel and we knives to be consistently sharp out of the box, with every other manufacturer having a variation in edge quality.
 
Most ZTs and Benchmades have pretty disappointing edges out of the box (in my experience, and it’s been about two years since I’ve tried the edge of a new model from either), but Spyderco and Cold Steel always seem to ship with razor edges. Hogue is good too.
 
Surprised to see CRK mentioned so often.

Surprised no one has mentioned CRKT, most of them were incredibly dull, even some of their name designer blades were spotty.

Cold Steel gets a lot of crap here but every one I have came sharp, except a couple machetes and I don’t expect much sharpness there.

SAK/Victorinox is odd, most blades from them are sharp but I have had had sloppy points with burrs on them on a couple.
 
I forgot I have a bunch of maniago assembled bayonet stilettos and a couple of mikovs that are as dull as my gecs and queen cutlery, out of the box.
 
T.L.E. Sharp said:
I saw this post from Lionsteel today:

20190501-120913.jpg


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.
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Lionsteel? They put edges on their knives?

I always thought they were unfinished blades.

They can build a great handle. Basically if a Spyderco is “designed from the edge out” then Lionsteel is designed from the opposite perspective.
 
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I would also have to say my only Queen cutlery folder came really dull.

I sent a ZT in for warranty repair, they obviously "sharpened" it for me, but it wasn't properly apexed, I could see how dull it was when I looked down at the edge.

My Spartan Pallas came sharp but it had a very obtuse edge. I think they claim to sharpen the Pallas to 20 dps, but my sharpmaker and a sharpie disproved that pretty quickly when it came time to sharpen it. If I had to guess, I'd say it came with a 30-35 dps edge. Even though it was a very obtuse edge, it was still hair shaving sharp when it first came.
 
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