Factory knife sharpness?

S

superc

Joined
Sep 30, 2003
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382
Based on your experience what brand of knife arrives N.I.B. exceeding your standards of sharpness?

I ask because I have had several new knives made by well known makers in recent years that did not possess awe inspiring sharpness fresh out of their box or wrapper. I assume it is mostly a mass production problem where a manufacturer trying to push 1,000+ knives a week out the door can't spend 10 or 20 minutes on each blade, but I am seeing this from some of the smaller manufacturers too.

From the large manufacturers I am also seeing traces of tool marks on the blade as they economize on their polishing, but that is an aesthetic that I don't terribly mind. Gives me something to do on rainy days, a few minutes with some 600 grit swatches and the tool marks go away. Sharpness however is an issue to me. I expect my knives to start out of the box sharp enough to immediately shave a clear patch in my furry arms as a bare minimum measure of sharpness. Instead I am finding new from box knives that can't cut a piece of cardboard, and once recently (from a well known maker) what looked like a 50 degree per side bevel. Sloppy quality control. So who in your experience (newbies need not reply) has sufficient standards that you know their knives are already as sharp as Grampa's old razor was before you even take them out of the box?
 
Honest answer? No one, with the exception of independent knife smiths that do their work to custom order. With some manufacturers you will most often see great sharpness from the box, but then the occasional extremely sloppy one comes along.
 
Spyderco is close.

Bark River is there- I've never yet seen anything out of that shop that wasn't a razor, including knives sent for custom work.
 
None were screaming 'knife knut sharp' that I've gotten personally, though some were very good. And, I've gotten the same model knife at different times that varied quite a bit in factory sharpeness. Some of the knives have been horrible regarding the sharpness aspect but could be made great with time/effort. - -

In terms of pure factory sharpness, the best have been Scandinavian fixed blades from Sweden and Finland including a lot of $ 10 Moras. Best in folders (that I've personally tried) are from Chris Reeve and Spyderco. (Well actually the Reeve was only 'fairly sharp' from the factory, but it took only a few licks on a Sharpmaker to get it great and is now my sharpest folder. There was so little time/effort for the results that I put them in the top category. Great blade.)
Regards

P.S. - - had Bark River do a convex job on a new D2 slip joint of mine that was very dull from the factory, and it did come back extremely sharp. If all of Bark River knives are like that, I gotta get one.
 
All of my Kershaw's and my ZT have been scary sharp out of the box--no problem in shaving. Also my Sog black trident tanto had the same degree of sharpness--the tip on that knife was gasp worthy in sharpness. (and strength)
 
Sharpest out of the box has been a Marttiini Condor Utility Hunter, Spyderco Delica and a Camillus 30-06 lockback hunter. But I have not been thru dozens of these three manufacturers knives to see if they are consistently razor sharp except for Camillus, own quite a few models of this brand, which is not always razor sharp.
 
Sharpness out of the box:
Bark River 98.0000313%, Benchmade 85.0132%, modern Moras (Frosts or Erikksons) 97.00266%, Made in China 12.095601%

These are based on my extensive testing and studies and calculated to be accurate to within 2.005 degrees (inclusive).
 
I think I've been pretty fortunate with my purchases. I've gotten some pretty sharp knives out of the box from:
Spyderco
Cold Steel
Benchmade
Kershaw

Certainly sharp "enough".
 
I don't expect or even really desire a new knife to be sharp out of the box. I much prefer to put a bevel on a blade suitable to both the type of knife and the intended task. As my needs dictate I will change the bevel to suit the job. Generally, with a new multi-blade folder I will put a 25 degree bevel on the largest blade for every day cutting chores and 15 degrees on the smaller blade for delicate slicing and cutting. Just depends on my mood and what I want to do with the knife. Besides, if manufacturers took the time to make very knife razor sharp the price would be higher.
 
I have a strong bias against production knives, but in my experience the average Spyderco is significantly sharper than the average custom knife (the caveat there is that the average custom knife I buy is larger and it might be argued that it is appropriate for them to have less aggressive geometry). There are some really terrible edges put on some custom knives, presumably because you aren't expected to actually use them.
 
Generally I've been most impressed with Spyderco and recently with Kershaw too.
Actually, I'm finding the edges of a lot of knives to be at least very, very good recently.

Bark River, Buck, Fallkniven, and Benchmade knives all real nice & sharp right out of the box.

However, the knife whose edge out of the box impressed me the most was made by Moki (Japan).
The steel was VG-10.
 
lately the following have been doing very well
spyderco
kershaw
mora
and you probably won't believe this but Case, last few i've bought would shave out of the box.
10 years ago every cold steel voyager i got would be scarey sharp.
 
Best profile: BRKT
Best edge finish (sharpness): Spyderco

Both really without competition in their respective disciplines.
 
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