Sando
Knife Maker
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2002
- Messages
- 1,148
I have a bess tester, but there's a better, nearly free option: a paintbrush. If you can get the edge to bite a thin, nylon paintbrush bristle, it's sharp. If you can flick the tips off the brush you're around 100 bess.That’s pretty impressive! If I understood correctly then that’s sharp razor sharpness.
Yeah, I really like to get myself one of those too one day. Mainly just cause they look like a pretty need piece of technology. Although, I saw in a video that they don’t necessarily give accurate readings. Sounds like there is a certain way you have to cut the wire and also how the wire is set up and strung. Do you find there’s any truth to that?
I've been meaning to make a chart of how a knife cuts paintbrush bristles and what the equivalent bess number is.
Pros:
It's free, because you have one sitting in the garage somewhere
You can easily test the entire edge in seconds, without reloading the tester
It's actually harder to cheat
Cons:
You don't get a number, but then again if you can cheat the machine who cares.
Try this: get a clean paintbrush and hold it upright in your left hand. Grab one of your everyday kitchen knifes. Moving the edge towards the brush tip at any angle, can you get it to bite the bristle? Now try your best freshly sharpened blade. What happened? Will it only bite when it's near the handle? Will it bite even at the flexible tips?
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