Finally, hair-popping sharp

[JohnW]

It's taken several months, but I finally understand now why people call it "hair popping" sharp. I haven't quite reached the stage where any blade will cut hairs spontaneously in the air, but I have found that if I draw the blade <em>lightly</em> against my skin, the hair will literally pop up into the air a small ways.

With more practice, I'm able to achieve this level of sharpness quite regularly. I'm using a Spyderco Sharpmaker, in both bench-stone mode and normal V-mode. However, by far the most helpful thing has been practice, reading posts here for tips, and just experimenting. There is almost a Zen-of-the-edge about it -- learning to understand how the edge is shaping up, without ever seeing it.

Now I want to learn to cut free-falling silk...

 

[Gollnick]

To properly test sharpness, I have developed this technique: I set the knife on a table with the edge vertical. A few days later, I look carefully on the table around the blade. If I can see that the dust particles falling on the edge have been cut in half, then I know it's almost sharp enough.


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Chuck
Balisongs -- because it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing!
http://www.balisongcollector.com