Has your scary sharp knife ever surprised you?

[GarageBoy]

Pics please of the bees? The good kind and the bad kind?

 

[Mitchell Knives]

I fileted a letter off a piece of newsprint last night at work using my new BM 940. Needless to say, everyone was impressed. I have since hit the edge with my Edge Pro and 3K grit tape for an even crispier edge.

 

[fulloflead]

Pics please of the bees? The good kind and the bad kind?

They're all good.

There was something on the news last night about honey bees being endangered because they're getting some kind of mite. Apparantly losing them could affect about a third of our food crops. I knew they kept them around for polination - I see them around here all the time - but a THIRD!

 

[Jeff Clark]

I had a Solingen throwing knife shaped something like a Cold Steel True Flight, but with a thinner blade of classic Solingen carbon steel. I would guess that it was something like .75% carbon and really pure. I reground the edge to be slightly concave (not quite hollow ground). I honed and stropped that sucker and it got incredibly sharp. A friend and I would slash test our blades to see if they were ready for serious social use. He had a pair of Levis that he wanted to cut off as walking shorts. I had him twist the legs together into about a 3 inch diameter denim rope. He held it between his outstretched hands and I took a downward slash at it. Not only did it cleanly cut the whole bundle in one swipe, he reported that he barely felt a tug as the blade passed through. I was surprised. Now that's my idea of a throwing knife!

 

[LyonHaert]

I don't know if I've gotten it scary sharp. I can do a decent job with my Edge Pro and polish the edge with the 3K tape, but I'd have to compare to an experienced person's scary sharp to see if I'm close.

Anyway, I keep a polished edge on my BM 42-400, and even sharpened the first 1/8" of the swedge so it's 'stabbier'. One night I was sortof doing some flipping over my bed, just some drills with it latched open for focusing on the handle in mid-air and avoiding the blade. Botched a catch and was about to be cut so I let if fall on the bed. It hit the bed tip down and went straight in up to the bolsters like the bed wasn't there. The tip has caught me quite a few times without me knowing how (usually when flipping).

 

[Dr. Thor]

Yesterday I was cutting a plactic water bottle with my new Mickey Yurco karambit. It went right through the bottle like butter and bit my finger on the other side! This thing is sharp! Some people dont like 440C, but when done right, it rocks!

 

[silenthunterstudios]

I am 6'3" and 350 lbs and one of those guys that can be dropped by a sweat bee. Really, all bees are good, if you see some, just leave them alone, and they'll leave you alone. As for hornets, wasps, yellowjackets etc, I destroy their nests whenever I see them, and kill them with the flyswatter whenever I see them. I've had three bad experiences with stings. The first one was when I was about ten or eleven, I was in my fathers garden, and got stung on the elbow. For almost a month, I had what looked like a golf ball on my elbow! Then, at my uncles house, I was playing in his neighbors shed with a friend of the familys kid, I was about 13, and was swarmed by a fleet of bees. I blacked out and woke up about an hour later. The most recent one was during the winter. We have a woodstove in the basement, and the bathroom wall is right next to the woodstove. Well, I get that thing cranked up pretty good, and wasps must've made a nest in the walls. Well, after I got out of the bathroom, I kicked back on the sofa in the family room and watched some TV. I suddenly had a sharp pain in my neck, and when I put my hand on the back of my neck, I felt a wasp walking around out there. I got him in my hankerchief, and flushed him down the toilet.


I used to get bit sometimes when I wasn't careful with my knives. On Sunday, I was playing with my SOG Flash II, and nicked my thumb. On Tuesday, I was playing with my SOG Trident TF2, and nicked the same thumb again, on the other side of it.

For the record, Buck, SOG and Spyderco are the sharpest out of the box knives I've come across. How did I forget the sharpest of all? Kershaw!

 

[WadeF]

For the record, Buck, SOG and Spyderco are the sharpest out of the box knives I've come across.

Ever check a Kershaw out of the box? I've always been impressed by their factory edges.

Some people have mentioned about honey bees being endangered. This is a problem and I never kill honey bees. You'd think they could breed them in indoor farms and release them back into the wild. Maybe more people should set up bee hives. I wonder if there is something you can treat bee hives with to protect the bees from the mites.

 

[silenthunterstudios]

I don't know how I forgot Kershaw! My Blackout is one of the sharpest knives I own. It hasn't bit me yet, but my Splinter has.

 

[MJR]

I'm getting to the point where I might be willing to sharpen a knife here and there for other people. I have just always been afraid to sharpen someone else's knife incase I screw it up. What knives do you have that you'd want to me to try and sharpen up for you?

710HS, 705, and 940 are my favorite EDC'S
WadeF, I greatly appreciate the offer, I couldn't impose on someone to do this. I am saving for an edge pro and use some beater to learn on.

 

[WileECoyote]

Are Bumble bees and carpenter bees the same thing?

In the late-spring and early summer, homeowners often notice large, black bees hovering around the outside of their homes. These are probably carpenter bees searching for mates and favorable sites to construct their nests. Male carpenter bees are quite aggressive, often hovering in front of people who are around the nests. The males are quite harmless, however, since they lack stingers. Female carpenter bees can inflict a painful sting but seldom will unless they are handled or molested.

Carpenter bees resemble bumble bees, but the upper surface of their abdomen is bare and shiny black; bumble bees have a hairy abdomen with at least some yellow markings.

In my experience, carpenter bees are bigger than bumblebees and much louder, tending to hover.

I'd post a pic, but I'm apparrently not yet worthy.

 

[KaBar]

 

[fulloflead]

Kabar,
That's pretty slick. How much force did it take? Any damage?

Do you suggest I try this at home?

 

[WadeF]

Darn it! I cut myself while preparing dinner today. Took out my scary sharp chef knife that I recently stropped and was cutting a head of lettuce. I can't think of the last time I cut a head of lettuce as I usually buy it pre-shredded. I was dumb and didn't cut off some of it to give it a flat base, so when I was slicing it, it rolled an the knife slipped and bumped my left index finger. I knew I would be looking at a cut. It wasn't that bad, just the side of the finger down to the edge of the nail.

It almost just disappeard like those self healing cuts people were talking about, but I rinsed it out and squeezed out some blood to clean it and that got things going, but it didn't bleed much after that.

 

[WileECoyote]

Always knew there was nothing to do up there in Perkasie 'cept slash cabbage & play banjos

Then again here I am posting about bees....

 

[Ed Schempp]

Bob Kramer, Kramer knives made a rope cutter for OKCA Show. He left it laying on his 300 lb anvil when he left the shop for the night. When he came in the next morning the knife was laying on the floor next to the horn of his anvil...honest to Bob

 

[Slim to None]

One of my dumb friends (an Eagle Scout nonetheless!) was playing with my manix, and took off a pinkie nail size fillet of epidermis from his thumb, just the top clear layer of skin, didn't draw blood at all. I laughed. I then ran said manix over my 6000 grit waterstone for a while and used it to fillet printer paper for a bit.

 

[djolney]

I thought I would shave some hair off my arm with my Fallkniven NL2. First there was floating hair, then bits of skin, and then blood. No pain until I saw the blood.

 

[WadeF]

I thought I would shave some hair off my arm with my Fallkniven NL2. First there was floating hair, then bits of skin, and then blood. No pain until I saw the blood.

I hear about people doing this from time to time. What were you doing that resulted in you getting cut? If your shaving hair you should be pushing the blade down your arm in a scraping motion, but not drawing the knife in either direction as to slice. Were you making a slicing action as you were sliding the knife down your arm?

 

[KeithAM]

Darn it! I cut myself while preparing dinner today. Took out my scary sharp chef knife that I recently stropped and was cutting a head of lettuce. I can't think of the last time I cut a head of lettuce as I usually buy it pre-shredded. I was dumb and didn't cut off some of it to give it a flat base, so when I was slicing it, it rolled an the knife slipped and bumped my left index finger. I knew I would be looking at a cut. It wasn't that bad, just the side of the finger down to the edge of the nail.

It almost just disappeard like those self healing cuts people were talking about, but I rinsed it out and squeezed out some blood to clean it and that got things going, but it didn't bleed much after that.

Funny you'd mention cutting yourself while cutting lettuce. I did that last night. It was an Old Hickory that I'd put a pretty thin edge on. Just barely brushed my thumb against it, and, well, it was just like my avatar, again.