Has your scary sharp knife ever surprised you?

[djolney]

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 tknife in either direction as to slice. Were you making a slicing action as you were sliding the knife down your arm?

The NL2 has a full convex grind, and I normally sharpen it with a mouse pad and sand paper. I think my skin/flesh began to shape to the blade (as the mouse pad does when sharpenning), and the edge bit in. I don't remember there being any cutting motion, but obviously the angle and pressure must have gone beyond the floating on the surface point.

 

[WadeF]

The NL2 has a full convex grind, and I normally sharpen it with a mouse pad and sand paper. I think my skin/flesh began to shape to the blade (as the mouse pad does when sharpenning), and the edge bit in. I don't remember there being any cutting motion, but obviously the angle and pressure must have gone beyond the floating on the surface point.

Could be something to do with the convex grind I supposed. Were you pressing down hard on your skin? I use very light to no pressure when I shave arm hair, as you should with a straight razor on your face.

 

[djolney]

My guess is that it had quite a bit to do with the full convex grind: no bevel between the edge and spine means there is nothing to keep the edge away from the skin.

The NL2 has an 8" blade, and the way I was gripping the handle might have been less than ideal. The combination of weight and leverage probably contributed to the edge biting me.

Also, a forearm is probably not the ideal shape to allow a big knife to float along safely.

 

[neetones]

Hey Wade,

I've been reading your posts about really scary sharp edges and I've tried to emulate the tests you've done with my Calypso Jr (cutting free-hanging toilet paper, shaving above hairline..) I can't get it THAT sharp, even if I use a really acute edge.

Could you post your methodology with the Edge Pro? I'd be really interested to see what details I'm missing, particularly how you deal with the burr.

Thanks!

Nitin

 

[WadeF]

Could you post your methodology with the Edge Pro? I'd be really interested to see what details I'm missing, particularly how you deal with the burr.

Lately I've been using the Sharpmaker and working my way up to the ultra fine rods and then stropping. Stropping seems to be the key. It helps to polish and align the finished edge. If you were to look at your edge under high magnification you'd be surprised at how bumpy, scratched, and chipped up it looks. When you strop it helps to smooth all that out, although even a stropped edge will look far from perfect under high magnification. These seems to help you reach a sharpness level that will shave hair above skin level, slice through toilet paper, etc.

People here have all different ways to strop. Some just use cardboard, or rub compound onto the cardboard. I like my strop block from knivesplus.com:

http://www.knivesplus.com/KP-STROP8-STROPBLOCK.html

Seems to do a good job, and they take care of all the messy work of loading the leather, conditioning it, etc.

Learning to strop properly takes a little practice.

With the edgepro, and edgepro only, I would reprofile the knife to at least 15 degrees per side. You can go up to a mirror finish if you like, then put a 20 degree per side micro bevel on. If you already have an edge going with 15 degrees per side it won't take many strokes to put on a 20 degree per side microbevel with a fine stone. Maybe start with the extra fine or ultra fine stone, then finish with the polishing tapes. Gotta be sure to take very light strokes and don't put pressure on the stones. Let the stones do the work, and the polishing tape. If you put to much pressure on the edge you'll roll it and screw it up.

If you want to go sharper simply reprofile to something less than 15 degrees per side and then put on a 15 degree or less per side micro bevel. Some guys here go really thin, like 7-10 degrees per side and a 12 degree per side microbevel, or LESS, crazy fools! j/k guys

How thing you go depends on what kind of steel you are working with and what you want to use the knife for. I like my knives really sharp, but I also want them to hold their edge for awhile, so I stick with the 15 degree per side bevel and the 20 degree edge. I often use the Edgepro to reprofile to 15 per side, and many here will say using an Edgepro for this purpose is overkill and a waste of it's abilities, but I find it does a quick and accurate job of reprofiling, nice even bevels. Then I'll put on the 20 degree per side edge with the Sharpmaker so I can easily return the knife to it for touch ups, rather than setting up the Edgepro each time I want to touch up the knife.

I'm still learning and there are always people here pushing to get a sharper and sharper edge.

 

[WadeF]

Could you post your methodology with the Edge Pro? I'd be really interested to see what details I'm missing, particularly how you deal with the burr.
Nitin

Forgot the burr. I like Jeff Clark's advice to remove the burr. If you have a burr, and I do this even if I'm not sure if there is a burr, if you're using the edgepro set it to a higher angle (say you're sharpening at 20 degrees, set it to like 30 or 40) and take a couple very light strokes on each side of the edge. Then return to 20 degrees and take a few more light strokes. I usually do this on the sharpmarker by holding the knife on an angle so I increase the angle to something around 45 degrees.

After all this stropping can help to remove any left over burr, although it's best to remove it before you go to the strop or you'll leave metal bits in your strop that can scratch up your edges. With my leather strops I run the palm of my hand over them before use to help remove any crap. This technique is also recommended for freshing up leather barber strops used for straight razors.

 

[KaBar]

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

Do you suggest I try this at home?

not much force at all, just a light stab.

theres no damage at all, its d2 vs silver and copper. i dont have it uploaded yeat but ive got a picture of the 806 stuck threw 2 coins at once. took more force but it still left the tip undamaged.

try it with a old beater knife as long as it has a good lock, ive got a old buck 110 from the 70s with a rounded tip from bad sharpening in its past life and it will stick in to coins with out dammage.

infact, right after i first baught that knife i had a confrentation with a guy and i ended up sticking that knife threw the bed of his buddys ford ranger, besides a slight scuff on the finish there was no damage at all.

 

[daverave999]

I received my Benchmade 555 at work and took it home lunchtime to play with it. Being the first time I'd handled an Axis lock, I wasn't used to where and when it 'pulls' it back in. It just closed on my knuckle, pure push cut. No pain just blood. I was very impressed

Also, my waved Delica took some getting used to. I always used to catch the pad of my ring finger with the tip when drawing it. I did have a *very* strange array of parallel cuts on that finger until I got used to it.