How do non knife nuts react to your edge sharpness?

S

SBaker34

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Jun 16, 2010
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I was showing off my new ZT 0566 to a friend of mine, he owns the usual fleamarket knife collection, so he liked knives, just didn't appreciate the finer ones necessarily. After remarking that it wasn't very threatening looking he touched his thumb to the edge and got a shocked look in his face and said why is this thing so sharp. After I shaved a patch of arm hair he looked even more shocked.

I was a little surprised that the actual sharpness of the edge was particularly surprising, has anyone else had similar reactions where they were not impressed by the knife itself but rather the sharpness?
 
Every time someone who doesn't know about my obsession uses one of my knives. Its not that surprising, though. Most people, if they have a pocket knife at all, do not sharpen it. I remember once a co worker was showing off his knife, cause he could cut a piece of paper edgewise. More torn, than cut, really. You should have seen the look on his face when i picked up my steel ruler and made just as clean a cut. He had no idea what a truely sharp knife cuts like. The irony is, we were working in a shop cutting diamonds for tools. He knew how to make s diamond sharp.
 
Here's a question I get: "Why is it so sharp?!"

Answer: "Because it's a knife. Its only function is cutting things. I like to be able to do that."
 
Any time someone else uses one of my knives they get it with a hefty warning, I basically tell them "be careful chances are that is sharper than anything you have used". They usually respond with a whatever then disbelief after cutting something with it, I then tell them to be careful closing it because it will go to bone before they realize it.
 
My favorite is: "this isn't very sharp" Then a confused look as they realize there's blood on the blade.
 
I hate it when I give knife with a hair whittling edge to someone and they don't "get it". Lol, I want them to see how sharp it is and go "ooh and ah" but he reality is, most folks don't even know how to test a knife for sharpness. I always get frustrated when they do some silly blade touching that gives them zero feedback. I've learned better than to expect anything different though. It is a VERY small segment of the population that actually knows much about edges.
 
I don't let them get a chance to react,(out of experience) and lack of trust, I will cut it for them.
 
My partner at work has some little Kershaw something or other and he was having trouble opening bags and cutting boxes. I looked at it and the edge was completely blunt. He said it had never been sharpened, so i offered to take it and sharpen it up. Spent some time on the Sharpmaker and gave it back to him. His eyes lit up when he looked at it and he promptly cut his thumb, after I told him to be careful. Now I get to sharpen his knife whenever it needs it.
 
I use a Kershaw Select Fire at work. The screwdriver part has saved me from walking out to my van a ton of times, and its cheap it enough that if it gets lost in an attic or crawlspace its not the end of the world. I do my sharpening freehand but have only sharpened the select fire once, and due to the recurve, I dulled up the edge pretty good. A couple days later I gave it another shot and this time got a pretty nice edge on it, but nothing that you guys would be impressed by. The next day I handed it to a guy who was training me (how and HVAC technician doesn't carry a knife, I have no idea) to cut open a box. It sliced through the packing tape like butter and he made some comment about how sharp it was and he was going to cut himself (jokingly). I thought that was funny. At that point, it was probably the dullest knife I owned.
 
My ZT0777 was sharp out of the box... but not near as sharp as when I reprofiled it. :eek:
 
My Dad asked me to sharpen their kitchen knives a while back. I brought them home and worked on them all night. Took them back to him the next morning. He went in the kitchen to cut up an apple and a few minutes later came out with a blood soaked paper towel on his hand. He had no clue a knife could go through an apple that easily!
 
Joe Watson said:
My favorite is: "this isn't very sharp" Then a confused look as they realize there's blood on the blade.
Click to expand...

I've seen that one happen more times than I can count.

Me: "Careful now. Don't draw your thumb down the edge--always across it."

Them: (drawing their thumb down the edge) "Naw. It ain't very sharp."

Me: "I'll get you a bandaid."

Them: "Huh?" (drop of blood hits their shoe and then they realize they're bleeding)

Me: And a paper towel.
 
My mother wanted me to sharpen her kitchen knives......then got mad at me after she cut herself a couple times! She rubbed the blade edges on her GLASS cutting board and dared me to touch them again! Hey, I warned her to be careful......
 
How do non knife nuts react to your edge sharpness?
They don't, I don't give them the chance.
 
They usually run a thumb over edge while saying.
Is this sharp.
Followed with their blood on my knife.
 
They go to open it , or cut something. Then I see blood . And they say, holy $hip this thing is sharp. I reply, did you think I was kidding?
That about sums it up. So I simply cut what is needed from now on.
 
Well I've loaned out my Tuff Lite a couple of times, but it isn't that sharp as it's still on the factory edge.

Still Cold Steel do send them from the factory arm hair shaving sharp.
 
even when my knives are not very sharp the non knife nut always says, "this is pretty sharp".

but now I've decided to never let anybody handle my knives again because about a week ago I let a lady handle one of my knives and she dropped it on the ground....luckily it didn't damage the blade.
 
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