How do non knife nuts react to your edge sharpness?

My favorite is when someone runs their thumb off of the edge in a trailing motion, like they're aggressively checking for a burr (in no way measuring the sharpness). They then exclaim "That's pretty sharp" and go on to tell me "My electric knife sharpener will do that."

Kills me a little bit every time.

Earlier today, I had a friend check my polished M390 edge by putting the edge on his had at 90º to try to shave the hair off. All it did was push-cut his hand at the starting point causing him to toss the knife onto the counter and run to the bathroom.

I took quick action, and immediately checked the edge for dings and chips :D
 
Shotgun said:
Even as kid before I was into knives I knew not to do this. I'm a little shocked at how many people think this is the thing to do. Does anyone know why? I'm really confused out what a person expects from running their finger down the blade. It can't be just a Holllywood thing.
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I know it's considered bad form but this is how I check my knives quickly. I use my thumb or three fingers which has tough skin at the fingertip and ever so lightly run it down the blade with a slight diagonal. As someone else said a sharp knife will feel sticky because when the blade cuts into the callous it doesn't want to let your thumb travel diagonally. The sharper the knife, the less motion down the blade is necessary. Thus for a real sharp blade you only need to barely touch the blade and give a slight perpendicular motion to feel the stick. That's why some people look like they barely touch a blade to see if its sharp.
 
I remember one time a guy wanted to see my knife, was carrying an S30V Military that day.

Told him to be careful as it was very sharp (by my standards)......

Well...... he sliced a very thin piece of meat off his finger.... Then said yeah it's pretty sharp as he went for the band aids. :D
 
Everyone expects a razor blade or utility blade to be sharp, but having a really sharp knife seems to be less common. People don't know how to feel and edge safely. But they would never feel the edge on a razor blade or utility knife.

I grew up in a knife family. As kids, we'd sit around the kitchen table sharpening our knives and to see who did the best job. My Dad was always interested and would come and "test" our edges. Brings back a nice memory of family.
 
I dont let people borrow my knives but the few who have used them or checked them out were kind of in disbelief of my edges, I guess they dont think their cutting tools should be sharp as possible, ridiculous as that is. I like to keep them touched up pretty often too so it doesnt tear stuff when cutting which irritates me, if it no longer cleanly slices phonebook paper then its not sharp enough. Its always funny when I let my dad use one of my knives or when I sharpen his SAK he always says "dang or boy, that thing is sharp", that cracks me up every time. Once he even texted me to tell me how sharp his sak was after I had redone the edge haha.
 
Most of them reacts with awe and then tell me how scary my knives are, but some ran home only to come back with their kitchen knives and asking me to sharpen theirs:D
 
I guess you could say I have a "reputation" for sharpening knives. All of my friends and co-workers ask me to sharpen theirs and I always give em back screaming sharp. A lot of people I know say I could put an edge on a brick! Well, enough tooting my own horn...

Most people when they feel an edge I've sharpened say "holy sh!t, that's sharp!" I've had a few friends cut themselves. A couple will shave the hair off their arm with them. A few run their fingers over them (sometimes removing their fingerprints!).

I guess the funniest one was a cop at a gun range asked to see my knife. It was a Kershaw whirlwind at the time, and I had JUST sharpened it. He didn't know about the speedsafe, so when he opened it his thumb kept following the path of the thumbstud. Of course the knife was already open. You can guess what happened. The guy at the front counter said he had to get 14 stitches to close it. Served him right - he dropped my blade in the dirt!
 
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