How do you define sharp?

If I can easily shave arm hair I consider it sharp enough. My wife laughs at the little bald patches on my arms :D
 
Nemo said:
Strop any of the RC knives on leather or carboard and they turn into razor sharp.
It's so simple, you will want to try on all your other knives and check by yourself what means good heat treatment and good geometry.

Your milage may vary but this is my truth. :-D
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Can you strop on cardboard without compound? I know cardboard has silica particles and other things that make it abrasive (and thus hard on knives if you cut through cardboard), but is that alone enough to strop with? I ask because I have no compound.
 
As long as it can cut, it is good enough for me. I don't need it to be able to shave arm hair (Although I usually sharpen to that once I decide it needs a sharpening). All I need it to do, is what a knife was meant to do - cut.
 
sweet_hitch-hiker said:
i like my knives to be able to shave hair (or leg hair so my air hair isnt all patchy from testing my knife's sharpness)
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r_x said:
If I can easily shave arm hair I consider it sharp enough. My wife laughs at the little bald patches on my arms :D
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I remember when I had hair on my arms (pre-knives & sharpening) - now I have to hunt a bit to find some body hair to test on.

I think that when you can split hairs the knife is sharp enough!

For sharpness straight out of the box - it is a bit hit & miss. 3 of my 4 Opinel knives weren't that impressive, but they sure do sharpen up to a scary level of sharpness. My Carbon Mora was very sharp, but the stainless one wasn't - but both can now split hairs. My BK7 & BK9 both came sharp enough to shave and to push cut paper - kinda scary having a 9" blade that is 'shaving sharp'! I look forward to seeing how sharp my Izula is when it arrives.

I like a knife arriving 'shaving sharp' - it makes it good to go as soon as you get it. But if it isn't that sharp then I like it if I can easily get it 'shaving sharp' with a bit of stropping. I have had a couple of knives that took a lot of work to get acceptably sharp - that kinda sucks! I really shouldn't have to reprofile the edge to have a sharp knife.
 
Just received my first Izula yesterday. I can shave with all my knives but my Izula came from the factory one step up from shaving. It was scary sharp. I'm hooked. I see a HEST or an RC-4 coming soon. (or another Izula).
 
If it can shave hair with little effort it is sharp enough for me. If not you probably have not got the edge to meet perfectly, and it's back to stones.
 
I doubt your knife missed a stage or the like, I imagine that there is something of an acceptable and unacceptable level of sharpness at the Rowen plant and I doubt that every knife gets tested for sharpness.

Your knife could have been sitting at the lower end of that sharpness tolerance, still plenty sharp but not hair popping, shaving sharp.

I've never gotten a RAT blade that I was dissappointed with edgewise. I'm sure it's happened, as I've done my time in manufacturing and anything can happen, but all of my 30 or 40 so RATs have been plenty sharp for me. Then again, I don't shave off my arm hair to check sharpness, I slice paper to make sure I get all the nicks out of the edge.

If you feel that your edge wasn't up to par, I would imagine that the company will take care of you.
 
harkamus said:
Can you strop on cardboard without compound? I know cardboard has silica particles and other things that make it abrasive (and thus hard on knives if you cut through cardboard), but is that alone enough to strop with? I ask because I have no compound.
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I even don't use compound on leather belt and it works fine! :thumbup:

Try it.

shotgunner11 said:
If you feel that your edge wasn't up to par, I would imagine that the company will take care of you.
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When two minutes of stupid stropping could bring it to razorsharp anyway ?

Sorry but what would be the point to bother any company when the first thing you should know is how to take care of your own equipment ?

I got knives from other brand which came not "that" sharp from factory and two minutes later I could have them hair popping sharp.
(I got also excellent knives which I could never get sharp again after I've ruined their edge...)
RC Knives are 1095 at 57HRC, made to be kept sharp in the wild, we are not talking about custom butter knives in S90V at 62HRC ! :D
(I remember one brand new S90V knife from a famous maker, even on a backstand belt, it was impossible to get razor sharp...)

Now you don't need a perfect razor edge on knives destined to be use as your main chopper blade in the wood. no need to be perfectionnist on a tool you will touch up later...
 
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I define sharpness with my knives by their intended uses. I dont' bother taking the 2,000 grit to my RC5 because it's going to get anihilated anyway. My leuku on the other hand gets alot of particular attention to put a surgical edge on the blade. If it can readily slice flesh or shave it is good to go. In survival school the standard was running 550 chord across the blade with no pressure and if it cuts the line, it's good to go.
 
shotgunner11 said:
I've never gotten a RAT blade that I was dissappointed with edgewise.
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Sorry I haven't been near a computer for a few days but I just wanted to mention that I am not disappointed in my knives in any way. In fact I'm very impressed how well they cut even with the steep angle of the edge.
 
Sharp is a perception compared to what the user has seen before. I personally haven't used a factory edge in probably 15 years simply because I know that by the time I get to my DMT fine I have surpassed 90% of all factory sharpness. Its not to say factory edges are bad but they are done to get the knife out the door, its also only a 2 step process that involves grinding from a coarse abrasive then polishing with a fine one. Compare that to my usual 8 step process and take a wild guess at where the better edge will be.

Sharp can be sharp at 220 grit or 100k grit it all depends on your perception of sharp and you knowledge of sharpening.
 
TheGame said:
As long as it can cut, it is good enough for me. I don't need it to be able to shave arm hair (Although I usually sharpen to that once I decide it needs a sharpening). All I need it to do, is what a knife was meant to do - cut.
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same.
i havent gotten my izula back shaving sharp yet(spent a few minutes with a dmt aligner) but it can cut just fine, and cut a few hairs.
 
Both of my rats are pretty sharp (in my opinion) but they don't shave my arm hair easily. I think my arm hairs are stronger then normal!
 
my rc3 came about as sharp as any knife I've had.

It *popped* arm hair, not just shaved it, if you know what I mean. I usually only sharpen to where my knives can shave arm hair, I will rarely get it to quite *pop* like that, and that's fine with me.

That said, I just pulled out my Opinel which has been seeing some good use the past few days. Failed to really shave arm hair, but still push cut through paper with ease, very cleanly actually, and still feels VERY sharp in real world use today.
 
jfn said:
It has a certain feel when you touch it, or conversely doesn't hurt alot when you accidently cut yourself.
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The Izula (first RAT and first decent knife I've owned, which I got yesterday) did that to me 3 times. Didn't hurt, just bled everywhere. It'll remind me to keep my fingers out of the way now.
 
For me? Hair popping is "sharp", hair-shaving is "sharp enough" and newspaper-push-cutting puts the knife nut's grin on my face.
 
It depends on what you want your knife to do. It isn't enough to have a scary sharp knife if the blade geometry isn't up for the job. For instance, a straight razor won't last long for carving, but it can be extremely sharp.

So, if you just wanna push-cut paper all day long, then your RAT is up to the task, but if you want the best task-specific performer then I'd consider taking a look at the blade geometry. It depends on which blade, what purpose etc.
A large chopper will be happy with a 17-22° edge bevel or a convex edge, but a smaller bushcraft knife which won't be used for chopping, will most likely perform better with a steeper edge bevel, such as 13°-17° or even lower!

I've taken the edge bevel on my Izula down to 15° and it was a huge improvement for carving/whittling tasks compared to the previous performance of the factory 20° edge bevel. I bought a Bark River Bravo Necker, which has a very similar blade shape. Both my Izula and my Bravo Necker are hair-poppin' sharp, but the Necker, which has a full convex blade, highly surpassed my Izula when it came to simple wood carving tasks.

I'm not trying to bash the Izula or RATs in general; I'm merely stating that different blade geometries have different properties and are arguably better suited for certain tasks. I found that a convex edge on such a thin blade as the Bravo Necker had similar cutting properties as a scandi grind, which I've always felt has been the best grind for wood carving.

So yeah, RATs are sharp, but are they sharp enough for what you need them for? I've got a convex Necker and a full flat v-ground Izula, so I've got two very similar knives with two very different properties. However, since I do prefer the ergonomics of the Izula, I may buy another one so that I can convex it. The blade wouldn't be as strong, but I don't intend to use that Izula for prying.
 
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