How often to you sharpen...

How many of you want your knife at least sharp enough to shave hair? I seem to be obsessed with shaving sharp although my knife doesn't need to be that sharp for most tasks.
 
Waaaaaaay too often. I have OCD with sharpening. I resharpen them every week or so. Or I try to improve the actual edge. Or correct some overgrinds.
OCD, I tell ya.
 
Depends on:

The steel I am using.

What I cut with it.

How much I cut.

Average?

Maybe every 2-3 weeks, but there are times when it's 2 to 3 times a day, and other times once in 4 to 5 weeks...too many variables.
 
Well no offense intended but your question is somewhat complex.Some knife users are fanatical about their stainless steel blades being razor sharp.Some knife users ride out the edge geometry and bevel width to judge a steel's worth.Some knife users judge a steel's quality on how much cardboard it can cut...not how well it serves in real world use beyond a full-time box cutter.

On that note I started using ATS-34 almost twenty years ago and still use the same knife.When I first experienced this steel it held it's edge for 4 years with only a moderate sharpening needed, so I was impressed.But it was mainly used for things like cutting rope to tie down a load of firewood.Cleaning several rabbits that I shot in my field.Cutting open blister packs and removing zip-ties.At work sometimes cutting open boxes that have that brown twine infused tape... but not daily.I don't try to muster up any little thing to use my knife for,just real world use.In the past using 420HC...4-6 months in remained sharp.1095 Carbon Steel in my youth before modern knives came around...well over a year it remained sharp.

I'm sorry my friend but this is one of those cases where people need to be patient and use their knife when it's needed.When it's dull go ahead and sharpen it then sit down and think about it's performance versus what you used in the past, and especially it's sharpening ease or difficulty.As for myself I'd probably be perfectly happy with 1095 for it's edge life and edge definition.But back in the late 90's to me, when I was getting a modern knife I wanted hand comfort and a high performance steel as good or better than 1095 in edge retention...not a knife I was going to chuck in the trash in 5-7 years.
 
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my EDC is a buck with 420 HC.
it get a touch up about once or twice a month, probably every 3 to 4 weeks - whenever i feel it needs it.
it doesnt see too much in the way of what I would call hard use, mostly paper, string, tape, packages, envelopes, pencils.
I did notice today that I've got a nick on the blade that needs work - so it will get some attention this evening most likely
 
I touch them up at the end of the day after each use. It only takes a minute to maintain a shaving sharp edge. It usually takes months between full sharpening or re-profiling as I also have many knives in my EDC rotation. Sharpening is also easy using paper wheels and diamond rods. I haven't used a stone for probably 10-15 years.
 
I sharpen any knife after I try to use it and it doesn't seem to cut the way I expected it to do. Simple. I tend to be reactive rather than proactive in my knife sharpening.
 
I like high end carbide rich steels like M390, S90V, S110V, etc. They are easy for me to keep a hair whittling edge on and actually easier to sharpen than most more simple steels.

Once a knife stops shaving I will strop it on 1 micron diamond loaded leather and this is usually enough to get it back to hair whittling. If not, a dozen or 2 passes on a Sharpmaker fine ceramic stone is usually aggressive as I need to get and then I move back to the strop.

If I didn't have the diamond spray I would probably not like these steels very much as it's the key to getting that final edge I like so much. I've tried getting there with just ceramic stones and it doesn't work. Even the normal colored compounds on a leather strop don't help and actually usually degrades the edge I've gotten. The diamond compound is the best thing I've ever purchased to go with my knife 'hobby' and makes keeping my knives sharp a quick and easy process. I also feel like a blade will last forever this way and doesn't have steel removed like a normal sharpening does. Everyone says that working up a burr along the entire blade is the way to sharpen and for an initial edge it is a good method. But I think most people make a burr that is much larger than necessary which is metal that is being removed and won't come back. In the past I sharpened this way every time and I also tried a paper wheel with compound that essentially was a powered strop and after time I compared a blade to a new one and was amazed at how much metal has been removed over about 6 months time of frequent sharpening using either method. I'm much happier with my frequent touch ups of high end steel and my knives are also much sharper these days.
 
I use a ceramic honing rod about every day or two on my EDC... I never like it to lose the hair popping sharpness and I like some bite/tooth to my edge so the ceramic rod works much better than stropping for me.
 
My EDC gets sharpened as often as its sharpness falls below hair shaving. Exactly that, clean and smooth shaving of arm hair or some face hair. Equivalent would be slicing thin strips of thin paper (think cigarette paper). This level of sharpness usually lasts quite a long time. A thorough honing will be enough to restore the edge to initial sharpness. How often depends more on what you cut than the blade's steel, in my experience. I use a BK 15 to cut up cardboard boxes on a daily basis and while I like Beckers's 1095 CroVan, it does need a touch-up every week. On the other hand, I use a A.G. Russell WoodsWalker in AUS8A as a pocket fixed blade for everything menial daily and I'm amazed at how well it does (once I had set the bevel and edge I wanted) : a hone every two or three weeks, presently. Other EDC, a Bark River Bird & Trout in Elmax. Only knife i did not resharpen. I like it a lot and use it often, after two months there is no need to take it to the sharpener. Nice ! Kitchen knives by KAI in VG10 perform daily for a month, or so, until I feel the need to restore the initial bite. Kitchen knives by Tojiro with Shirogami core (Hitachi white) cut even better initially. However, they need a hone every two or three weeks to stay at the top. It's all in the tasks, their frequency and your expectations... I grew way more picky with age. I want them all razor sharp now. Honestly, they don't need to be, but what greater pleasure is there than using a knife that litterally falls through the stuff to cut ?
 
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