How sharp are your EDC blades?

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NickTheKnife24

Joined
May 29, 2013
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35
I consider myself a novice sharpener and i sharpen free hand using 4 stones of all different kinds (a Norton Coarse/Medium, a DMT Fine, and a Smith's Arkansas). I also use a double sided strop. I am able to get my blades close to mirror polish and they shave hair well and everything. But I was just wondering how sharp your normal, EDC edges are and also i would love to hear some tips from some experienced sharpeners.

Thanks,
Nick G.
Buffalo, NY
 
probably not as sharp as yours. thing is, i have 4 in my rotation right now and i make sure two of them can shave hair at any time. i try to save on steel by just using a treated and plain strop maybe once a week.
 
Depends on how long I've had the knife. New knives are fairly dull because they still have the factory edge. Once I get frustrated enough with the factory edge, I usually keep my knives kind of sharp. Push cutting newspaper is usually good enough for me, but every once in a while I'll spend a long time (too long, I'm not very skilled :o) getting one to hair whittling sharp. Once I make it sharp, I don't usually let my knives get much duller than that. I don't put my EDC knives through too much hard use though.
 
When they come of my waterstones, they're mirror polished and can push cut newspaper with ease. They're hair whittling most of the time.
 
mine are decent sharp.

I keep my small one hair whittling sharp for showing off, but main edc are just stupid sharp for actual use in the freezer and various things at work or home.

but all must shave hair easily.
 
I have 10 in my rotation now and at the end of the week I will be adding a custom El Patron tanto. I use a Wicked Edge to keep them all hair shaving sharp. To save steel I do touch ups with small 800/1000 grit DMT sharpener that I carry in my EDC bag. I strop sometimes when home but the DMT is always with me so I use it alot more. A DMT sharpener is really worth the investment if you like to have sharp blades all the time.
 
I used to think a factory edge was sharp until I got the wicked edge. I keep my sebenza 25 and the hinderer xm 18 sharp enough to cut phone book paper, not a super polished edge, but I finish with the 1800 ceramics and it's good enough for me. I could go as far with 3.5 and 5 micron strop but I don't feel the need yet. I enjoy sharpening knives now and putting a bevel on that suits me, usually 22 degrees each side.
 
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While I strive for increasing levels of "sharpness" as I get my honing technique down, I sharpen to where I can push cut the inner pages of a Time magazine.
 
I go for push cutting phone book paper once I get around to sharpening my new knives. I try to keep them at that level once I get them there. I am fortunate enough to have several knives in my rotation so I don't have to sharpen very often.
 
I use the slotten wheel on my paper wheels once they kinda snag on envelopes. My CRK small and Manix 2 usually get the wheel once a week. The slotted wheel gets them back to shaving sharp.
 
I keep mine at least paper cutting sharp, standard weight paper not phone book weight. Now that I have the Wicked Edge system the sharpness level is increasing dramatically!
 
Mine span the full range. I've bought a lot of EDC blades over the past 12 months, mostly used. Some of them came pretty dull, most with bad angles. The ones that were dullest with worst angles got reprofiled with my DMT diamond stones. They end up sharp by my standards, maybe not so sharp compared to some people here. They are sharper than I need for cutting fruit or opening packages. I have other knives that are still relatively dull, enough that it bothers me to carry them but doesn't bother me enough to work on them. I'm hesitant to sharpen a factory edge until I really have to.
 
Generally hair whittling or beard shaving sharp, mostly depends on how drunk at the time of sharpening.
Free hand w/ water stones, one synthetic around 1K other natural stone that I have no idea what the grit is, but it works and it works well. Might finish w/ strop depending on mood.
 
I've been carrying a Case Stockman lately. So 3 blades. I keep two of them very sharp and one of them medium. If someone else needs to use my knife I open the medium blade and hand them the knife like that. Every time I let someone use one of my knives that are scary sharp, something bad happens. :D
 
1Hiker2 said:
I have 10 in my rotation now and at the end of the week I will be adding a custom El Patron tanto. I use a Wicked Edge to keep them all hair shaving sharp. To save steel I do touch ups with small 800/1000 grit DMT sharpener that I carry in my EDC bag. I strop sometimes when home but the DMT is always with me so I use it alot more. A DMT sharpener is really worth the investment if you like to have sharp blades all the time.
Click to expand...

Which DMT would that be?
 
My Caly 3 CF is usually sharp enough to pop hairs off my arm, for point of reference. Recently though, I've been starting a new test; I only stop sharpening my blade when I can slice through the skin on either side of my fingernails without feeling a pull or pain of any kind. It seems easier to judge an edge this way, at least for me.

That said I usually don't carry knives whose blades have weaker edge retention than, say, VG-10 or 154CM. Usually.
 
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