How sharp can a SAK be?

I

Iyonk

Joined
Jan 29, 2010
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538
i have heard people with excotic blade steel with high HC and hi grit whetstone make their knife blades super scary sharp....

i know the SAKs use what considered to be "softer steel"... thats why i could sharpen them pretty easy with little amount of time...

but compared to those exotic blades... how sharp can a SAK be compared to them?
and also how is the edge holding capability of saks in the real world compared to 440, 8cr13mov, VG10, 154cm and so on?



thanks for the inputs guys...
 
I can get my SAKs extremely sharp. They don't hold an edge as well as some of the steels you listed, but the pro's of the steel is if it is damaged it's easily sharpened out, so you aren't afraid to damage it. It took me less than 3 minutes to get out a ding that looks like the knife got push cut into a staple. Simple fix.
 
Any sak can get sharp enough to do surgery with. Sharp enough to go right to the bone if you get careless with it. Don't ask me how I know.

The steel snobs can argue all day long about the super exotic steels, but it gets ridiculous after a bit. It's like argueing if a Ferrari is a faster car than a Lamborgini. It's a moot point; where are you going to use that speed?

Considering that Victorinox alone makes 35 million knives a year, (and thats an old figure) there must be litterally billions of people across the world doing just fine with sak's. Of course, they're not knife knuts or steel snobs, so they don't know they are under knifed.:rolleyes:

The truth is, sak steel is just fine for edc for 99% of us. Zombie killing and mall ninja fantacies don't count.
 
Sharp enough to do this:

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Hair whittled with a Vic Farmer, finish sharpened on a lapped Spyderco ultra-fine ceramic.
 
Thanks alot guys!!!! you've give me very2 helpful info...

so, i know the edge holding capability is decent... but ofter reading all these, whenever i see a very sharp knife demo, i know that SAKs could be that sharp hehehe...

you guys just made me more addicted to saks!
 
I find that many knives get over sharpened because the edge gets clogged with "goo", mostly tape adhesive in my case, and feel dulled, but they're not dull.. I now clean them with alcohol swabs (I'm in medicine), and they're sharp again. Even my super steel knives get clogged with adhesives, etc, and drag when cutting. They are not dull, they just feel like it, and performance suffers. For most things, any modern steel will do. Oh, my Vic Rambler is a scalpel. People at work think it's funny when I eat a steak or chicken breast at lunch with a tiny knife like the Rambler, but it works great, and nobody in the hospital says "that's a weapon". My Soldier is also a great knife, and very sharp. 10 seconds on a sharpmaker and the edge is back, even if it does get dull.
 
I have Alox Cadets and Pioneers that are probably the easiest knives to get hair splitting sharp. They are not a super steel by any means but are very easy to maintain.
 
freedoom said:
I get mine shaving sharp quite easily.
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+1
Very easily indeed!

Mine has a small razor sharp blade and a large razor sharp blade. All I need is a piece or old belt glued to a piece or wood with green polishing compound rubbed into the rough side. Sharp => 'scary sharp' involves <1 minute of touch up with that cheap home made strop. I don't generally let the blades actually get blunt so I don't normally need more than a minute on the strop to make the blade sharp by my standards. In fact the blade can normally shave arm hair easily enough BEFORE I sharpen it (my standards for sharpness are higher than just 'shaving sharp').

If I ever needed to cut a seatbelt to save someone's life I suspect my SAK would be sharp enough to slice through that belt fairly quickly & easily.
 
Power nodle I sharpen mine between 15 and 20 degrees per side deending on what duty they are delegated to.

To the topic at hand.. I use my knives allot... I ought i Vic forrester this past January it's cleaned a handful of small game.. done a ton of fire prep (whittling shavings, fuzz sticks etc.. ) and has carved out a few spoons all in addition to my regular everyday food prep box opening etc.. and the factory edgeis still shaving sharp I strop the blade heavily after significant use or in between tasks. and I;m good to go.....I;ve heard allot of folks complain about the softness of Sak steel but they are razor blades that will keep on giving if you take the time to keep them up in between tasks.
 
yuo can get a SAK scary sharp.

how long it holds that scary sharp edge is another question. but you can certainly get 'em to a razors edge.
 
All my SAKs are sharpened at 20° per side. They can probably be made sharper with a smaller angle but at the expense of edge durability. A 20° bevel is plenty sharp for any ordinary cutting task that I can think of.
 
Thanks guys! So the scary sharp of saks is confirmed. Another question? Any body experiece SAKs blade chipping on the edge like some D2 or S30v very common problem since they're britle becouse of the hardnes? I never experience any chipping,but any inputs are welcomed! Thanks guys.
 
Iyonk said:
Thanks guys! So the scary sharp of saks is confirmed. Another question? Any body experiece SAKs blade chipping on the edge like some D2 or S30v very common problem since they're britle becouse of the hardnes? I never experience any chipping,but any inputs are welcomed! Thanks guys.
Click to expand...

No.

I very much doubt you find many people who had a sak blade chip like some of the so called miracle steels. The averidge Joe does not need a knife that skins 500 deer without sharpening, but can't open a cardboard box from UPS without chipping on the dirt and clay in the cardboard.

I have had the edge roll on me when I contacted something hard, but it steeled/stropped back to sharp with very little trouble. To me, sak steel is a the best of all compromise; it gets sharp enough to do major surgery with, holds it for a decent amount of time, and most important, it's easy to touch up out in the field with very little effort. I'd rather have an easy knife to re-sharpen, than one that's a bear when it does finally go dull.

Sak steel is great for edc!
 
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