How sharp is my kife?

[Freedom556]

I'm still a newbie when it comes to kinives, and an absolute noob when it comes to sharpening knives.

My only sharpener is the spyderco sharp maker right now. I just sharpened my third knife with it, and I'm pretty impressed that a noob like myself got a knife as sharp as I THINK I did.

It's a Benchmade AFO II, 154CM blade.

We just moved into our new house yesterday, and every single box that was cut, was cut with this knife. I got it in a trade on this forum, and according to the original owner it's never been sharpened. By the end of the weekend it seemed kinda dull, so I decided to use the SM to try to get it sharper than it was when I got it. It wasn't super dull at all, but it needed to be stropped at least. I ended up just starting with the brown stone and doing way more passes than they recommend to get a knife sharp, and then the same with the white stones. I then used the pre-loaded strop that I ordered a while back (cant remember the name of the place. There's a few YouTube vids on it that rate it very good). Before I used the strop I could easily shave with it, with very light pressure.

On to my main question... I have a pretty big beard, and really short head hair, so I decided to pluck a beard hair out (ouch) and try to "whittle" it. I got three passes on a beard hair and I am really impressed. But a beard hair is 3 times as this as a head hair. Would you still consier my knife "hair whittling sharp"?

I plan on ordering the very fine stones soon, as I don't have the cash for the wicked edge or anything like that right now.

 

[Lee48]

The Sharpmaker can get a knife extremely sharp without the need for more expensive systems. The more elaborate systems usually just make the job faster or easier. As far as the level of sharpness is concerned, it depends on what you are satisfied with. I have the Sharpmaker with diamond through ultra fine rods as well as the DMT diamond and Arkansas bench stones and several strops but I mostly use a Spyderco Double Stuff or the Sharpmaker rods freehand these days. Makes my knives as sharp as I need them to be and I enjoy the leisurely approach of freehand sharpening while I'm watching TV or listening to some classic jazz on the stereo.

 

[herisson]

Your knife is sharp enough. You can get it sharper, though...

 

[fsatsil]

If your knife whittled hair then it is hair whittling sharp but keep in mind that coarse beard hair is much easier to whittle then the much finer hair on your head. Don't get to caught up with buying the ultra fine rods the standard fine rods that come with the Sharpmaker are more then fine enough to get your knives extremely sharp. If anything you might want to pick up the coarse diamond or CBN rods for the Sharomaker in case you ever need to reprofile a knife to match the angle of the Sharpmaker.

 

[Kiteman72]

If your knife whittled hair then it is hair whittling sharp but keep in mind that coarse beard hair is much easier to whittle then the much finer hair on your head. Don't get to caught up with buying the ultra fine rods the standard fine rods that come with the Sharpmaker are more then fine enough to get your knives extremely sharp. If anything you might want to pick up the coarse diamond or CBN rods for the Sharomaker in case you ever need to reprofile a knife to match the angle of the Sharpmaker.

I just bought a Sharpmaker and this was just the piece of advice I was looking for! Thanks! :thumbup: