How sharp is sharp enough?

S

Starrskream

Joined
Dec 13, 2022
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4
Got into knives in the army, go figure.
Have several cool ones. Sog seal strike, s35vn sog kiku, a Smith and Wesson swat ive had since like 1996, a couple of those gerber spring assist from walmart, a gerber diesel(multi tool) ive had since the day i got out of basic in 1996 a couple display swords etc.. Couple buck folders, a bear grylls survival etc..

used flat stones back in the day and then a leather belt. Years ago i started I've always sharpened with the same rod system from lansky. About 4 years ago i picked up a few pocket sharpeners, they work well in a pinch but i always go back to the lansky. Since i got the kiku s35 I've had to pick up a few diamond hones and i have a nice strop with compound.

on to the point. I can shave easily with any knife i use.

How sharp is sharp enough for you?

What do you guys prefer?

How do you find best to achieve that amazing edge? what angle?
 
Starrskream said:
Got into knives in the army, go figure.
Have several cool ones. Sog seal strike, s35vn sog kiku, a Smith and Wesson swat ive had since like 1996, a couple of those gerber spring assist from walmart, a gerber diesel(multi tool) ive had since the day i got out of basic in 1996 a couple display swords etc.. Couple buck folders, a bear grylls survival etc..

used flat stones back in the day and then a leather belt. Years ago i started I've always sharpened with the same rod system from lansky. About 4 years ago i picked up a few pocket sharpeners, they work well in a pinch but i always go back to the lansky. Since i got the kiku s35 I've had to pick up a few diamond hones and i have a nice strop with compound.

on to the point. I can shave easily with any knife i use.

How sharp is sharp enough for you?

What do you guys prefer?

How do you find best to achieve that amazing edge? what angle?
Click to expand...
Sharp enough to shave hair off my arm is sharp enough for me. If it’ll do that it’ll cut everything I need to cut.

I use a combination of DMT diamond stones, ceramic rods, and a Knives Plus strop block. I use a Sharpmaker and a glass smooth steel from Hand American for maintenance.

Your Lansky and leather belt setup is way more than I had starting out and what I was happy with for quite a while. You should be able to get great results with that.
 
I concur with the above. This last year I’ve been less on top of my knife maintenance, so I’ll cut a bag of chips open at work only to find that the wrapper doesn’t just self-destruct before the keen edge of my blade.

That’s a rough day at work, because then I just think about how my knife needs a touch up but I’m powerless to fix it.
 
I feel sorry for your coworkers, trying to ignore the wailing and the gnashing. Any chance you can just park a pocket stone on one of their desks?

Parker
 
Can it open my amazon package? Cut my cheese? Open a slippery vacuum seal? Break down my bulk amazon packages for recycling? Yes? Sharp enough, if it requires a little extra push or pull, so be it. Exercise is good.
 
I split my thumb on an axe that was sharpened with a bastard file…changed my perspective on what is sharp enough to do work with.

Generally these days 320grit is good enough for most work and done well can shave.
 
catspa said:
I feel sorry for your coworkers, trying to ignore the wailing and the gnashing. Any chance you can just park a pocket stone on one of their desks?

Parker
Click to expand...
I did use a pocket stone one time, but I felt pretty weird using it at my desk. Someone reading into the situation might draw the wrong conclusions.
 
Depends on the Knife, steel and intended use ime. For example I'll never get my Ontario Sp10 to shave hair even though I've spend some time re profiling the cutting bevel but sharp enough to cut paper is more than enough for my intentions.


I use DMT stones and a strop, grit size depends on the steel used for example a Vg10, Sleipner or 14c28n will sharpen easily up to 2000 grit whereas my D2 blade/s I never go over 600 grit (320 is often enough).

It's fun to sharpen to hair shaving sharpness but ime this type of edge doesn't last very long.

Many of my blades I finish at either 600 or 1200 grit and then strop. You can get hair shaving sharp with a 200 grit stone on many steels, there's a good video somewhere of a guy cutting paper thin slices of tomato after only using a 200 grit stone for example.

So for me personally although I enjoy sharpening my knives and many do sometimes it's a bit over done, again imo.
 
For me there are two kinds of sharp

Sharp & Stays Sharp !

You can go crazy scary sharp , but the edge strength ? I'm talking scalpel sharp ! A knife so sharp you could do surgery with it .
Problem is , the edge is so fine it has little strength . We are talking so sharp , just touching the edge will bleed you !
Obviously such an edge is not a working edge .

So for me , it's a sharp edge that stays sharp for as long as possible .
What is sharp ? Sharp enough is to take hair off ..
 
Shaving sharp. Sometimes I stop after the grey sharpmaker sticks to try to give it a toothy edge but always shaving sharp.
 
Depends on the knife. It's fun to pull out a mirror polished knife and let a coworker go ham on some nylon webbing that they have to saw through. If its under tension you just touch a mirror to it and it pops. So satisfying even for non knife people. It's also nice to have a working edge that will last for a month before I notice it's a little dull. I try to stay away from crazy angles. They can get crazy sharp but they also chip a lot easier. I normally back the angle off a little from factory or leave it at factory. There's knives that I've went with more angle too. If it's yours there's really no wrong way. I use an adapter to get a convex edge on most knives, so its been awhile since I even checked my angles.
 
EngrSorenson said:
I concur with the above. This last year I’ve been less on top of my knife maintenance, so I’ll cut a bag of chips open at work only to find that the wrapper doesn’t just self-destruct before the keen edge of my blade.

That’s a rough day at work, because then I just think about how my knife needs a touch up but I’m powerless to fix it.
Click to expand...
Keep a DMT Diafold handy. Also useful to intimidate your sheeple co-workers.
 
Anyone one has ever experienced this: a knife can shave arm hair easily but not so easily when doing it on beard? Maybe because the face skin is more sensitive or the beard is thicker?
 
Just discussing this in a sub forum. I and most of my customers really like a toothy edge too. It cuts what we cut better in the ranching world. I've found a good test to be paper:

N3TQmFg.jpg


I'd just reground this knife as the tip had broken so thinned down the primary bevel, re-shaped the tip and re etched the blade and buffed the handle. Then ground a new secondary bevel and sharpened it. Getting ready to send er back to its owner.
 
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