Sylvrfalcn said:
And if you no kidding mean an included angle of 5 degrees (2 1/2 degree bevels) you've just about surpassed surgical scalpels.
It is fairly hard to get that low, that is the depth of the primary grind on even really thin blades, for comparison a common mora is sharpened at 10/12 degrees per side, so 20/24 included. The ones I have which are that acute, <5 per side, have full hollow grinds on really thin stock. They cut well, but the edge can crack on hardwoods unless care is used, I generally raise them to 5-7 per side for that type of work, depends on the steel and the heat treatment.
arty said:
I wouldn't bother with that for a kukhuri, and a hard Arkansas would be more than enough.
I finish similar, usually a waterstone, I go 200, 800,1000, 4000, then just a few passes on chromium oxide to mainly clean the edge, not enough to actually polish it significantly. If you have power equipment you can do it much faster, micro-abrasives on belts and a buffer/power stropper can do this near instantly. Guys like Fikes probably do trivially what is work to most of us. If you really want to see what sharp blades can do, check out some of the cutting he has done with large blades, a lot of it seems simply impossible but he has done it.
Fishing fillet knives need a sharper edge than a general purpose kitchen knife - I stop at a Norton Soft Arkansas for most kitchen knives.
I leave the finish rough on most utility slicers, the paring knives I raise to a fine polish, but they are so tiny they sharpen near instantly anyway. I dual grind the large chef's knives usually with Joe's rough/fine edge finish to give them a bit of a draw ability in the first inch for harder materials. All of my personal ones I reground the edges on belts usually so they are really easy to sharpen, just apply a tiny microbevel. The knives I really put the sharpest edge I can on are usually small ones that I carry for precision work like cutting light paper and thin plastics. My small Sebenza rarely goes below shaving unless I am peeling dirty vegetables or similar. It is trivial to restore as I reground the edge awhile back.
I have no trouble sharpening any khukuri to a shaving edge, but I just don't usually take the time to get them to the leve of "sharp" that I would want for a plane iron or a carving gouge.
Pretty much. My standards are higher now than they used to be, simply because it is easier now to get the blades sharper just because of all the practice. It wasn't that long ago I was happy if I could get them to draw cut paper, now I rarely let them get that dull they won't do that, unless I am gardening or similar.
Howard Wallace said:
Someone carrying a khukuri as a weapon would have a legitimate reason for maintaining a different edge than someone using their khukuri to dig potatoes.
Generally just shape them, I finish polished some spades on a lark one time, left one side high polished and the other side just filed and deburred, just out of curiosity, it makes no difference beyond the first few cuts, once the dirt hits it, the edge thickens rapidly. You are better off in general in actually running the stone into the edge and flattening it, unless you are using it to cut sods and other rooty soil.
For some tasks there is a sharpness it is not cost effective in terms of time and energy to maintain.
Skill is a factor as well, it would take me a lot of time to get each of my blades up to the one Rishar sharpened and I tested. I have only seen a couple of other blades out of everything I handled which was that sharp, and ironically he noted he didn't feel the job was optimal. I think there is an element of care to it as well, you get it screaming sharp and you in general tend to have more respect for it in use which I think is a good thing, you tend to get sloppy, use more force and less technique when they are not as sharp.
-Cliff
, please send again.
:thumbup: 
A khuk is much more complicated to sharpen than pocket knives, chisels, and plane irons. I'm pretty good at those.:yawn: