How Sharp is 'Sharp'...

Z

Zordas

Joined
Sep 9, 2007
Messages
41
Seems that way too many of my knives are not too sharp 'out-of-the-box'. How sharp is sharp, what's the definitive way to test sharpness - and most importantly - who does exactly produce razor-sharp blades ready-to-go? :confused:

Frank.
 
Run the edge perpendicular to your thumbs finger nail. If it's really sharp, it'd bite and feel sticky.

you can also try and shave your arm/leg hair
 
Spyderco and Kershaw typically do good factory edges new, out of the box. Either one, any model ( whithin reason) is typically capable of shaving hair. That includes their "basic" models as well. Mcusta is good also. Microtech has sharp edges, as do Seki Cut, G Sakai, etc. Joe
 
For me the measure is if the knife shaves hair from my arm.

When I run out of hair to shave, a reasonable secondary test is cutting a newspaper page.

Some utilitarian knives have a blunt edge angle and never become good shavers. They are not supposed to, either.
 
Just visit the toolshack, there was a recent thread discussing various ways of measuring sharpness.

(I guess this thread is bound there, too)
 
As for who produces razor-sharp edges out of the box, the answer would have to be that I've never had one. The sharpest knife OOTB was an Mcusta but even it paled next to real razor blade. If in doubt buy a new razor blade and check it out. It's a good way of checking how your sharpening is coming along.
Greg
 
I don't sharpen to a razors edge anymore as I find that when to thin it will degrade by itself through oxidation to quickly. If you cut anything much at all with a razors edge it will dull quickly or roll over. Least ways that is what I have found with use.

What I do now is sharpen mostly with a coarse hone till the edge will shave hair easily but the edge will still have a good bite to it or pull if you will. This edge seems not to degrade as readily as others I have used and tried over the years. It won't slide either over what you are cutting such as rope/cordage. Belive it or not the last couple of Emersons I have purchased have had just such an edge. Nice and toothy but still very sharp. Hope this helps and keepem sharp
 
If you don't have good depth perception you shouldn't test a knife's sharpness with your arm hair. I saw a dude once who was careless with his fishing knife and accidentally ran it underneath his skin about half an inch. :eek:

Sharpen your knives as sharp as you need them to be. Other than that don't worry about it too much.
 
Except for one, Knives of Alaska are about the sharpest out of the box knives I have seen. Kershaw puits a good edge on theirs as well. BM's are good too.
 
My standard test is if it can shave the hair on my knuckles. The hair on most people's knuckles is much finer than their leg or arm hair. I find what shaves leg hair often can't shave hair on my knuckles. I judge this to be a better test and as an added bonus, people don't look at you funny if your knukles don't have much hair on them.
 
I have long hair so I hold a hair and swing the knife softly. If it cuts the hair it is sharp. A sharper knife will cut a hair or treetop a hair using no pressure but the weight of the hair against the edge. To do this you need a well polished edge.
 
Most of my Cold Steel and Kershaw knives are remarkably sharp. I've been disappointed by how dull my CRKTs are. (I've seen letter openers that are sharper.) Such edges are frequently called "working"' or "utility" edges, but they are inappropriate for so-called tactical knives. Further, since the blades were chisel grind, I was unable to get them sharper by sharpening the ground side. I finally solved it by sharpening both sides as I would a v-grind blade.

If carried for self defense, a knife has to be able to slash through clothing as well as stab. Utility blades also are difficult to use doing everyday chores like stripping wire, cutting rope or even loose thread, which tends to be pulled from a garment rather than cut. I can easily sweep my hand across the blade without even a crease.

I haven't found too many people who like dull chisel grind knives. I don't know how Emersons come out of the box, but ther knives mostly sport chisel grind blades.
 
There's no reason why a chisel grind should be any duller than a conventional V-grind. Just think of it as having two sides of a knife with different bevel angles. On my Commander, the "regular" side is at 20 degrees, and the "chisel" side is a flat grind at 10 degrees.

I just sharpen the regular side normally, until I feel a slight burr on the chisel side. Then flip the knife over, lay the blade flat, and take a few swipes on the chisel side. Take a few strokes on cardboard to polish and de-burr, and it's sharp enough to cut yourself with and not feel pain.
 
intjMastermind said:
There's no reason why a chisel grind should be any duller than a conventional V-grind. Just think of it as having two sides of a knife with different bevel angles. On my Commander, the "regular" side is at 20 degrees, and the "chisel" side is a flat grind at 10 degrees.

I just sharpen the regular side normally, until I feel a slight burr on the chisel side. Then flip the knife over, lay the blade flat, and take a few swipes on the chisel side. Take a few strokes on cardboard to polish and de-burr, and it's sharp enough to cut yourself with and not feel pain.
Click to expand...

I agree. One of the sharpest knives I've seen was a custom Emerson chisel grind.

I've had extremely sharp knives out of the box from:
Benchmade
Kershaw
Cold Steel
Spyderco

I've also seen at least one not-very-sharp out of the box from each of these companies. They're mass produced, I don't expect that much.

intjMastermind,

I presume your username refer to the MBTI. If so, I've gotten both the ENTJ and the INTJ through numerous tests. I vary based on how I feel in that moment or what I'm going through in life.
 
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