I have received a couple of mail order "big-brand" knives in the past, which weren't sharp. One had an edge that was dinged in several spots. Looked like it had been struck on something. harpened up no problems. The other actually had no edge bevel. Looks like somone forgot something ! Mind you these were mass produced knives.
I've actually had very little problem otherwise. All CRKT, Cold Steel, Spyderco, Ontario, Camillus, Benchmade, Gerber knives came either "ripping" sharp or shaving sharp. Mind you, I generally buy knives that I lay hands on to test at the shop before I purchase. And the shop guys are knife nerds as well. One storeman is also a novice knifemaker and sharpens everything he stocks !
I think its one thing to get a knife from a factory that churns out hundreds of similar knives at a time, its another to get a blunt knife from a custom maker. The individual attention MUST make a difference. Otherwise, whats the point ?
Others have already pointed out that equally important as the edge is the bevel angle. I generally use a 20degree angle on most knives. On my heavier knives, instead of a thicker grind, I do a convex or Moran edge. On very small knives, it can have a "zero edge" which may have a wider bevel that heads directly into the edge with no edge bevel step. Difficult to do, but very effective in the cut.
Actually, it took me a long time to learn how to sharpen properly. I can always bring an edge back to shaving sharp on my hand tools, but I can tell you it took plenty of experimentation and practise. many users nowadays have no idea how to sharpen a knife. Therefore, the knife should come sharp first, then worry about sharpening later !
Cheers. I really enjoy the breadth of comments on this forum.
A reminder that, hey, this knife is razor sharp!
