I hate being OCD about my knife edge.

Billy The Hungry

Billy The Hungry

Joined
Aug 11, 2020
Messages
1,711
Hello ladies and gentlemen,

Anyone else obsessed with keeping your knife's edge hair shaving sharp?

I am, and I drive myself crazy with it.

I'm really giving my new Spyderco Endela a workout today. It started with cutting some fiberglass insulation. Only about three feet's worth, but apparently that was enough to dull the edge (I feel dumb for not knowing that fiberglass insulation can be very hard on a knife edge. I guess I always used box cutters on that stuff in the past.)

Anyway, since then, I've been cutting electrical tape, duct tape, foam, and zip ties of various sizes. Because the day started off with my knife dulling from my first cut, I've had to saw it through everything else. My edge is dull.

And the obsessive compulsive side of me is screaming to resharpen the knife. I know I'll have to wait until late tonight, or tomorrow.

I wanted today to give me an idea of what VG10 is really like, but I don't think today is a fair test, since I instantly dulled the knife from the get go.
I suppose the real test from today will be how easy or not my Endela will be to resharpen.

20210113-142458.jpg
 
Billy The Hungry said:
Hello ladies and gentlemen,

Anyone else obsessed with keeping your knife's edge hair shaving sharp?

I am, and I drive myself crazy with it.

I'm really giving my new Spyderco Endela a workout today. It started with cutting some fiberglass insulation. Only about three feet's worth, but apparently that was enough to dull the edge (I feel dumb for not knowing that fiberglass insulation can be very hard on a knife edge. I guess I always used box cutters on that stuff in the past.)

Anyway, since then, I've been cutting electrical tape, duct tape, foam, and zip ties of various sizes. Because the day started off with my knife dulling from my first cut, I've had to saw it through everything else. My edge is dull.

And the obsessive compulsive side of me is screaming to resharpen the knife. I know I'll have to wait until late tonight, or tomorrow.

I wanted today to give me an idea of what VG10 is really like, but I don't think today is a fair test, since I instantly dulled the knife from the get go.
I suppose the real test from today will be how easy or not my Endela will be to resharpen.

20210113-142458.jpg
Click to expand...


That is why I always carry a fixed blade and two folders!! There is always going to be some medium that turns your favorite blade into a butter knife. Two is one and one is none as they say!! Plus I always carry a SAK huntsman and there's a blade on my money clip too!!! Overkill...I love it.. The band too!!!!!
 
I've been there, but I've also come to realize that as long as my folder is sharp enough to cut paper cleanly it's probably sharp enough for anything else I need to do. That made me relax and enjoy the benefits of super high edge retention steels a lot more.

Now in the kitchen I genuinely do want to always have at least one knife about as sharp as I can humanly make it.
 
I feel your pain bro! :D
I picked up a discontinued Benchmade 590 Boost back before Christmas.
It was so nice and sharp I hated to use it.
I finally caved and used it to slice some tomatoes.

Bad move....

It's started to slide just a bit now before it slices & it's driving me crazy!

I'll tell ya - it's a sickness - this OCD about the keen edge! :D
 
Like the one guy suggested get a pocket stone. I use the Spyderco doublestuff and also just use one of my strops from my kme kit.

I do tend to freak out about my edge also and even had a post a while back asking about what people consider to be a dull edge. Since switching to mainly a user role in the hobby instead of acquiring all of the time I've gotten a bit more relaxed about my edge. I still want it to cut cleanly but any user won't shave for long so I don't freak out about that too much now. And if I want it to be that sharp I just strop it back or use the stone.

Hopefully you get to a place where you feel good about it.
 
I know how you feel also. In my experience, even buying the expensive steels don’t seem to help much. While they do hold a working edge considerably longer, that perfect edge you want seems to not last.. VG-10 is a fine steel in my opinion.
 
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ductboard will kill any edge in a few cuts. i learned this decades ago. insulation or glass as i call it, kills edges very fast...regardless of which super steel.

yes I obsess on my edge far too much myself. thats why i carry a couple blades. 110 in a sheath on my belt, a pocket clip knife in my pocket and a Swiss army in my pocket. gives me 4 blades for different uses. work well enough.

good news is the geometry of the spyderco youre using should still do some cutting work, not clean but work nonetheless, even without the hair popping edge or even when kinda dull.
 
I switched from polished edge to toothy edge and use only a single coarse stone to shorten sharpening time.
Edge refinement and touch up are done with a DMT EEF pocket stone.

Knowing that resharpening only takes a few minutes and that I can revive a hair whittling edge on the go helps to reduce my OCD to some extent.
It's still in me especially for new knives.
 
lets look at it in this light - hair-shaving sharpness of a knife's edge doesn't last long, but takes some time to get there
does it not? i would say try to break the OCD, i use to have an OCD for keeping my knives as new looking as possible, i would cut a string or paracord then spend 20 minutes watering, soaping, and spit-shining the knife, it got exhausting, so i just decided one day, or maybe i discovered --- that use = character, (battle-worn, antiqued, patina, aged) it tells stories, so try to let that need go, and enjoy using one of mankind's oldest tool
 
That’s how you learn what you shouldn’t use your pocket knife for. As you already know, fiberglass is an edge killer and the stuff doesn’t care which steel you’re using, it will destroy it in a hurry. Some cardboards are like that too.
Definitely learn to have something with you to get the edge back to a working edge so you won’t have to struggle to cut stuff and avoid getting hurt from using a dull knife. I keep a leather strop in my work truck for those times when I use my knife on abrasive stuff that kills the edge.
 
Enjoyed the responses and support, all, haha! I am glad to know I am accompanied by so many in this. Honestly it makes me feel better, haha!

Side note. So I got home and took the Endela to the ceramic. A few strokes and it was shaving hair again. While unnecessary, I did hit the strop too, but it was shaving hair at that point. I am super impressed with VG 10!
 
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