Is shaving sharp sharp enough?

[nozh2002]

If you can sharpen your knife to whittling hair sharp just time to time - then question asked as a subject of this topic make sense for you. If getting blade this sharp is random and painful process I can imagine that sometimes it may not worse it.

But for me it is a matter of less then 5 minutes and I can get it any time, so of course I sharpen all my blades this way. And they serve me quite well.

Also I strongly believe that I am not special at all and anyone can learn it, and do same my way.

So again it is like asking - "Is it worse to learn how to drive a car?". If you start thinking about it - it is soooo complicated and soooo dangerous as well as pretty expensive...

Thanks, Vassili.

 

[theonew]

Roughly 80% of the time I get it hair whittling sharp the first time in 10 - 20 strokes. If I fail the first time it may take me 10 minutes or so to rectify but it always ends up hair whittling sharp and I keep getting better.

 

[nozh2002]

So I assume then you sharpen all your blades whittling sharp all the time. I guess in general you spend less time on 10 blades 25 minutes (20 minutes + 5 minutes (8 blades 10-20 strokes)) while I spend fro 30 to 50...

Should not be a problem - anyway I sharpen my EDC may be once a month or so.

Thanks, Vassili.

 

[Lurker]

While I tend to agree with your beater point (Knives that I know are going to see abusive cutting just get shaving sharp, no more), why would you cut on glass or ceramic?

I was mostly referring to what other people might do with a knife that I sharpen. For instance, I sharpen our kitchen knives, but my wife uses them and not as carefully as I would. She can ding up the edges very quickly (daily). And while I cleared my own kitchen of glass cutting boards, I can't do the same for other people who I might sharpen a knife for.

The only time I would cut on ceramic is when I am eating on a ceramic plate and I need to cut my food. But that is a very typical use for a steak knife.