Knives can shave but cant don't cut paper...

[Obsessed with Edges]

I have not received a phone book in years, and the ones they were giving out were a small section of yellow pages. The closest I get to usable paper for cutting tests are the weekly advertisements for the supermarkets and drug stores. Everything is so Internet centered these days. If you want to find a plumber you have to hit one of the search engines instead of grabbing the phone book.

Reviews can be gamed through "search engine optimization" so they are hard to trust too.

I always felt that shaving hair was a crude test for sharpness, because even a dull razor will shave, but it will tear your face to shreds doing it.

Receipt paper from the drug/grocery/big box store is also useful, if the phone books & mail order catalogs or newspapers aren't available.

I haven't actually looked up anything in a phonebook for years - I always search them out online. We still have a landline phone at the house, so the new phonebooks get delivered occasionally and that boosts my supply. Even at the rate I cut this paper to test my edges, I don't think I'll run out of them anytime soon. ;D

 

[Blade Lab]

Another go-to for me is the Uline catalogue. They use very flimsy paper that's good for cut testing, and they're >800 pages.

 

[Robert Duke]

I'm new to BF, so I'll be asking dumb questions. Please bear with me. I have a crap load of knives; Boker, Case, Camilus, KaBar & etc. I don't have a favorite brand but I only buy knives made in USA. Did Canal Street Knives close? I've saved some money but can't seem to find them except on eBay and I'm wary of buying there.

 

[bayouace]

Yes. CS closed. Eric Albers of CS makes his own knives now. You can find him at alberscutlery.com. Good luck in landing one of his in-demand knives.

 

[Ray86]

That's a burr or 'wire edge'. Also sometimes called a 'foil edge' - it can literally look like metal foil under high magnification, and will be just as flimsy. It's possible it's small enough, you won't actually see it by naked eye or even feel it with fingernail tests. But the fact it can't cut paper, but shaves, is key. It means the apex is too thin & unstable to stand up to anything more than shaving hair. And that instability is almost always due to the presence of a very thin, flimsy burr at the apex, which folds over or moves back & forth under the 'load' of paper cutting. Picture below shows one of those wire/foil edges, part of which is stripped away from the edge, leaving more stable steel at the apex. The part that remains attached has that crinkled 'foil' look to it - hence the term 'foil edge'.

If it shaved your arm - then test to see if it'll shave the other arm, with the blade flipped to the other side. If a burr is on the edge, it'll likely be bent or folded slightly to one side or the other. When it's leaning downward into the arm being shaved, it'll cut the hair. But with the blade turned the other way (opposite side toward the arm), you might see it won't shave well, if at all. That's because the burr is then leaning up & away from the arm and the hair will just deflect away from contact without being cut. That's an easy way to detect the presence of a burr, if you can't otherwise see it or feel it.

And if the burr is that flimsy - then try a few cuts into wood or some heavy cardboard. That'll either strip the burr away completely, leaving more stable steel at the apex, OR it'll fold the burr completely over, which essentially mimics a rounded ('dull') apex. Stripping the burr away will likely leave the edge stronger, more stable and better able to cut paper. But folding the burr over, without removing it, will leave the edge very 'dull' and incapable of cutting anything. With either change seen, it's confirmation of what's going on.

Thank you for the reply. I went and bought a magnifying glass and it's exactly what you thought. A foil edge.