- Joined
- Oct 3, 1998
- Messages
- 4,842
Well, since you brought it up, I'll elaborate on my views on sharpening also.
I think it's a valid test to evaluate the knife right from the factory. The edge as given from the factory is some kind of indication of quality assurance, and is also useful for those people for whom the factory edge is the *best* the knife will ever perform. To be sure, what I often do is test the knife as it comes from the factory, then put my own edge on and re-test. You'll see that with almost every single one of my reviews, because most factories and makers can't or don't put on the kind of edge I want.
But I do think it's *very* important to test the knife with the edge you want. The edge is the easiest part of the knife for the user to modify -- in fact, it's the one part of the knife that the user is *expected* to maintain in some way. By testing only the factory edge, you're definitely missing out on a *lot* of potential performance. For someone interested in DOES THIS KNIFE PERFORM rather than DOES THE MAKER KNOW HOW TO SHARPEN, a re-sharpening is an important part of the test.
Remember also that you only use your factory edge for a short time. Then you must resharpen anyway, right? So chances are that on a knife that comes from the factory badly sharpened, you're testing this knife at it's worst possible performance. The entire rest of that knife's life, you will be sharpening it yourself, and performance may differ significantly. Knowing how the knife will perform in its first few weeks isn't as useful as knowing how the knife will perform the rest of its lifetime.
Re-sharpening is also part of my evaluation, and I think it's useful to report about the experience. If the edge is so thick that it takes me hours to re-sharpen, I report that. If the edge is recurved or otherwise difficult to re-sharpen, I report that too. If it was easy to sharpen, I report that.
Resharpening is definitely a pain when you're doing big tests like Mike and Spark did, with 6 knives. That's a lot of sharpening, and probably too much to ask. When doing knife tests with only 2 or so knives, though, I really think it's worth the tester's time to make sure the knives are sharpened well -- the evaluation is enormously more useful that way!
Joe
jat@cup.hp.com
I think it's a valid test to evaluate the knife right from the factory. The edge as given from the factory is some kind of indication of quality assurance, and is also useful for those people for whom the factory edge is the *best* the knife will ever perform. To be sure, what I often do is test the knife as it comes from the factory, then put my own edge on and re-test. You'll see that with almost every single one of my reviews, because most factories and makers can't or don't put on the kind of edge I want.
But I do think it's *very* important to test the knife with the edge you want. The edge is the easiest part of the knife for the user to modify -- in fact, it's the one part of the knife that the user is *expected* to maintain in some way. By testing only the factory edge, you're definitely missing out on a *lot* of potential performance. For someone interested in DOES THIS KNIFE PERFORM rather than DOES THE MAKER KNOW HOW TO SHARPEN, a re-sharpening is an important part of the test.
Remember also that you only use your factory edge for a short time. Then you must resharpen anyway, right? So chances are that on a knife that comes from the factory badly sharpened, you're testing this knife at it's worst possible performance. The entire rest of that knife's life, you will be sharpening it yourself, and performance may differ significantly. Knowing how the knife will perform in its first few weeks isn't as useful as knowing how the knife will perform the rest of its lifetime.
Re-sharpening is also part of my evaluation, and I think it's useful to report about the experience. If the edge is so thick that it takes me hours to re-sharpen, I report that. If the edge is recurved or otherwise difficult to re-sharpen, I report that too. If it was easy to sharpen, I report that.
Resharpening is definitely a pain when you're doing big tests like Mike and Spark did, with 6 knives. That's a lot of sharpening, and probably too much to ask. When doing knife tests with only 2 or so knives, though, I really think it's worth the tester's time to make sure the knives are sharpened well -- the evaluation is enormously more useful that way!
Joe
jat@cup.hp.com
