Out of the Box Sharpness Doesn't Matter?

[91bravo]

I expect to be able to maintain my knife with a Sharpmaker as a casual user. I should not have to set bevels, fix bevels or have to sharpen on flat stones. I should not need any system any more advanced than my sharpmaker and a strop. Unfortunately I have to drop ship my knives (from experience) to a sharpening pro to make sure that the above is possible by having the edge set to where it should have been originally and properly sharpened for easy maintenance. One notable example of where this is not necessary is with Victorinox. Reliable and even edged with every single one I've bought or sharpened. With the traditional knives I buy and carry, that is unfortunately the exception.

Come back to the other side, some of us miss you over there!

 

[stabman]

I can sharpen knives just fine.
Hell, I can make an entire knife (or sword, or axe) myself, forging and/or grinding it from a lump or bar of steel!

Doesn't mean I want to bust out the tools minutes after opening a new knife.

 

[emjay4248]

There's a difference between knowing how to sharpen and choosing to use a professional sharpening service and not knowing how to sharpen and requiring the use of a professional sharpening service. I'll never understand people buying knives if they can't sharpen them.

That is exactly how the Ginzu knife came to be. Many people buy expensive kitchen knives and don't eve know how to use a Steel to hone the knife. I can't tell you how often I have been asked to help in the kitchen
(my other passion) and took out a chefs knife from the block of knives that probably cost over 1K and don't even know that you have to hone and eventually sharpen them.
There are a lot of people that get into this hobby and don't know when or how to sharpen a knife. As I said in my previous comment A knife company is wholly responsible to make sure that the knife that is shipped have a very sharp edge whether or not I know how to sharpen. A proper sharpening takes more than a few hours of my time on a KME and I would prefer to do it at my leasure and not because my $250 knife came dull.

I just received a reasonably expensive Mid-tech Santoku chefs knife and it came with one of the worst edges I have received in a long time. My KME has been sent out for servicing and being that it needs reprofiling I now have to wait for my KME to come back. Not cool in my book.

 

[Chris*33]

I believe it does matter, since you are buying a cutting tool after all. No need to be hair-shaving sharp but always a pleasant surprise if it is. And i believe the expectancy of a sharp-out-of-the-box knife does rise with the price.