Rannking of Sharpening Factors

“
Cliff said..
My small Sebenza never has failed to get a tremendous reaction and it looks fairly funky
as kel_aa has described.
“
it cuts insanely well
“
This is shot of my small Sebenza
It actually has more cosmetic damage now as the blade is more scratched up and the edge more aggressively reprofiled. The edge also has three visible chips.
One from rust, one from a nail contact and one from open a food can. the steel wears slowly so they will likely be there for months. They don't significantly
effect the performance so I won't waste the steel to grind them out. In spite of all this it has not yet failed to impress one person who has ever USED
it.

And then a quote from another thread a few days after. “
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=409077
“
Cliff says..
on the back. You can see the same thing with any grind which isn't even. My Sebenza for example will pull strongly to the right cutting cardboard because the grind isn't even.

I guess some are just more easily impressed.
 
me said:
My Sebenza for example will pull strongly to the right cutting cardboard because the grind isn't even.
Click to expand...

That is because the primary grind is off, you can see this if you look along the blade at the choil. The initial edge was half of spec as one side was taken in much deeper than the other. I'll take the skew for the higher cutting ability and ease of sharpening. The asymmetry is also fairly easy to compensate for as you just tilt the hand/wrist a little. You also don't notice it cutting things which are not dual side binding like slicing ropes, carving woods, peeling potatoes, etc. . Even when it does skew the fact that the force is so low tends to dominates any comparison. Lots of people are of course very impressed by chisel ground knives which will pull to the side obviously even stronger as the asymmetry is much greater. You can compensate again in the same manner as R. J. Martin has noted on many occasions. Some people do notice that the edge is chipped and comment/question, but again when they do most cutting they forget about it as the chips are small and the overall cutting ability is still extremely high. What most people comment about aesthetically are the Ti scales as they are horribly scratched and it stands out really strongly in comparison to much more heavily used Zytel / G10 and even wood.

-Cliff
 
I'll admit that last post of mine really has nothing to do with a good looking edge being a more impressive sharpening than a crappy looking one at the same sharpness. I guess I'm just a stinker. Sorry
 
I'm not going to re read all of your posts to see if you are changeing them. However Cliff, editing your post a day later just doesn't seem right at all to me.
Btw the question asked was
“
matt321says…
When sharpening a pocket knife for the purposes of impressing my buddies Cool , I would rate the usual sharpening factors in the following order with the
most important first and the least important last. What's your opinion?
Is anything missing?
Whats your opinion? pretty clear question.
Is anything missing? Another very clear question. try and chag the facts all you want. A good looking edge is a more impressive sharpening job than an ugly one.
 
The above posts was edited because the quote was incorrect, it was attributed to you by default due to the way you inline quotes. I added the latter section about the chips. The central point was that an asymmetry in cutting ability doesn't prevent an impressive sharpness as you implied as otherwise all chisel grinds by that logic would be unimpressive. The origional posts by the way are all saved by Bladeforums and I just fix grammar unless otherwise noted. My contention is still the same and is reflected in the points made in the above.

-Cliff
 
Yes, you are really amusing in your own way. You just fixed some grammer and the quote? The quote looks the same to me as it did the day before, but maybe not what ever. Maybe you should go back and fix the grammer in all of your posts now. :) that should keep you amused for a little wile.
 
While I haven't gotten to the level of shaving a ladies leg, like Jimmy Fikes's
ploy, which has some merit I'm sure ;) a few things I look at a blade when
I have a knife presented to me to sharpen;

Edge geometry
meaning how well it comes down from the spine to the edge,
I pinch the spine and continue that pinch down to the edge, feeling
to see if the blade is ground 'properly' so that there are no shoulders
to the bevel prior to the very edge. If you can feel a hump/shoulders
to the bevel, you need to work those down so you don't feel that
hump any more;

also I look at the actual bevel, holding the knife up so the flat side of the
blade is toward the ceiling, and angle the knife so you can view the edge
as it makes it's way to the tip, the flat area should be even and smooth
no facets along the way, either parallel or perpendicular, it should be a nice
clean, flat path along the edge, if not, then you're moving the knife during
the sharpening process and it'll just make you work longer, and removing more
metal in the process than you need to do, I'll try to get a picture of that line
of the edge and post it up.

While a knife can 'cut' a lot of them can not cut through thick materials, possibly for
several reasons, the main one being the shoulders above the edge and the
second one, it needs to be resharpened.

I cut up a lot of leather, a lot...lol more than I need to, just checking a blade
out, but I need a mental break now and then :) and one thing I look for is how
well the blade will press cut down into the leather? Some knives will make a
crease in the leather but will NOT press cut through no matter how hard you
press, a sad thing to be sure!

Here is a Fitch hunter that I push cut through a small paper back book so
see how the edge profile was, handled the job pretty easily, I also used
my Fikes and it did it just a tad easier too..

perfect_storm.jpg


here's my chiseledged Fikes that I just did a sanding and acid etch to bring
out the hamon in it, while it was made as a hard working user, I wanted to
make it a little nicer so worked on the blade recently ;)

wharnie.jpg


G2
 
thombrogan said:
Gary W. Graley,

You're a cruel, cruel man for showing your re-etched Fikes Wharncliffe.
Click to expand...

Sorry man, lol, how do you like the font for FIKES eh? classy?
G2
 
I'd say that the most important (the first factor) in honing any knife isn't what the first poster said--it's the angle factor. If you don't have a consistent angle all around you are generally going to have a crappy edge that doesn't cut as well as one that is uniformly executed.
I'd say that angle uniformity should be first on the list, with burr-removal last. After all, it's the last thing you do, isn't it? Burr removal IS necessary in some cases, but in others, depending on how you do it, there won't be a burr.
PMZ
 
frugalweaver said:
1. Function
2. Form

I have flicked open my pocketknife on several occasions only to have someone ask to hold it. Usually I say: 'Be careful it's sharp'. One time an old timer said: 'I could see that from here, I just want to feel HOW SHARP!'

HE was impressed by the looks of it but wanted to put it to the real test.

Sort of like a pretty girl, she may look good but will she perform? Both are important to most. Do you want an ugly girl that REALLY loves you?
Click to expand...

No.

. . . . . . .
 
IMO it depends on what you think will impress your friends (personally I'd rather just impress myself, but that's another topic.) If your buddies would like to see you cut free-hanging toilet paper, then a very fine, polished edge is what you want. On the other hand, if they'd be amazed to see you use your knife and a hammer to cut through a steel bolt, then you want a much more obtuse edge. For slicing a lot of rope, different still.

If your friends are really serious about knives, maybe your being able to explain this to them and help them optimize their own knives would impress them more than anything?
 
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