I just came back from Blade West, where I had an opportunity to test a hypothesis of mine about "shaving sharp and "hair-popping sharp". I hear all the time about knives being "shaving sharp" or "hair popping sharp"; when I try these knives myself, they are almost inevitably not able to shave my hair.
Perplexed, I hypothesized that my body hairs are much softer and finer than most, and thus push over, instead of standing stiffly enough to be cut down, when they meet knife edges.
I tested this conjecture at Blade West. I went from table to table, asking almost all of the knife makers whether their blades were shaving sharp. All assured me that they were. I asked them to show me, and most every one did use their knives to successfully shave off a small patch of their own hair. Then I took the same knife (with the maker's permission) and tried to shave the hair off my own arm. In almost every case, I was unable to. At that point, I asked them if they would mind trying to shave the hair off of my own arm. They, too, were unable to shave the hair off my arm in most cases.
Now, this was not done as a perfect rigorous test; but, for me, I'd say that this was a solid lack of refutation to my concerted effort to refute my hypothesis. I continue to hold as true the conclusion that some property of my arm hairs makes them unusually hard to shave.
What constitutes "shaving sharp" or "hair-popping sharp" is, I venture to guess, strongly dependent upon the thickness, coarseness, stiffness, etc., of an individual's body hair. "Shaving sharp" for my body hair requires a much higher level of sharpness than for the majority. It's worth keeping in mind, when describing a knife as "shaving sharp" or "hair-popping sharp" that this is a widely varying standard, which doesn't always say much about sharpness, on its own. Knife sharpness can be expressed more informatively by means of comparing it to other knives. Knife sharpness can also be described with greater precision in terms of the results of one or more standard knife sharpness tests.
--Mike
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By the way, there were only two knifemakers at the show whose knives were sharp enough to shave me. One was Murray Carter, whose knives were far and away the sharpest at the entire show.
---Mike
Perplexed, I hypothesized that my body hairs are much softer and finer than most, and thus push over, instead of standing stiffly enough to be cut down, when they meet knife edges.
I tested this conjecture at Blade West. I went from table to table, asking almost all of the knife makers whether their blades were shaving sharp. All assured me that they were. I asked them to show me, and most every one did use their knives to successfully shave off a small patch of their own hair. Then I took the same knife (with the maker's permission) and tried to shave the hair off my own arm. In almost every case, I was unable to. At that point, I asked them if they would mind trying to shave the hair off of my own arm. They, too, were unable to shave the hair off my arm in most cases.
Now, this was not done as a perfect rigorous test; but, for me, I'd say that this was a solid lack of refutation to my concerted effort to refute my hypothesis. I continue to hold as true the conclusion that some property of my arm hairs makes them unusually hard to shave.
What constitutes "shaving sharp" or "hair-popping sharp" is, I venture to guess, strongly dependent upon the thickness, coarseness, stiffness, etc., of an individual's body hair. "Shaving sharp" for my body hair requires a much higher level of sharpness than for the majority. It's worth keeping in mind, when describing a knife as "shaving sharp" or "hair-popping sharp" that this is a widely varying standard, which doesn't always say much about sharpness, on its own. Knife sharpness can be expressed more informatively by means of comparing it to other knives. Knife sharpness can also be described with greater precision in terms of the results of one or more standard knife sharpness tests.
--Mike
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By the way, there were only two knifemakers at the show whose knives were sharp enough to shave me. One was Murray Carter, whose knives were far and away the sharpest at the entire show.
---Mike
