Sharpen blade out of the box?

K

kphunter

Joined
Mar 26, 2004
Messages
42
Does anyone fine tune the edge of a blade they just bought? Should the blade need to be sharpened out of the box?

I recently bought a Cold Steel Trail Guide pocket knife, and was wondering if I need to do anything with the edge at this point.

Thanks,

KP
 
It depends on whether you feel that the blade is sharp enough. If it cleanly shaves arm hair and push cuts paper, it's sharp enough for me. The only knives I've gotten from the factory like this were my Buck 110 and 560, all the others I have sharpened out of the box.
 
My experience has been that blades come from the factory with edges that are anywhere from scary sharp to not sharp at all. Here's my rule of thumb for new knives. If I feel the knife is sharp enough right out of the box, then I don't sharpen it. However, if I feel the knife is not sharp enough right out of the box, then I sharpen it before I carry it. It's kind of a crazy system, but it works for me. :D
 
I've never seen a perfect blade-grind out of the box, let alone a perfect edge.

I don't really consider a new knife as 'my knife' until I've edged it. It's just hardware.

There always seems to be an uneven edge-grind, incomplete edge-grind near the base of the blade, or some other good-enough-for-production problem.

Perhaps I obsess!
 
I did considerable sharpening on my Trail Guide right out of the box (but then I'm a bit of a nut). It did not have as thin an edge profile as I wanted. I did not think it showed off the kind of edge I expect to be able to get on Carbon V.

Besides improving sharpness there can be another reason to rework a factory edge. Sometimes the factory edge can be weak. This is due to using high speed equipment with high pressure and/or high temperature then cleaning up the feel of the edge with a buffing machine. The result is that the initial edge may tend to develop small chips or cut unevenly. By doing a substantial resharpening you may get a finer and stronger edge.
 
OK, so far the answer is yes - you normally sharpen your knives out of the box.

I have a Lansky Premium Sharpening System. On a new blade, should I start with a coarse or fine stone? After all, the blade isn't exactly "dull".

Thanks

KP
 
kphunter--it depends on whether or not the knife is dull to begin with. If the edge feels ok and cuts like you want it to, then there's probably no need to sharpen it at this point, although Jeff Clark brings up some good reasons for sharpening most/all factory edges.

--Josh
 
What grit you use to sharpen a knife depends on how much material you want to remove. If the original bevel is at a low enough angle for you then you probably don't need to remove much material. In that case start with a fairly fine grit and finish as fine as you like. If you use a coarse grit on a fine edge you will put scratches and chips in the edge that will take time to remove using finer hones.

If you want an edge that cuts significantly better than the original you need to reduce the original bevel angle. When you do that you remove enough material to make it advantageous to start with a coarser hone. I start with a worn 80-grit sanding belt on a bench sander if I have a lot to remove (a new 80-grit belt tends to chip the edge). That is what I used on my Trail Guide. Then I used 120 and 220 grit belts. Subsequently I used 1000 grit and 6000 grit water hones. I finished up with a Sharpmaker. This is a full reprofiling job. I did it to go beyond the Cold Steel edge characteristics. If you use a fine hone you are only going to slightly improve the factory edge cutting characteristics since you won't remove enough material in a finite amount of time.
 
I guess I'm a hard headed old coot, but I have been using/sharpening knives for 55 plus years and I will not use a factory knife until I have reprofiled the edge. In that period of time there has only been one knife that was satisfactory to me out of the box. This was one of the first batches of the Buck/Mayo, that was at 17 deg. from the factory. I was told that they changed that later on to a steeper angle.
 
As an outdoor enthusiast, some months ago I purchased a Camp Tramp from Swamp Rat. After all I had heard about that knife I must say that I was VERY disappointed when the edge rolled and made very little chips after only one day of light use. A cutler told me just to pass it on a stone; it put the edge in good shape for using, and since then the CT is just a wonderful user, extremely tough, efficient, and quite a lot wear-resistant.

So sharpen your new knife, even if it already feels sharp.

Mat
 
I can probably count on the fingers on one hand the number of knives I've had that had satisfactory edges as delivered from the factory or maker—and I hasten to add that "satisfactory" rarely means optimal for my purposes.

To add to what Jeff and others have said, sharpening can tell you a great deal about your new knife, and can reveal significant problems. I recently sent a knife back to the manufacturer after discovering that just applying a light microbevel with fine ceramic rods was causing minute chipping of the blade, i.e., chips on the order of ~.0003"-.0005" deep/long. IMO it's a good bet that the entire blade is brittle, and would be very likely to fail in use ... and I'm glad I didn't have to find out the hard way, sometime when I might need a knife I can really depend on.

More often than not, though, having to reprofile or "scrub in" a new knife is just the price you pay to have the knife perform the way you wish. And if it's a user, you're going to have to sharpen it sooner or later, so ...

Dave
 
KPHunter, you absolutely need to start with the coarse stone. The bevels on your new knife won't match the set angles on the Lansky so you'll need to grind them to one of those angles. Otherwise you'll never get the blade sharp.

and, yes, I almost always sharpen new knives. It's just a ritual I've followed all my life. I don't think I've ever encountered a new knife that couldn't be improved.
 
I always sharpen my new knives as soon as I can, sort of my way of getting to know them in a personal way. After sharpening, I have a good feeling for the hardness of the blade as well as the ergonomics, and thus not concerned about putting them into everyday use.
As a user of knives, not a collector, sharpening a new knife turns it into a used knife, which takes my focus away from the knife, allowing me to direct my attention to the job the knife is performing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top