Sharpness of a survival knife

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pgunning1

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Oct 25, 2005
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Hi everyone I'm relatively new to this forum and learning everyday loads of great info :)

I'm not sure this has been covered so please bear (No pun intended re Mr Grylls LOL ) with me.

Anyway it seems most folk are concerned as to the sharpness of a blade, most sales nearly always say razor sharp :eek: .

But in a survival situation is it advisable to have a razor sharp survival knife, I could understand a fillet knife but doesn't everyone at some point make a mistake with a knife in a pressured situation, and I would have thought if razor sharp the injury would be much worse.

Don't get me wrong I'm not talking about a home dinning knife sharp obviously :p but I would have thought the steel, and handle and maybe a good kit attached, is of more importance and the knifes ability to hold its edge in chopping would be first?.

Even hairline cuts can turn septic, am I on the right track with this ? or is sharper the better ??

Looking forward to any opinions on this subject.

Cheers :D
 
My dad always told me, "son, you take chances with a dull knife that you wouldn't take with a sharp one!"
 
a dull knife is more likely to slip and cause injury...a sharp knife and a sharp mind and body can accomplish alot.
 
It takes less pressure to make cuts with a sharp knife than it does with a dull knife. A sharp knife is safer than a dull knife becasue of this. A dull knife is more likely to slip off of the material being cut and onto what is holding that material, like your hand. Keep 'em sharp.
 
Surgeons prefer sharp knives , they cut tissue instead of tearing it ,easier for him to deal with !
 
A sharp knife will do what you want it to do, a dull knife won't.

A sharp knife will use less energy to do the job - a dull knife will cost you energy.

An axe and a fillet knife may both be sharp, but sharp for different tasks - separation of meat from bone vs. chopping wood. They use different angles on the edge, but both work best when sharp. Both are safest to use when sharp.

You know what a sharp knife can do, and will be careful using it. You don't realise what a danger a dull knife is, and you'll get careless, and injure yourself.

Keep your edges sharp!
 
I like a sharp knife, of course, but I do think a lot of "knife guys" go overboard with just how sharp they want their knives to be.

Most of my 'regular duty' knives are rarely done with more than about a 600 grit stone. For a general use knife, I think that's plenty.

I know guys who want all their stuff chisel sharp, like 10,000 grit mirror polished edges. Well, that might be satisfying, but I don't think it's necessary.

My dad, who I respect a lot, uses nothing but an axe puck on any of his knives, and uses the coarse side way more than the fine. And I find his knives are very effective! He believes there is a bit of "micro-serration" going on with the larger grit stones...don't know what I think about that exactly but his knives are very sharp to the touch, that's for sure.

But I will say that even with my 600 grit user finishes, my knives are still sharper than most stuff you would ever buy in your typical hardware store. So don't take my statements to mean that dull is okay! I just don't turn all my bush knives into ultra-smooth push-cutters.

I do, however, treat my axes to the same regimen as my straight razors (which are the only razors I have. No bics or mach 31s or what have you.) So my axes are extremely sharp.
 
Sharper the better... you make mistakes with dull knives. Some of your safety concerns decrease with a dull knife and there lies the problem.
 
On my mid size blade I prefer a " working edge " that is one that will just about push cut hair on your arm, my smaller knives should shave hair quite readily !!!
 
Make em sharp, or leave em home. Like has been stated here several times, a dull tool is a dangerous tool. A hard learned lesson by a whole lot of people over the last 100,000 years or so.
 
Since its for a survival knife you wouldn't want it too sharp (like shaving sharp for example) or the edge will be too brittle
 
As sharp as possible...always. If you want to cut something, you want to cut it cleanly and efficiently. If you don;t want those results, you would use a different tool (hammer maybe). If a person is worried about getting a knife so sharp they'll cut themselves, they shouldn;t bring a knife. That's akin to worrying about guns killing people (as opposed to people killing people) .

Now, the edge geometry of a sharp blade is a different story. On a large survival knife, you won;t want a 12 degree edge in most cases....you'd want a more shallow bevel like 20 degrees. BUT! You still would want it as sharp as you can get it.
 
johnu2 said:
Since its for a survival knife you wouldn't want it too sharp (like shaving sharp for example) or the edge will be too brittle
Click to expand...

John, each to his own I suppose, but I want my RAT or Bravo-1 at least shaving sharp before heading out. It'll dull right up on its own....I've never had a problem getting them dull.
 
I don't keep my mid to large field knives razor sharp, but they are still very sharp.
 
Mirror polished with 10,000 grit is probably going overboard for a survival knife, but you definately want it as sharp as you can get it (within reason). I learned when I was little that dull knives are dangerous, my brother had to get stitches from an unsharpened SAK (one of the itty-bitty ones) because he pushed too hard and it slipped.

And as others have said, edge geometry is important. You don't want to go start chopping with a fillet knife because it has a smaller angle on the blade. You should be fine if the knife is (well) designed for survival.


"He believes there is a bit of "micro-serration" going on with the larger grit stones"

Yep, that is called the 'toothiness' of the blade. There really are 'micro-serrations' from using a course stone which are polished away when using finer stones. Think about looking at a knife done with a course stone and one done with a few thousand grit stone under a microscope. Probably gunna be a difference, eh?

Cody
 
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