Show Me Your Sharpest

BePrepared

BePrepared

Joined
Aug 26, 2010
Messages
4,441
I don't know if this has been done before, but i'm very curious about what those of you on this forum can do with an edge...

What i have in mind is something like a closeup picture of the edge, and the most impressive demonstration of it's cutting abilities you can come up with

I, of course, am a total hack... i can get a knife shaving sharp, but that's about it, so i won't be able to kick this one off
 
TwinStick said:
Not me. Not mine. But you gotta check this vid out:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23493776@N07/5663803938/


This knife is like 3/8" thick !!!
Click to expand...

Looks like a pretty standard hair whittling edge to me. Spine thickness has almost nothing to do with an edges ability to whittle hair as the spine never has to pass through the material being cut. As long as the apex of the edge is refined enough, the edge will whittle hair, regardless of blade thickness. Same goes for paper cutting. The thickness doesn't start to hinder you until the entire thickness of the blade must pass through the material being cut. Take a block of cheese for example, the knife in that video would wedge into the cheese and bind, where as a blade of much thinner stock would easily slide right through. Both blades could still be equally sharp however, which is what is shown in that video. Now, that's not to say the knife in the video isn't extremely sharp, it obviously is, its just that that level of sharpness isn't exceptionally rare, and the blade thickness really doesn't affect that particular display of sharpness.
 
Does this work?

[youtube]R_BvfcLJPV4[/youtube]

More or less close up of an edge.

VECP3-1.jpg
 
mkjellgren said:
Looks like a pretty standard hair whittling edge to me. Spine thickness has almost nothing to do with an edges ability to whittle hair as the spine never has to pass through the material being cut. As long as the apex of the edge is refined enough, the edge will whittle hair, regardless of blade thickness. Same goes for paper cutting. The thickness doesn't start to hinder you until the entire thickness of the blade must pass through the material being cut. Take a block of cheese for example, the knife in that video would wedge into the cheese and bind, where as a blade of much thinner stock would easily slide right through. Both blades could still be equally sharp however, which is what is shown in that video. Now, that's not to say the knife in the video isn't extremely sharp, it obviously is, its just that that level of sharpness isn't exceptionally rare, and the blade thickness really doesn't affect that particular display of sharpness.
Click to expand...

Or take a piece of fire wood that needs to be split into smaller pieces. The thicker stock of that blade would make it excel over a thin blade. To me, it is much more impressive to have a super thick knife do that, than a thin kitchen type knife. Please show us a level of sharpness that IS exceptionally rare. I'd like to see the difference. The level of sharpness in that vid IS rare for most people. No one in my entire family or anyone i work with could sharpen a knife to even shave hair or paper, other than me, so it is not that common. At least in my experiences.
 
all of my knives can shave nicely... work sharp makes that easy

what i can't seem to get is a truly refined shiny hair splitting edge... that still eludes me.
 
TwinStick said:
Or take a piece of fire wood that needs to be split into smaller pieces. The thicker stock of that blade would make it excel over a thin blade. To me, it is much more impressive to have a super thick knife do that, than a thin kitchen type knife. Please show us a level of sharpness that IS exceptionally rare. I'd like to see the difference. The level of sharpness in that vid IS rare for most people. No one in my entire family or anyone i work with could sharpen a knife to even shave hair or paper, other than me, so it is not that common. At least in my experiences.
Click to expand...

common is relative. Amongst the general public, yes, that level of sharpness is rare.. Amongst us knife nuts, when we say "mirror polished hair whittling edge ", that is the type of edge we are talking about. I don't have a camera that could begin to do them justice but I'd say I have at least a dozen knives that are as sharp as the one in that video, which like I said, is extremely sharp... but nothing that can't be achieved with the right tools and a steady hand. And no, whittling hair on a thick blade is no more impressive than whittling hair on a kitchen knife. It may LOOK more impressive, but in actuality it is no more difficult to achieve.
 
BePrepared said:
all of my knives can shave nicely... work sharp makes that easy

what i can't seem to get is a truly refined shiny hair splitting edge... that still eludes me.
Click to expand...

Freehand, freehand, freehand. I've been able to produce much sharper edges freehand than I ever have been able to with any kind of jig setup. I start with a dmt diasharp coarse benchstone for reprofiling, I then go through the grits with the fine then extra fine dmt. Then I break out the spyderco ceramics, medium fine, and ultra fine. The spyderco 306uf bench stone makes an excellent finishing stone, and will leave you with a mirror polish. Hit it on a good strop with green compound and you should be left with an absolutely screaming sharp edge.
 
My plain old Military in S30V is the first folder I've been able to whittle a hair with. But - all of my knives are shaving sharp and they don't have to be mirror finished to to that. :)
 
Any knife that I just finished sharpening before I start to use it.
 
Ankerson said:
Any knife that I just finished sharpening before I start to use it.
Click to expand...

Was waiting for you to jump in on this one,

I don't have any super polished edges as I still don't have any compound for my strops but they do well enough. I'll add a pic soonish
 
Ankerson will win this, hands down contest over, watched videos of the guy push cutting toilet paper.
 
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