Slicing Paper?

[richard j]

i feel the edges to see how sharp they are and also listen to how it sounds when i run my thumb across the edge. i slice newspaper to test my knives but its also fun to do. last sunday joebobx and his buddy stopped over to get some knives sharpened and a few resharpened. they got a kick out of watching k II slice newspaper like in this video http://knifetests.com/kII.html
the one i made for stretchnm is even sharper that k II. it feels as if there isnt any paper there at all.

 

[Haze]

I believe that Haze is talking about running the edge against his thumb nail with no pressure. A sharp blade will catch or dig in, a dull blade will skate along the surface.

I dont use the "nail trick" my self, I do actually use the pad of my thumb to gently feel the edge all the way along the blade.
Like Richard J said you can hear and feel whats going on quite easily that way.
Tough ass leather thumbs help as well :thumbup:

 

[roughedges]

Tough ass leather thumbs help as well :thumbup:

I use my pinkie to feel for a wire edge for the same reason. My other finger tips just don't have the sensitivity. :thumbup: Never did run the edge along my thumb pad much though. Knowing myself, if I did it wouldn't be long before I was breaking out the super glue!

 

[knarfeng]

I dont use the "nail trick" my self, I do actually use the pad of my thumb to gently feel the edge all the way along the blade.
Like Richard J said you can hear and feel whats going on quite easily that way.
Tough ass leather thumbs help as well :thumbup:

I use both the fingernail and the pad of my thumb to test for sharpness. If I am at the sharpening bench, I use a hand lens as well.

If my knife won't slide off my fingernail at a 20°-30° angle, I consider it sharp enough to do what I need to do. I brush the edge with the pad of my thumb at 90° and feel for how the blade grabs it.

If I am at the bench, I look at the blade under a 3x hand lens and look for shiny spots. If I cannot see any, and cannot really see the edge, it's good for my use and I can stop sharpening.

 

[BJE]

I use my thumbnail mostly, I can get a very good idea of how sharp my knife is with that test. It doesn't have to be perfect anyway as the first time I use it to cut up cardboard boxes it will lose most of its bite. I keep a sharpening stone in my car and mostly carry multi-blade slip joints, so I am never without at least one really sharp edge.

 

[mhawg]

Ah, York, SC, gateway to Charlotte...anyway, paper is usually available and the ole thumbnail gets rough after a while. I use the advertisement pages from the paper to test for continuous blade sharpness. It's very rare that I need it any sharper than that.