Slippy Sharpness: Razor or Toothy?

D

Diamond Dog

Joined
Jun 25, 2007
Messages
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I was wondering how sharp do you all keep your slippies? Do you guys keep your slip joints razor sharp or just toothy sharp? I think having a slip joint razor sharp may not be the best. I'll give an example, I was using my buck cadet the other day cutting up some cheese and sausage on a short hike. I did not cut the food on a table or anything but just holding the food in my hand while I cut. And I have to admit using a little too much force in cutting sliced my thumb a little. Not to the point of bleeding etc. but it left a paper cut type indentation. I guess I'm asking is a sharp knife good enough or is a razor that slices air better for a slippy?
 
Diamond Dog said:
I think having a slip joint razor sharp may not be the best. I'll give an example, I was using my buck cadet the other day cutting up some cheese and sausage on a short hike. I did not cut the food on a table or anything but just holding the food in my hand while I cut. And I have to admit using a little too much force in cutting sliced my thumb a little. Not to the point of bleeding etc. but it left a paper cut type indentation.
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Think about it this way, Diamond Dog: If your knife had been less sharp, you might have been using a lot too much force. Then, rather than a paper cut type indentation on your thumb, you'd be writing about how you got stitches.

I don't lose any sleep over how sharp my knives are ..... "really" sharp vs. "scary" sharp vs. "shaving" sharp vs. "so sharp you just need to wave the damn thing in the general direction of what you want to cut" sharp. :rolleyes: But I do keep 'em pretty dang sharp.
 
mnblade said:
Think about it this way, Diamond Dog: If your knife had been less sharp, you might have been using a lot too much force. Then, rather than a paper cut type indentation on your thumb, you'd be writing about how you got stitches.
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I have to agree with mnblade here.

I keep 'em as sharp as I can get 'em in a reasonable amount of time, but I dont spend hours in front of my bench stones! My Grandfather didnt, and his knives were as sharp as they come. He dindt spend more than half a minute, to touch 'em up at the end of the day.
 
I agree with just touching them up a bit every know and again. But I know people on both extremes. One guy I work with has what I think a semi dull knife,and another guy I know has to have it really hair shaving sharp. I guess the same thinking could apply to a fixed blade as well. Thoughts?
 
Diamond Dog said:
I agree with just touching them up a bit every know and again. But I know people on both extremes. One guy I work with has what I think a semi dull knife,and another guy I know has to have it really hair shaving sharp. I guess the same thinking could apply to a fixed blade as well. Thoughts?
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Personal preference I think.
If one likes to have a knife that's not quite razor sharp, thats fine, if on the other hand there's one who likes to shave every morning with his machete, thats fine too.

But a dull knife is always more dangerous than a sharp one, so every knife should be sharpened to some degree. :p

just my two cents.
Peter
 
I don't make it a fetish anymore about having it shaving sharp. I'll touch it up on the pocket hone I keep in my wallet and maybe a light stropping, but thats it. I don't think I spend more than 2 minutes at a time when the knife needs it. My general rule of thumb is that if I can slice newpaper pretty cleanly, its good enough for the usual edc.
 
I usually keep my edc shaving sharp, the exception is with my stockman then the sheepfoot blade is kept just toothy sharp.
 
I have found that my EDC doesn't have to be shaving sharp to cut really really well. I carry a SAK, and I don't know if it's the thinness of the blades or what, but I was using mine for some cutting a few weeks back, only to realize that it had gotten dull. I was upset that I had let that happen, as I am usually on top of things like that. Well, I went ahead and completed the cutting chores I had, and to my amazement, it still cut like a hot knife through butter!! I was dumbfounded. I thought I'd have to push and tear, but no, it worked like a charm. As an experiment, I've kept my main blade sharp, but nowhere NEAR shaving sharp since then, and it's done everything I've needed it to with absolutely no problem.
 
A knife should always be sharp. That's a given.

My thought on just how sharp is this...If I spend too much time on it trying to make it "perfect", I'll be less inclined to want to use it and "mess up" my sharpening job. Then I've negated the reason for having a sharp knife in the first place.

(Kind of like folks who don't drive or ride their shiny, clean clean cars or motorcycles. Which is why my motorcycle and vehicle are both dirty. ;) )

As to razor or toothy, I like a little tooth on most blades as most of my cutting is not push cutting. If I have multiple blades, as in a stockman, one blade may be set up for such.
 
I keep the main blade on whatever I'm carrying good and sharp but with a little tooth. Thats the one I use for cutting boxes etc, rough cutting heavier stuff basically, and a little bit of tooth seems to work better for me. I keep the smaller blades, like the sheepsfoot and the spey on say a stockman, real darn sharp. The spey in particular, since I don't care for the shape for most things anyway, I keep fully razor/shiny honed, scary sharp. Cuts like a scalpel for when I need that, pretty rare actually. Coping blade may be somewhere in between, I guess I usually sharpen it about the same as the spey, but I use it more often, and I'm not one to touch up every evening so it doesn't stay as sharp. I've always got a small combi stone with me(heh, one in each car, one in my work tool box, one in my briefcase), so if I let myself slip up and they get tooo dull, I hit them right away. I get annoyed with myself too.

As a side question to the main one on the thread, how often DO all you guys sharpen up? Every evening, once a week, when it gets dull, how dull is that then? Just curious. Excellent question by the way DD, I'll be watching the replys too. :thumbup:

Syn
 
That's why I like multiblades, one toothy with an aggressive edge and the other polished with a razor's edge.
 
synghyn said:
As a side question to the main one on the thread, how often DO all you guys sharpen up? Every evening, once a week, when it gets dull, how dull is that then? Just curious.
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Well I touch up the blades if I used them that day, or if I have nothing to do, because than I start whittling on a stick, nothing productive, just to keep me busy, and after that I sharpen the blade.

I just spent about a minute or so for each blade, touch up the blade, and test it on a piece of paper, then move on to the next one.
 
I usually touch up while whittling, or later on after a task if just doing routine stuff during the course of a day.

Sometimes I just do it to be doing something while sitting around watching tv or such.
 
i give my opinel a 600 grit edge with sandpaper from time to time, with plenty of touchups in between on my soft arkansas pocket stone (avg 400 grit). the sandpaper only comes out when the knife is really dull, or the angle has wandered too much and i need to thin it out on the course stone. after the course stone i polish it out with the sandpaper to save time.

my little old timer pen knife is a little bit of a different story. the main blade gets the same treatment as my opinel. the secondary pen blade gets a 1200 grit finish with sandpaper and a strop. i like this blade incredibly sharp for precise paring cuts in fine whittling.

my mora gets the 1200 grit with a strop.

all of my knives are very sharp, thanks to quick touchups when they need it. if you don't let it get dull, then you never have to really sharpen it.
 
Why not carry both toothy and polished edges? I carry a 4 blade congress and I keep the sheepsfoot/coping blades polished, and the spear blades toothy. On my EDC wharncliffe trapper, I keep the wharncliffe edge polished and the clip toothy. To me, its one of the great things about carrying a multiblade slipjoint.
 
I like all my knives razor sharp. but the reason you cut your finger is why I prefer locking blades over slippies.
 
A couple of days ago I would have said "as sharp and polished as you can in a respectable amount of time", but now I find a little tooth to be beneficial on an edc. It doesn't take nearly as long or as much skill to get it that way either, but it is still plenty sharp for everything but shaving your face with. If I had multiple blades like a stockman or congress, I would polish one to razor sharpness and hardly ever use it unless needed(probably spey), convex the sheepsfoot because it doesn't have much belly for slicing anyway, and I would leave the clip a little rough. I think the important thing is to just keep it sharp. Good question BTW.
 
synghyn said:
As a side question to the main one on the thread, how often DO all you guys sharpen up? Every evening, once a week, when it gets dull, how dull is that then? Just curious. Excellent question by the way DD, I'll be watching the replys too. :thumbup:

Syn
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I sharpen at least once a day, usually more:D. But I do it because I like to not because it is needed. If I only did it when my knife got dull, I could put it off for a couple days depening on what I cut.
 
spyken said:
I like all my knives razor sharp. but the reason you cut your finger is why I prefer locking blades over slippies.
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I don't see why not having a lock caused him to cut his hand:confused: Maybe I missed something, but it sounds like he could have done the same thing with a fixed blade or locking folder.
 
synghyn said:
As a side question to the main one on the thread, how often DO all you guys sharpen up? Every evening, once a week, when it gets dull, how dull is that then? Just curious. Excellent question by the way DD, I'll be watching the replys too. :thumbup:

Syn
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Not too often, maybe once every couple of days to as much as a week depending on what I've been cutting.

As I open my mail every day with my pocket knife, its the guide I use. As long as it slips through the envelope cleanly, its sharp. If I feel it starting to drag a bit, I'll spend a few minutes with a diamond hone to touch it up. I strop the knife more than I hone it. I'll undo my belt and use the back of it to give it an on the spot stropping if need be.
 
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