tall tales of sharpening.

[yuzuha]

Can you post this photo yazuha?

I did. Is it not showing up for you? Or maybe you just hit the thread at a time when my ISP was down.

 

[HoB]

Slicing toilet paper is not too hard. Starting in the middle and pulling down is also possible, with some brands easier than with others. True pushcutting starting from the edge I have never seen anyone do, will believe it only if I see it. But to be honest, I have never seen anybody claim to have that done either.

Splitting hair: depends on hair and cutting direction, quite possible

Cutting hair above skin (more than an 1/8" above): Quite difficult if you have fine hair, easier if the hair is coarser, but either way possible if the edge is accute enough. Any straight razor should be able to do that.

 

[Cliff Stamp]

It's not melted in, or burnished in,... is it?

This is possible, JJ has shots of edges that are burnished and you can see cold working effects, but generally with hand used abrasives you are looking at deformation and fracture, all abrasion is deformation+fracture anyway. What you want is this to be limited to the size of the abrasive for ideal sharpening.

So, is it fractured or abraded behind the large burr,... or both? Is there an even smaller burr at the remaining edge?

As the edge is honed, the abrasive eventually reaches the edge and this forms a microtooth structure, most edges also have heavily fatigued steel (from use) which causes more extensive bending. When the next pass hits the same place, the final edge just bends under the abrasion intead of getting cut and thus the burr grows. There are a number of methods to prevent and eliminate such burrs and they are all focused on the issue of deformation usually, fracture is more of an issue with ultra high carbide/hardness steels and ceramics.

-Cliff

 

[clmayfield]

I don't consider my blades sharpened until they grab onto and cut hair above the skin. This was how the factory edge came, and I strive to keep that. I keep a 30 degree angle and the steel is VG-10. I use a Sharpmaker, ending with the Ultrafine stones, though the blade shaves after Medium and should grab hairs after the Fine stones.

It takes a steady hand and practice and I admit that sometimes I get frustrated and have to start all over again, but you should be able to get there...

 

[db]

This one doesn't take any skill to do. Hold a drinking straw horizontal by the end, I used a Mc Donalds straw, and cut off the other end. The closer to the other end the sharper the edge. I've only done this type of edge check 2 times but it seems to be a very good one.

 

[krazichinaman]

Here is a quick video I made with my brother. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOZ5zLpidr0
He is using his Microtech Socom Elite. I did the same test with my Bm556 in 154 CM with the same results. We both finish off our knives with strops.

 

[muskrat man]

They are just figures of speech man, I thought everyone knew that. Just an old way of stating that the knife is really sharp. Try actually splitting a hair, it ain't gonna happen it's just a figure of speech.

 

[hardheart]

no, hairs can be split pretty easily, depends on the hair to some extent. I believe Maximus Otter has a pic of a hair split a couple of times.

 

[HoB]

Cliff posted some too. It is only a figure of speech when you are splitting hair with words, not with a knife .